IB questions. Warning on shorting?

I have some questions on IB. Thanks in advance for your answers.

1)Say I have 600 shares and I place 2 sell orders for 300 and 400 (total 700).

The 400 is a mistake and should be 300. The net result is that I will be selling 100 shares more.

Is there a way to configure IB so that I am warned in advance when I make a mistake like this when placing an order.

2)Why does IB give incorrect volume on otc stocks? Many times it reports twice the volume that is reported on Yahoo Finance or my other broker.

3)IB reports incorrect volume when there is a momentary quick surge in trading in a stock. The volume goes way off but after a while gets set to the correct value reported by other sources. I have been noticing this quirk only recently.

 

Is there a FAQ on IB? Has one been compiled here on ET?

Thanks

 

faq about what?


search their website..call them.chat with them...you can place limit on TOTAL shares size per order or total value...or you expect TWS to read your mind while you placing the order? how to f*k it will know that you have one-two-three orders with whatever shares? think about it..use your head..

http://individuals.interactivebrokers.com/en/software/releaseNotes/TWS_Notes_894.php

 

have you asked IB this stuff ?

 

1) FAQ about a)issues with IB or b)potential gotchas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotcha_(programming)). To a person building an ATS that relies on volume triggers, the issues 2) and 3) mentioned earlier are false positives.

Issue 1, means inadvertently you end up shorting. TWS doesn't need to be a psychic to address this. All it has do for every stock is to go through all open orders on a stock, add up the shares currently put up for sale and if it exceeds the number of shares in my portfolio, then simply warn me. My other brokers do this.

2)Thanks for the Precautionary Settings link. I have been using them for a long time. Those are a must have for risk management especially as there is a potential for a typo destroying your portfolio. In after hrs it can get even worse as the bid/ask spread can be big.

3)Yes, my next step is to ask IB if I don't get convincing answers here.

 

Why haven't you just clicked on 'close position' instead of creating the sell orders?

 

I typically put gtc orders at different price points. After I have accumulated say 1000 shares. I will put gtc sell orders in numerous 200 share sized orders. Right now I have to manually count all the shares that I have put up for sale to make sure that it (sum of shares put for sale for a stock) doesn't exceed what I own.

 

I am 100% sure IB does not match your short with your cover. IB does not even have two different terminologies for short and sell. It is only sell. For cover and buy IB uses only buy. Try to get to used to it and believe me it is much better. Some brokers if you don't mention that you are covering, they open two positions for you Short and long which does not make sense and they do it on purpose to charge you more margin.
On your third question, I have seen the same thing in other brokers. I believe that the data feed comes from the exchanges and it has nothing to do with IB. In terms of trusting yahoo vs IB, always trust IB. You will be better off.

 

wake up...you are looking for FAQ where IB admit that they have some issues? you got be be kidding...read some IB's related threads..
if you are build your own ATS-you should realize that YOU are the one,who must put those complicated constrains on YOUR side. or you expect IB to do this for you? it took them 2-5 years to add sound alarm,when TWS losing connection..i have this simple thing in my application decade ago