This morning, 10-6-08, I cancelled one order in IB, then executed another. Apparently the first order did not cancel. Suddenly I noticed I was down over $400. Even though I had set a default 20-pip stop in TWS, the stop did not trigger. When I called IB -- and spoke with 4 different people, 4 different times -- they said it was a "parent-child" order, the second order being executed less than a second after the first (I don't know how that's possible, but anyway...), and that I set a buy-stop rather than a sell-stop. I've been trading on TWS for a couple of years and I have never managed to do what they say I did. I examined my trade logs, and no matter how I explained it to them, they say it's my fault, and not their problem. If I could find another broker whose datafeed works with Fibonacci Trader, I would switch brokers in a heartbeat.
Cancel orders, especially in markets like these, may not be instantanous. They do, after all, have to be reported back from the exchange AFAIK. Did you wait for the order to change color and go away from your screen? I suspect you clicked cancel, then clicked again while the order was being filled. IOW too late to cancel. Why is this IB's fault? Did you not read and sign the "Electronic Trading Risks and Disclosures" document? Good luck with resolving this problem. Don't like to se anybody have problems with IB. They are the best lowcost broker for the non-pro around, IMHO.
I wouldn't call that ripping you off, just a glitch that cost you a few bucks. Orders get stuck, disappear, fills get reported late, etc, all part of the game, just a cost of doing business, suck it up and move on!
What do you mean by "I examined my trade logs" ? Did you just look at the trade reports? Or did you look at log.Mon.txt? Or did you view the TWS audit trails? The TWS audit trails would show you exactly in detail what orders were placed and what executions and cancels did/did not happen.
If $400 is the biggest problem you ever have trading, you're doing great! Leave it at that. Make more money tomorrow
I put in a market buy near the open once, after an hour, should have been up like $4000, but noticed I still had not gotten filled. Status showed it had gone through fine. Called IB. They just play the run around game until you give up, because I clearly did everything right, all the status's were correct, and someone owned me a bunch of cash. Just not worth the time in the end. Doesnt take long to waste $4000 worth of my time and they know it. So kiss the 4K goodbye.