today i had buy trailing stop order but it did not execute even when the price crossed well above the trigger price....what could be possible reasons?
Never use the auto trail feature or IB plain stop orders in general. There are well documented problems with them. You are not the first to have this happen and won't be the last. Use stop-limit orders instead (stop with a wide limit) as they are held native so I'm told, although the following from IBs web site does create confusion for Globex ES traders: "Regardless of whether an exchange accepts or processes STOP-LIMIT orders, Interactive Brokers will simulate all STOP-LIMIT orders." Is this information from IBs web wite inaccurate for trading the ES on Globex? Can anyone (Def?) confirm that stop-limits are native and the above web info. is wrong?
Seems to be true with the exception of CME Globex and MATIF/MONEP. I think they introduced native STP LMT for these exchanges in Q3/2002 or Q4/2002.
Spark, stock, future, or option? There is/was an issue with conditional GTC bracket orders entered with a stop or stop-limit order. I had two stops not fire off a week or so ago. Turns out the bracket orders would work for the day of entry, but were not after that (even though GTC). I've since been cancelling the original brackets once filled (can't watch during the day all the time) and putting in OCA orders, which seems to be working fine. I don't know if that issue's been fixed yet. I haven't used the trailing stops.
The authoritative list of which types of orders are used for each exchange is at http://www.interactivebrokers.com/html/retailAccount/products.html