Catoosa Thank you - do u trade the SPY - and if so does that have this lagging problem that other stocks occasionally have - can you tell if it is certain exchanges that have the problem (since i assume the pricing on your system is from the main exchange - with futures there is only one source for prices FX-Trader The IB futures price should always be ahead of CQG or any other data/charting company since it is a direct globex feed as opposed to the special data feed with is distributed to all data suppliers Have you tried or used the OTTO system on CQG?
What I need is RealTick's quote data on IB's TWS! Today, the quotes on IB's TWS for MSFT, INTC, and EBAY were again running 5 to 10 seconds behind my RealTick feed. At times the IB quotes on MSFT were stuck. Hitting the offer or bid with limit orders would not come close to getting a fill on IB's TWS because the market had by then already moved several levels. Having to look two monitors to the right of my TWS to get my quotes off of my RealTick quote screen is too far of a stretch. I need the correct quotes in the platform I am trading on and I want that to be IB's TWS. As for me, all of the improvements IB has made in the TWS software are nice but are insignificant to having timely quotes. This quote problem has been going on for months when the volume picks up on heavily traded stocks like MSFT, INTC, CSCO and the like. IB surely knows their quotes are lagging but for some reasons (financial or other reasons) chooses to not correct the problem. IB needs to bite the bullet and do what ever it is they need to do to fix the problem. Catoosa
I agree with your points Catoosa. I too would like timely quotes. However IB has provided the tools necessary to circumvent this problem in the form of the ActiveX API. It would be feasible to create an order placing program that uses data from a different source and transmits orders via ActiveX. This is probably a bit of work but if it is costing you money you might be motivated to do this.
TriPack, I respectfully disagree. If we are required to pay for these quotes, then they should be worth their salt. We should not make excuses and contort ourselves or our strategies to fit the shortcomings of IB´s quote system. Catoosa, have you e-mailed management? In the past, a polite but firmly worded e-mail to the right person has worked wonders.
Catoosa As an intraday futures trader - i certainly understand your point about looking two monitors over - i am sure it is more phsycological than real - but if if affects you as it has me in the past - that is a real as it needs to get but i still dont get why you dont just take a market order when the data on your data supply/charting software had indicated that it is the right time to do it i dont trade stocks - so i know i am missing something here that someone on the forums has explained to me previously - and it had to do with limit orders - but if you feel you are taking the right trade, why not just take the trade - why do u need the data on the trading platform entry system and in particular - since i would only be interested in arbitraging with the SPY - would the problem you experience also affect the SPY and just to conclude - does anyone know if IB experience the same data probs on options such as the OEX
I don't disagree with what you say Babak in the least and don't mean to excuse IB for failing to provide real time quotes during active markets. IB clearly has a responsibility to deliver a quality product. It was probably a poor decision to change subjects in a thread on IB quote problems. I guess my point is that although IB should fix the problem, internet quotes (and for that matter all quotes no matter the source) are prone to disruption from time to time. I wish it were otherwise. That being the case, a trader running his business should evaluate if the quotes of a particular provider (IB) going down is costing them money. If it is, short of switching brokers or hoping for a resolution by management, a trader might utilize the API to create a solution that uses the quote stream of their choice (switches on the fly) when one provider goes down. This is assuming that going to all this work/cost would actually save them money over just switching to a different or backup broker at those times.
FYI, programmers are not ignoring any quote problems. Many of your comments make it sound like the firm doesn't care. I just spoke to the head of programming who has a team of people working late, himself included, working on this and other priority projects (9PM NY). I am told that isolating the cause is not trivial. In short, ample resources are being utilized to isolate the cause and get things back up to speed. Catoosa, I sent you a PM as they would like to contact you.
Since you have talked to these IB workers in NY and else where could you please find out something that has me very concerned!! On March 6th IB's connection to the Globex went down for roughly 40min or more, to my surprise looked around and really never heard much about it. Of course calling them on the phone and finally getting through did not do me any good because they cannot get you out of a position on Globex on the phone when IB's connection goes out with Globex. Okay, so everyone has problems right....... well today Mar 21st IB's connection goes down with Globex for just a few minutes shy of one hour!!! Def do you know what it is like to be in a futures position for one hour hanging in the wind!! I think an explanation is in order from IB about this. Would you look into it for me please. I know you guys what your thinking , I should have a backup broker!!! yes ,yes but thats not the point right at the moment! Thank You Very Much
I have TWS 758.4 and java 1.4. TWS still displays stuck or slow quotes. I saw something about downgrading to java 1.3.2. Does this really work? What about the beta? In my experience, this is usually not a software problem, but a server, or a router that sits in front of the server, that is either overloaded, or malfunctioning. It would be nice to do a traceroute (etc) from all of us that use TWS to each and every server, and then get a (3D) chart of the results. (It would be even nicer if IB provided the tool then logged the results for viewing in .html) This would prove if it was a router or server problem as opposed to a java or TWS problem. nitro
nitro, programmers will and have been contacting customers on the issue. lets hope progress is made. brian, not sure what happened on the 6th. the problem yesterday was hardware related. Not sure which end but a router failure took out all (primary and redundant) connections to the exchange. I'm guessing but the time of the delay points to a failure on the exchange side. In any event, there are internal discussions going on about how to better communicate such issues to clients. (no need to make suggestions here)