Is IB system down?

I am a new IB customer, and I am wondering if my problem with logging in is normal or not. It is Saturday, and the markets are closed, I know. But I would have thought that I could still login to TWS to set up orders, check balance, etc.

When I open TWS, enter my user name and pw, and hit enter...I just see the login screen flash off and on repeatedly; but the app does not open. I checked the "system status" screen at the IB site and it says that all systems are operating normally.

Is this normal? Should I be able to login when the markets are closed, and on weekends?

Thanks,
saxon

 

don´t worry ...shop closed on weekends

 

When I first joined it did this and I thought I installed the software wrong...They shut their servers down at night and on weekends. Wish they didn't but they do.

 

Thanks for the info. I suppose Saturday is better used for other things anyway.



saxon

 

They shut down their servers during the weekend. On a
weekday night if there is trading the next day, they shut down
for only an hour, but I can not remember which hour it is.

IB advises not to enter any orders untill 3:30am EST using
Instinet in order to receive a confirmation for your order.
Otherwise if you do not have a confirmation you have no
idea the order has been accepted at the exchange. I don't
know why you have to wait until 3:30am EST because on their
website they say Instinet is open at 3am EST.

Hopefully def will jump in here and tell us which hour at night
that IB takes a rest.

 

the US system reset starts around 11:50 PM (new york) and depending on a bunch of factors is up within 20 minutes to around an hour. Once you can log in, it should be ok to trade (globex).

on weekends, the programs are killed. when I was in the states last month it was tabled to make access available on weekends (in particular to allow for people to program/test). Not sure what priority that has (seems simple but apparantly it is not) but i assume it will eventually get done.

 

def

Are you telling me that Globex hours on IB are not 8 to 8?

 

I set up a timeline in my Outlook calendar to keep track of various IB and exchange hours. My experience is slightly different than def's.

My timeline says that IB is down from 22:50 to 00:30 EST, though it is often up again between 00:00 and 00:15. On Fridays, it stays down after 22:50 until coming back up on Sunday evening at 18:30 EST (not sure on this last one - +/- an hour).

I'm pretty sure I've sent Instinet equity orders shortly after the supposed 03:00 EST opening time, but they sometimes stay blue for a while before going green, so def's advice about 03:30 is probably safer.

 

alanm,

I messed up my time zones when stating the time to go down (US is 13 hours different that HK this time of year) - you are correct. IB goes down at 10:50 PM NY time and starts coming up 12:20 AM. I believe Globex itself shuts down from 11PM to midnight.

Thus IB's globex hours are pretty much 12:30 AM to 10:50 PM NY time. sorry for the confusion.