Back, I am getting REALLY paranoid that everyone that opposes me on these threads is a closet vendor. I so dispise them that I overreact sometimes. I took your post as an attack. Please forgive me. nitro
J. The more I think about it, the more I think it would have to be done by the broker. Everything else just falls short. Defs and other ideas are probably good enough. You and I could foil these people by programing an identical copy of TWS and make it look like we were taking realtime trades, but I suspect that many vendors could not. But lemme sleep on it - I do not want to say no... nitro
I don't understand why it shouldn't be a 3rd party software. IB should care less really, and rather focus on the trading aspects of the software. Here's a solution: 1. install VNC or TightVNC - http://www.realvnc.com/ - http://www.tightvnc.com/ 2. check the advanced options - http://www.realvnc.com/winvnc.html 3. Disable AllowShutdown on windows machines, setup AuthHosts if applicable, InputsEnabled and Disable Remote Keyboard and Pointer. This solution works on most platforms like windows, linux - and maybe a Mac OS X port will come from the unix source. If someone would be faking this VNC server with their elite programming skills, then they are elite enough to fake any protocol, viewer feature that IB could come up with. Period. You can even make the VNC connections user+password enabled, as well as SSH-enabled etc. Read the FAQs. Not trusting your mentor will only get you short-changed anyway; and get some paranoia medication before it's too late. So, I don't see why you shouldn't be able to hook up, except if nitro is really an elite hacker and programmer. If you'd like 100+ viewers you need to use some broadcasting service anyway, like Shoutcast or other type of webcasting. That kind of mass service will normally run up some costs anyway. Recording the session, and having some "viewers" confirm the authenticy of the recording is a cheaper solution for mass distributing the sessions, although not live. Having some mass broadcasting service from within TWS is just ridiculous; and the same goes for any such hub-service for watching user-sessions from InteracteBrokers server parks as well. Even with IPv6 tunneling over IPv4 networks, or true IPv6 networks - it's so far fetched still with current bandwidths - caching problems etc. Recording into XVID/DIVX/MEPG-4 and having a select few watch live sessions is the only feasible way to go. Even then there will be a lot of glitches with the tickers changing at a blasting pace, and perhaps tick-charts racing away will make the viewing unbearable in some instances. True recording&playback with changes in marketdepth, time&sales etc, requires humongous amounts of data in itself. Detaching this kind of data from the trader's actions is also not possible, because of varying network and platform lags, and imperfect data sources - basically giving you no other way of knowing true data the trader was acting upon. You need it all, and then the recording movies is the best way - although "lossy" with regards to some details in the underlying data. If you have access to historical data, you can still replay for yourself with greater detail to underlying data.
Nitro has a given a suggestion for a certain kind of species (mentors, paid mentors). Paid/unpaid mentor is not the scope of this thread so I will try not to touch that issue. I being involved (past) in the implementation of a Trading Site/Data center can imagine the implications involved (legal and technical). IB is already offering so many account types (individual, F&F Advisor, Advisor, Institution, Brokerâ¦.). A simple solution that can be implement, IB need to do is add another account type: âMENTORâ. It can have a different fee structure and a separate server (handle the Multi casting, â¦.) as well as a peace of mind for others. One last piece of suggestion is that Paid mentors should be regulated and mandatory to publish their statements. SimSim
This industry makes me sick to my stomach.. Worry about your own trading, not when/how the neighbor next door is scratching his ass.. If people are determined to suck unsuspecting people into "chatroom schemes" and such, they will do WHATEVER it takes to overcome ANY barriers. Build a more sophisticated mousetrap, eventually the mice adapt and find a workaround. On one hand though, I have to think that this is a good idea. Maybe the nitty gritty technical implementation is a bit off, but hey, at least the community has been made aware, and has prompted a "lively" discussion. laterz, cwj
Personally, if I were to read a purported winner's trades in real-time in a chatroom, I wouldn't care if he trades them himself or not - as long as they win money. In fact, some analysts might do better with the added objectivity that can come from not having money on the line (at least not directly). The trades speak for themselves. A short-term track record can be gained from a simple time-stamped log of the chatroom - something provided by many such products. If a guy won't give me free access for a couple weeks, he's probably a fake anyway. I don't think I'd be any less or more convinced by seeing the trades go off in his software. If, OTOH, I wanted someone to trade my money instead of just give me trading calls, I'd want to see an audited brokerage statement, description of methodology, etc. Again, I don't think I'd want to just rely on remotely watching the trades on his screen. P.S. With some high-volume "contributors" here posting so much indecipherable noise, it's truly unbelievable that someone who takes the time to post a considered, (mostly ) literate idea is called "stupid". It must be nice to be so self-impressed as to be able to dismiss another's ideas so readily and completely.
I understand most sides of this story (yes there are more than 2), but I think the most important factor is this : If you don't trust the trader who you want to learn from is telling you the true, what the *** are you doing ???? So if you doubt this traders calls are for real, don't you think it's better to work on the trust factor first.....
Ifwe are talking about speeding up a learning curve, I think only sitting next to a real 'live' person can help. Perhaps it will work to playback the trading day after the session, but here in my office, most of the traders don't even know the exact reason for that time to take the trade. You would need to have the level II, TAS Squawk etc. to get the feeling for that moment.
NITRO Excellent Post!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is exactly what this industry needs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To IB Management Def and others that peruse this site: I have a very special request. There is alot of claims made on ET of profitable traders. There is an aweful lot of advice given on these forums by people that may or may not be traders, let alone profitable traders. My suggestions is that IB implement a way to allow any number of spectators to follow along on someone else's account. So the owner of the account would go to his/her account, and enable live spectating. To be clear, spectating means no permissions to do anything but watch an account, like orders being sent in, orders being cancelled, executions, P/L, etc. No executions or any other permissions allowed on the account. Now, anyone with a browser would log on to the mentors "spectating" account at Interactive Brokers, with a special password that was tied to an IP address, would be allowed to follow along in realtime. Notice the spectators are not loggin in to the mentors computer, but to Interactive Brokers "spectating servers." IB has lead the way in many ways in this industry. This would be a killer application to legitimate educators in this industry, and it would almost instantly kill off many of the impostors. In return for IBs effort and investment, it would give you (IB) two edges over your competitors: 1) No one else would have this technology 2) All the newbies would get initiated to IB by the mentor, giving IB a foot in the door for new accounts. I realize this is a dream, but IMO, it does not require a great deal of resources when weighed by the potential benefits. Thanks for your time. nitro
I went through this sequence before Y2K and eminis. I person contested some posts I made vis a vis trading. this person also took the liberty of asking an IB (introducing broker) of his choice to verify what I said once the broker where the trades took place sent to the IB the print. 30 some pages of stuff became involved. The chosen IB was not asked ahead of time by this person. for me it was an imposition on the IB and not very courteous. The consequences were appropriate for all parties as it turned out, however. This is, as riskarb says, a childish situation.