Dawnrazor-- Re your comments: "If you want something similar to RealTick, why not use RealTick in the first place? I don't want IB to become yet another mediocre jack-of-all-trades broker, but rather remain an efficient and reliable order entry platform. BTW, all day traders I know trade only a small basket of stocks, so they already have a page set up for it and don't need to shoot from the hip." 1. Been there, done that with RT at a couple of different brokers. I think there are better programs out there, so I went the 'a la carte' route. However, bringing up a L2 box, clicking on it and transmitting, is a very fast way to trade. And let's not even go into the cost of the RT brokers... 2. You must have a very small circle of friends. Not *all* daytraders are like you and trade only a small basket of stocks. I trade a core group, but it's ever changing, and sometimes I want to get into something very quickly that's not on the list. I currently have so many pages that sometimes I can't even find often traded stocks easily. I'd love to just chuck most of my pages, be able to type in a symbol, pick my price (route and size if different from a default), click and transmit. I want order entry enhancements, nothing else. My style obviously differs from your apparently limited view of the universe. 99
I never claimed that ALL (after all, how many of those really are serious traders as opposed to gamblers?) day traders trade that way. But those I know do, and it works well for us. We are do, however, know the stocks we are trading well. If you want to trade on news (which none of us do), IB is definitely not the best platform to do so, anyway. If you don't, I see no reason why you wouldn't even have the time to type in the symbol. After all, wouldn't you want to check the chart and Level II before you enter a trade?
I didn't really intend this discussion to be a debate about whether IB should add some extra features. I was simply encouraging those who would like the option of trading through a level 2 box to voice their opinion since IB is now asking for it. BTW I'm no computer expert, but I really can't see how adding one level 2 box is going to compromise bandwidth. Currently there are about 30 lines on a page, you can have several pages at one time, and I count about 7 different data fields that are constantly being updated on each stock. One level 2 box isn't that much more. I don't think anyone is looking for top 10 lists, position minders, 20 charts or other features of a fully functional daytrading broker. The advantage I see of trading through a level 2 box is that you can click on any price, not just the inside market, which you can't always get. Plus you don't have to look back and forth between TWS and your third party level 2 screen; your eyes are in one place. I also think the fact that virtually all daytrading platforms allow you to trade directly from the level 2 screen indicates something.