Real time charting with IB TWS?

I looked through the IB TWS materials, and can't seem to find a real time chart feature. Did I miss something, or is the package lacking this?

I think I can feed QuoteTracker with IB's streaming, but it seems strange that there is no native charting in IB.

 

You aren't missing anything. IB doesn't provide charts. Also, their data feed only provides snapshots and isn't guaranteed to be complete, though it is good enough for most things.

 

Thanks for the info. How is their Level 2 feed?

 

I'm affraid I can't answer that, as I don't use it. Maybe someone else here can.

 

Look again! I noticed today that their data feed has DRAMATICALLY improved! Maybe it's also luck with my internet connection, but when I keep changing the price on one of my isld orders as fast as I can type (probably 3 or 4 times within half a second) the quote actually follows every single change with no noticeable delay.

The mere fact that people are now starting to wonder why IB does not offer real time charts shows that they have come a long way.

A year ago we (IB customers) were happy about the lightning fast executions IB would get us and gladly accepted the fact that IB's data feed was intended "for entertainment purposes only".

Now I must admit the IB data feed is faster than I thought was technically possible for any data feed, no matter what the cost.

Maybe we should start a new thread on this. This has truly made my day. (That and the fact that out of the 20 trades I did today, not a single one was a loser or scratch. --- a rare coincidence, obviously)

 

FWIW, QuoteTracker gives them a thumbs up for the data feed. I use this tool for charting, currently with Scottrade. Scottrade has seriously clusterflubbed a sytem conversion and I'm looking for another broker than interfaces with QT.

http://quotetracker.com/qsources.shtml

 

fine job, Lobster, and I have to agree with you on the feed quality lately.

During the fed move this aft, I was having some SERIOUS lag in my esignal quotes, but luckily, IB was chugging right along with no lag, so I was in fine shape for the whole thing...

 

I have heard they improved (plan to improve?) the feed, though I have been charting their tick by tick ES data next to ESignal and RealTick and I do see missing ticks still from IB. Unless you lay the ticks out and compare, you probably won't notice. Then again, I might not know what I'm talking about.

 

I wasn't watching the IB feed then, but I would bet the reason it didn't lag is because they didn't send out every tick. Again, not saying it's necessarily bad.

 

The problem isn't IB, tho, it's QT. Given that it's free, QT is impressive. However, it doesn't maintain a database, i.e., you start over every day. If you want a true interface, esp if you're trading futures, try Sierra charts. It's only $40/six months which, to my mind, is pretty much the same thing as free. And it sure beats QCharts.

--Db