The IB API has been and continues to exhibit many nuances and quirks. Please be aware of this. What happened is that it wasn't architected properly initially....and then they tried to fix these architectual problems along the way. That's never a good approach...much better: DESIGN RIGHT, BUILD RIGHT, IMPLEMENT RIGHT....the first time.
It's also slow and has annoying limitations on queries/second. If you don't need to do huge data dumps or need to do anything real-*REAL*-time, it should be sufficient. However if you do need to scan hundreds of symbols in real time it is not sufficient. But I don't think it was ever meant to do that. To be honest, given its limitations, I wish TWS would support a simple plugin architecture so it could be extended. Lots of quant data not displayed and I need to calculate through my tool. Perhaps some people know some 'Killer' APIs / Brokers ?
Robert, Do you accept people from the UK? Of what minimum age? Are they allowed to trade options on American exchanges?
-We introduce business to Wedbush Securities. Wedbush and Lightspeed accept foreign accounts on a case by case basis. I do not expect the UK to present any issues. -I'm not sure what the minimum age is to open an account. I've never asked. How old are you? -For equity accounts, we provide access to US Listed Equity and Option exchanges. Your option approval level will be based on your experience.
IB API works very smoothly with options. A good system needs to have a few parts: 1) The ability to fetch and sort and analyze (e.g. indicators) the right data you'd want to use. 2) The ability to back-test, I find this module the most important in the system. 3) Order Entry algorithms 4) Position Exit algorithms 5) Orders mechanism You also need to take in account what type of orders and positions the system will manage - one or multiple ones. A huge difference between the two. Not easy, but fun to develop.