Go here: http://individuals.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=products Then: Click on any Market Center Details link below to find details on products traded, order types available, and exchange website information. Jack
There's nothing to defend. IB takes a snapshot of the data every 100ms. It's no secret that IB does that...they say so themselves. Some of the commentary in this thread is wrong in terms of the frequency of the snapshot. It's not 3 a second. It's 10 a second. So periodically it will miss a tick. But think about it....100 ms is 1/10 of a second. How many ticks do you think they miss that happen to be at the high or low of a chart interval. Not many. I use limit orders. I also watch the DOM closely when I have an order in there. It happens that I'll get a fill and the tick didn't show. Not often, but it happens. Makes no difference to me personally. Further, that missing tick might not make a bit of difference to the chart either if the missing tick does not occur at the high or low of the interval. Think about it...if you're doing a snapshot every 1/10 of a second, how often do you really think it's going to miss a tick that happens to be the high or low? One advantage to this data is that it doesn't bog down or freeze during active times in the market. Some of the other types of data do. ESignal for instance (unless they've somehow corrected the problem since I used them). My personal opinion is that for most traders the IB data is good enough. A missing tick here or there isn't going to make an iota of difference. When I think back to my trades, a missing tick never makes the difference between a winner or loser. LOL. OldTrader
For a guy who's never been an IB customer, you regularly seem to show up in IB threads with a negative opinion based entirely on hearsay. LOL. Amazing. And you say you have no "axe to grind"? That seems to be exactly what you're doing. OldTrader
There is big difference between having a negative opinion versus having an an honest, researched, realistic, opinion. If items I point out, which are thought to be true are indeed inaccurate, please feel free to correct me with accurate information. Suggesting I have an axe to grind with IB is just distraction from the, as you say, "negative" issues which may have been presented. The reasonings of why IB does things is not important to ME. What is important is how such things may (or may not) affect MY trading business. The disclosure of such things on the IB website makes due-diligence of choosing a broker easier. By itself, the disclosure of such items has no bearing on my business. This realistic point of view is valid input in the more generalized threads concerning doing business with IB. Something that cheer-leaders fail to provide. Back to topic... there are several potentially detrimental apsects regarding (scalping) futures at IB that a prospective IB futures client should be aware of. How detrimental any particular item is, is dependant on the specific client needs, wants, and expectations. It is not dependant on the needs, wants and expectations of the IB cheer-leading brigade. Osorico
user "Colaeus" wrote (21-01-08): I have been using Photon for the past few years and clear through Man. (FuturePath is the IIB). They just released a new version of Photon in December that was written in DotNet. It does use TT's servers on the backend, but TT has acknowledged that FuturePath's TT servers are faster then TT servers at other FCMs. This is because they keep their servers at lower capacity, have complete redundancy, better routers and blades, and bigger pipelines then other FCMs. I heard Getco uses FuturePath to do their black box stuff..so they gotta have some of the best technology. Advantage Futures went down 3 times over the past two months - once for a whole hour. I got a friend who trades at a trading room that clearas them and he says that ever since Advantage chose to get into the retail side of the business, everything has gone completely downhill. He is leaving them. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=114503&highlight=photon
thats ridiculous to worry about wether ib shows every single tick or misses a few. unless you're a cme full member paying 40 cents r/t total charges on futures you're wasting you're time trying to massive scalp futures. its a suckers bet. find a way to have a longer time frame making 5-10 pts per trade. i trade stocks,futures and options and my futures trading is on autopilot with 2-4 setups a day