I tried using "relative orders" for the first time this morning; and while it worked pretty well for me, there was one strange thing that I should alert you all to. When I modified or cancelled a relative order, the "pending cancellation" bar (magenta) just sat there for almost an hour in two cases...one order that was indicated for Island, and another for NYSE. I was beginning to worry that the specialist or market maker was just sitting on the order, waiting to execute it when the market turned in their favor (and against me!). Finally, I decided to try closing TWS (I am using the resident application). When I re-opened it, much to my relief (and horror at the same time) those magenta bars had turned to GREEN, indicating that they were LIVE ORDERS! Happily though, when I clicked the "C", which was now available, they were cancelled almost immediately. Strange... Seems more like a software bug with TWS or the IB system than some problem with the exchanges. Anyone else have this experience? saxon
Hmmm. I'm going to guess at something here. Where I live, I have neither DSL nor cable modem available, so I have to use dialup connections, which routinely fail during the day. Sometimes, it happens that I send a price change for an order, the exchange gets the price change, and the connection fails before I get the ack. This results in a light blue status which persists even after my connection comes back and TWS logs back in automatically (30-60 seconds). If I then try to cancel that order, it will hang magenta. If, OTOH, I modify the price instead, it correctly re-associates itself with the order and all is well again. There appears to be some issue related to cancelling an order when the TWS and the IB server don't agree on the exact parameters of the order (like the price). Changing an order, however, seems to work OK in these circumstances.
You can't trade with system that is delayed like that unless your moving a couple 100 shares or less. Either your on a dial up modem and not receiving realtime streaming data or your connection is horrible. Sounds like your web trading which will eat your account up in no time. Direct Access is a must if your moving a few 100 shares or more and ecspecially if your trading at least 10 times a day.
Not a connection issue, since I am on a cable modem. It's been down maybe twice in the last 6 months. I'd be too nervous to even logon to TWS if I was using AOL dial-up, or something like that. This game is hard enough as it is! But hats off to guys who have no other option. Brave souls. And take heart...I DO remember reading about a guy who traded his way from $20,000 to $5,000,000 over a dial-up. Must have been popping nitro tabs the whole way. saxon
I work for one of the top Direct Access BD's and know this industry forwards and backwards. If you trade more than 50 times a month and have a DSL or cable connection you are losing money not trading with direct access. I can go into more details if you want.
If you "<knew> this industry forwards and backwards" then you would know all about IB...right? What firm are you pitchin'? saxon