Jim, I can't answer specific issues like this without account numbers, stock details, audit trails, etc. Please send complete a Trouble Ticket via the Account Managment menu with trade specifics. Kicking, The problem is that due to the amount of flexibility in order types that we offer and the broad coverage of exchanges there are so many different rules, that if we added TWS pop-ups to everything then you'd be inundated with them. If you are putting money on the line and trading on a particular exchange then a trader should be familar with the product, including bust rules, order handling rules, etc. These stop rules are clearly stated on our website, and are accesible via the exchange information page or the order info page or the search facility. mtzianos, Regarding the STPLMT offset between stop trigger price and limit order - I know it's not exactly what you want but you could set-up a TWS hot key for this. Take a look at our Conditional Orders or the new Alert function (introduced in version 849). You could use either of these to replicate a stop order. You could set-up a market order conditional on certain paratmeters being met, such as last price. Similarly with the alert function - with this you have more flexibility with order types and also can get e-mail messages, audible alerts etc. Hope this helps.
Anyone who believes that the "User Manual" is little more than a "detail" deserves the "damage" that they get. OldTrader
illiquid.. Good news...you can now do this using the Alert function which was introduced in Build 849 (available on the browser version.. soon to be available on the standalone version). Please check the release notes and website for details.
Stop Limits don't always work either. Entered a buy stop limit for Zn that appeared in Pending orders and the Audit Trail. The order diappeared and I assumed it was filled. IB claims they have no record of the order on their end so I am not filled. IB's reliability for stop limits in ZN is not good.
Bnun12, Thank you very much for sending us your Interactive Brokers (IB) Trader WorkStation (TWS) audit-trail. We analyzed it together with the logs and audit-trails written by our servers, and we are now able to explain what happened. As IB customer service originally stated, IB's servers never saw this order. In this regard, as indicated in our customer agreement, there is always a chance that our systems may not function as intended (in this case, the TCP/IP connection between the TWS and IB's server was not functioning), and the last few messages that your TWS sent never reached IB servers. In cases such as this, the TWS is designed to switch its screen color to dark pink for a little while, then switch back once the connection is re-established, at which time the TWS will re-download the orders that are present on IB's server, and display them to the user. The orders that were not present on IB's server will be dropped of the TWS screen and this is exactly what happened in your case. There is an easy way to verify which orders the system knows about, and to check the status of these orders. It is on the "Pending Orders" page: - Light blue means the order or its modification is in transit, and may not have reached IB servers or an exchange or market center yet. - Pink means the order cancel request is in transmit and may not have reached IB servers or an exchange or market center yet. - Other colors (green, red, dark blue, brown) mean the order is being held by IB servers, or is working on an exchange or market center, or that it has been filled or cancelled. What a TWS user can do to prevent a problem like this from occurring is to watch out for colors that indicate that the transaction is NOT acknowledged, e.g., a light blue or pink color: - if you see a light blue order on your TWS, the latest version of the order is not necessarily present on IB server, and can disappear if TWS fails to send the order due to communication failure/TCP connection lost. Once the color turns to green (for limit/market orders), or dark blue (for stop/stop-limit orders), or brown (for conditional orders), the order is residing on IB servers. - if you see a pink order on your TWS, make sure that it does not remain that way, but instead turns dark red. Otherwise, in case of a reconnect, if the cancellation attempt had not yet been delivered to the TWS, the cancellation attempt may get lost from the TWS. What an API user can do to prevent a problem like this from occurring: Your application receives a message once the order is acknowledged by IB server. Until such a message arrives, you should not assume that the transaction is confirmed. What a third-party order entry front-end user can do to prevent a problem like this from occurring: - if your application distinguishes between the acknowledged and not-yet-acknowledged orders status, you can use that order status to verify whether or not an order is on IB server. - if your application assumes that once the order is sent it is placed, you need to contact the author of the front-end and ask him/her to correct it. What we (IB) will do to make the IB TWS more user-friendly (in the next TWS beta): TWS will keep track in memory the orders it has transmitted but have not received an acknowledgement for. Upon "soft" re-connect to IB server (the re-connect that does not involve TWS exiting and starting again): - TWS will retransmit all orders that user has tried to submit and which user did not attempt to cancel yet, and which are not present in the download from the IB server; - TWS will issue a cancel for all orders that the user attempted to cancel, and which IB server reports in any state other than pending cancellation or cancelled. IBsoft, kostia00.
I have had problems with IB's stop order. I trade nasdaq stocks, sometime i got stopped out before my stop price. It happen about 2-4 times every month. Also excution has being slow. IB is not as relieble as it used to be......
Thank you for your detailed reply, See my comments below. In my experience the Pink does not unambigiuosly mean this (or always work this way). Because Pending-orders or Buggy-orders are also showed in Pink. Therefore I would like to apply for a change in the color-system: ALWAYS light-blue for transmission-upstream (so no differ if it is a cancel that is transmitted), and use other colors for acknowledged-Orders. And keep using the Pink for Pending-orders and buggy ones. If this is not clear: I have seen several cases of Pink-color Pending-Cancels which were known and "working" on the IB-Server, and reported back to TWS (so pink means: HAS reached the IB-server) I even have seen a case 1 week ago (I have FIX-logs and screenshot) of a 100% executed and filled Order reported back in pink-color, staying for days on the clients TWS-screen. This as example (and proof) of the Pink-color for a buggy-Order. To users of ButtonTrader >> YES, all order statuses and Colors are present. Great to hear this...That is a great improvement in reliability. Hope it helps Hoi from www.buttontrader.com