re: May 6th outages at both TOS and IB. This indicates each likely to be using a third party service for the data stream....i.e. Comstock for instance. So technically, the problem is "outside" of their control.
I don't know what went down,but I use IB beta web trader, l was able to buy DRYS at 4.99. I use margin and this auto liquidatoon scares me, I like TOS too but margin is so much higher than at IB.
I don't know what you mean by outages. With IB it was impossible to login into their web client and all outstanding market orders were not sent to exchange and were eventually cancelled by IB. TOS had no such problem.
I'll second akivak's statement about the IB workstation on May 6th. I was trading stock throughout day and I had no problem with quotes, order handling, transaction speed or execution confirmation. I would love days like that to become a regular event.