I have a simple question regarding IB orders sent through TWS: In TWS configuration--order--order defaults, there is a choice "Order origin ", you can set it as "customer" , or you can set it as "Firm". I did not notice this choice available in old versions, and it is my knowledge for quite long time that all of my orders stay on IB servers. For example, if the current price of SGXNK is 13550, and I placed a stop order to sell at 13500, this order stays on IB server, if the market drops and the price on IB trading server turns to 13500, then a market order to sell is placed by IB server. Once the stop order is placed, the customer can rely on IB server to excecute this order. This is my existing knowledge. However today for the first time I noticed a new choice of order origin as customer, and this is the default order origin in newer version of TWS. Does this mean that in the same situation mentioned above, a sell order will not be placed until the price on customer's computer (rater than the computer on IB server) drop to 13500 ? If my understanding is correct, previously the default order origin of TWS is "Firm", while in current versions, the default order origin of TWS is " customer" . Can someone confirm or clarify this ? Thanks
Thanks for the heads up on that one.... Its really bad to think that youve been sending stop orders assuming there being executed on IB serevr when in fact there travelling from your computer instead. Also remeber when you change the setting to click the apply button or else the changes you made wont register. Just bear in mind that IB are a lot sneakier than you may realise and almost certainly when you upgrade your version youll need to change these 'defaults' once again. It really makes me wonder what other nasty suprises may be lurking in there new releases....
This week is the first week of my trading after a three-month leave, I upgraded to TWS v882 and found my excecution is MUCH MUCH WORSE than before. ( Also found that my autotrading codes do not work normally with this TWS version , had to switch to manual trading. ) Heavy fighting to keep my real performance in line with the theoretical one. So is my understanding right ? Should we check the "firm" as the order origin, if we need to the stop orders to stay on IB server ?
Yes check firm and also and this is REALLY important.... get to grips with this DEFAULT ORDER OFFEST AMOUNTS on the same page. Its really awful. As far as I can tell it 'offests' the price you execute stop orders at. In other words if you set the value to 3 ticks for a buy stop it tells the TWS to add 3 ticks to any number you enter as a stop amount. Which is the worst default ive ever come accross. Period. Might explain why your orders dont go through quite right.
Completely wrong. Like the blind leading the blind. Checking "customer" or "firm" has nothing to do with how your order is entered. You would check "firm" if you are a "firm" trading for other customers. You're not a firm, you're a customer. Orders that you send are either sent to the exchange, if they are native to that particular exchange, or they are held on IB's servers if they are not native to the exchange. My suggestion is to call customer service if you have a question of this type in the future. OldTrader
This is really scary... TWS updates DO NOT carry the default over from previous version. This means we have to CHECK EVERY DAMN settings in TWS after every upgrade !!!! This is FRECKEN INSANE. IB should haul the programmer out for explanation.
There is a lot of bad and inaccurate information being floated on this thread. The offset amount is used for bracket, trailing stops etc. The manual and search functions on the IB site are actually pretty good. Do a search on "offset" and you'll get more detail. For the firm/customer config, if you are clearing through IB, don't sweat it. As you are a retail client the orders will default to customer.
However, there is yet another problem with the newest "upgrade", 882. If you have an advisor and sub-accounts, then the ratios sent to sub-accounts are not what they were with 881. As is TYPICAL with IB, this was driving me crazy, leaving me with 2 or 3 leftover shares in various accounts after closing positions. I then had to pay a trade fee for each position I had to clean up in each account. I called customer service at least 5 times and was told it was a problem with MY settings. Eventually...after 3 days of questioning...a service rep admitted that it was an upgrade problem and I needed to move back to the previous version. Really, beyond me why your best reps can't be kept up on the most basic changes and problems with not only your platform, but with all activities regarding opening accounts, etc. etc. Who is running customer service? And why are they still in their position? Want a simple example? Ask one of your "non customer service" employees to open a master account and a couple sub-accounts as a test. Without question, the most convoluted, confusing experience I've encountered in 30 years of dealing with brokers.
When they put that MORONIC CLOCK beside GTC orders... I stopped upgrading. Even though I do 400 trades/day and 100% of my orders are GTC... IB feels that I need 30-40 clocks cluttering up my screen... You know... Because people trading 7 figure accounts are idiots... But people working in Customer Service phone banks... Are highly skilled professionals.