I am warning you guys so that maybe you avoid what happened to me. IB has introduced limits to the amount of paper money in paper trading account. I know this sounds absurdly ridiculous, as the purpose of a paper trading account is to <b> let people and funds test before committing real money</b>. Evidently they don't want to big funds to simulate operations, or me to simulate operations for hedge funds which are relying on my solutions, and are after a few housewives .... The reason ? "save on bandwidth" (quoting literally "Brian" from Customer Services). What has bandwidth to do with the amount of paper money, maybe is something that only some genius at IB knows. I am also seriously concerned about this "bandwidth" problem. So don't reset your paper trading account or you will be "locked" there forever. I am forced to close the "locked" account which i used for fund operation simulation. I will also probably move my platform to another broker, if they don't correct this and other absurdities. This should free a lot of bandwidth! ;-)) Tom
weird, I don't see how they are conserving bandwidth unless you were using a lot of it and they manufactured an excuse to limit you.
Don't see how this would "limit" me, as i can open more accounts, or i might download 200+ tickers on my multiple accounts and an unlimited number of demo accounts. Also what about the demo account ? I could open 10 instances on each of my machines. This is totally absurd. Also a limit on the <b>paper money</b> has nothing to do with bandwidth. Assume i want to simulate just a <b>few very big orders</b>. What has the amount limit to do with bandwidth ? They are going to lose a lot of clients. I will probably migrate my project <b>G-Bot Algorithmic Trading</b> towards other brokers, thus taking some hundred clients and funds, and thousands prospects. I just cant stand the fact that people don't even listen who gives advice in their own interest. Just keep adding totally useless things which nobody asked for and don't listen to the real needs of the traders. <b>Preventing funds or good investors from simulating operations and strategies before committing good money is not a sign of intelligence</b>. The real "bandwidth" they lack is at brain level (of the great genius who conceived this brilliant idea). Tom
ahah, actually with all the clients i have brought and bring indirectly (because they want to use my robot) they should probably give me some 10 "honorary accounts" to assist the new funds and prospects which want to simulate my games, not to mention a % on commissions ;-)) "save on bandwidth" ! haha ridiculous. And they don't even see the gravity of such a statement for a company which is based on online operations ... Evidently it's time to step forward ... ;-) Tom
"save on bandwidth"..i'm sick and tired to see this argument over and over again. everyfuckingwhere..regardless to what it was applied.paper account run from same pc where the primary is (make no sense what so ever), data lines,subscriptions..make me feel like it was like 1995...wtf IB? aren't you suppose to be a pioneer, like it use to be? top of the line? or you are old,tired dog,swimming in your own warm and cozy deep s**t, like our gvt in DC for example, feel fine and reluctant to any changes\upgrades?
actually it is resources. i understand there were just too many large algo and other type orders (ie. 1,000,000 shares) taking an excessive amount of resources. Like anything I'm sure constructive feedback will be considered. There is still plenty of equity in the paper account to test functionality and as a multiple of actual cash in the account, be ample for most clients.
Are you kidding? You have locked one of my account with 100K (and another one with 300K). What kind of fund operations are we going to simulate ? the <b>"United Trust of pennyless Housewives" </b> ? I really thought that IB was a serious broker and i endorsed it with my academical <a href="http://www.datatime.eu/public/gbot/">project</a>. But now i am really beginning to regret. Tom
One thing to keep in mind. The larger the size on the order, especially in illiquid names, the less accurate are the simulated fills. IB's papertrading fills are reasonably accurate for small orders, but wildly optimistic for large orders where the order size is a large multiple of the inside market.