IB TWS can be such rubbish! Why is it that when you start-up TWS and create charts and exit TWS (and even though it says saving settings), when you re-start TWS, the charts you create just reverts to some old charts you do not want. I have manually clicked 'save settings' when closing TWS to ensure settings is saved, but still reverts to the unwanted old charts when you reopen TWS. Why can't the charts just stay the way they were before TWS was closed!!!
Did you watch an IB TWS charting video? Do that, and then see if you have any questions. Things to watch for: The difference between saving TWS settings and saving charts and saving chart templates....
In my many-years experience TWS on shut-down has always attempted to save the entire session state, ie both configs AND all windows, including ALL charts, as they are at time of manual shut-down. I've never seen indication that this behavior is configurable, but there' so many configs in TWS that I can't say that w/ certainty. In my experience, If TWS auto-shuts down the session, it's possible that the settings will not be successfully saved. In my experience, File-SaveSettings saves everything also, but does not shut down TWS. By experience, I mean that when I invoke this and then later load the file it produced, all charts load as they were at the time of that Save. (as for chart templates, they must be first saved individually for them to persist when the session is saved) If the TWS process is killed rather than manually shut-down, nothing is saved since the most-recent successful save. (There is no auto-save for TWS sessions, one of the many oddities of the program that evoke how software used to be 30 years ago -- n.b. yes, you likely would not want this capab when trading, as TWS can take a long time to save settings) Years ago, when my TWS sessions had likely exhausted the memory available to them, the standard "Saving Sessions" action prior to shutdown would give up after a few minutes, w/o accomplishing a save. The next session would start w/ the most recently-saved session, ie not the one just exited from. That has not occured in several years, probably bc I've bumped up the TWS memory allocation config. Possibly relevant: One of the TWS configs is whether TWS saves settings on the IB server. If selection is NO, then your next session will load from the file saved on your local machine. If you don't save to the TWS server, and if the saved file on your local machine is not available, then you'll probably get an earlier save file from your machine, and if that does not exist, then you'll likely get the generic TWS default config. Note that TWS always saves sessions to your computer when you quit, what changes w/ sever-saved settings ON is that the next TWS startup loads the latest save from the IB server, regardless of what's on your local disk. Also note that the login window that appears when you first start up TWS has a config for where TWS should save and/or get your session -- wrong file spec here could be a problem ... AND note that the field for entering that spec may not be immediately visible on the login window -- if not, look on the login window for the instruction to see the more detailed login window. Finally, you can manually save individual charts -- you'll want to do that regularly if you make lots of chart annotations and don't want to lose them if TWS shuts down unintentionally, or fails to save the session on a quit session invocation. Again, using TWS is like a visit to a software time machine, you're always playing defense.
YOU, the trader with at least 100 hours looking at TWS Charts? pros? cons? what you use it for? thx! The learning curve seemed steep to me so, over the years, as crap would happen, i'd revert to tws chart app looking up just what i needed at the time, saving a few templates, whatnot. love the sharp graphics, It would be groovy to have a full fledged charting package on a smartphone. do not have the feeling that tws charting is full fledged, hope i'm wrong. what say you, mr tws 100+ hour chart looker-atter? thanks
If you need a cathedral to believe in God, then you want to become a Roman Catholic. If you believe in a God of everywhere and in everything, then a "plain" Quaker meeting house will do you just fine. TWS charting is for people who believe in their trades outside of the pretty pictures presented in a chart. "Plain" and simple.
One more suggested defense: To improve the odds that you lose as little as possible recent config and chart-work when TWS fails to save a session before is shuts down or is killed: Make it a habit to regularly use pauses in your trading to save both the entire session ("File/Save Settings" -- again: this saves both charts and configs) & individual charts to your local disk. The former can take a minute or two, depending on how much memory your session consumes, so of course allow for that. Eg., when you leave your trading space to get a cup of coffee, etc., get in the habit of doing the saves just before you leave.
TWS is underrated in my opinion. Things I like: Basket Trader Book Trader Charting Spreads ( IB calls them 'Virtual Securities') Hot Keys (Can pound keys to send orders, getflat, reverse, send brackets, etc) Cheap Data They pay interest on cash balances IBKR is a big FCM with a stock listing (~20b market cap) They don't deal in OTC SWAPS (less blowup risk) Can overlay 10 instruments on a chart More indicators and studies than almost any other software (even ones nobody has ever used) things I don't like: The charts have problems (data reloading constantly, can't do lots of charts, not smooth) Can't make custom studies and algorithms inside TWS (AFAIK) Commish is a little high for FUTS The margin policy is both good and bad Bottom line....even if I switch broker, they will still be useful to me.