Hi all, From some time ago I have an forex ATS running with the TWS of IB and from time to time the prices are frozen so I need to restart once and again the TWS. I would like to know if you are suffering this issue. Thanks. Regards.
The honest answer is "no", but consider this... IB lets you create multiple usernames to a single account. You could run two separate servers with TWS (on different broadband connections) and failover if connectivity is lost. But ideally, you need several BDs and data feeds for redundancy. IB outages are far too common.
An automated trading system should not be run unattended under any circumstances, no matter what platform you are using.
Listen to RockFish. This is an ** absolute prerequisite **. ATS are always manned by highly experienced Pros. When I see fantasy talk of "unattended" ATS... I know it's an amateur with no serious money on the line... Or someone too irresponsible to be managing money. And IB is as well suited for ** professionally ** designed ATS... And any other retail platform out there. A Pro would NEVER even consider using IB's quotes or any cheap quotes. The only real problem is ABSOLUTELY NO BACKUP when disconnection issues arise... So a Pro would be pretty much limited to scalping a very well hedged Portfolio... Which is exactly what I do anyway.
Agree with the gentlemen saying dont run a totally unattended ATS. One of these days you will regret it.
I used to work for one of the big futures exchanges. One friday afternoon one contract traded 3000 times in a three tick range in a 2 minute period. After doing some investigating the exchange found out that a trader at Tradestation made 1500 trades. He bought and sold 1 contract over and over again for for 2 minutes. Tradestation contacted the trader and found out the guy had taken a nap and his automated trading system went nuts. By the time he woke up and got in front of the computer his $60,000 account was reduced to $20,000. True story Sean
There was a thread on ET started by someone who suffered something similar to this. As I recall, IB had recently changed something about the API for family and friends accounts and this guy had not updated his code properly. It made his program repeatedly buy and then sell at the market. I believe he lost a similar amount of money as compared to the story above.