I need some help understanding the Interactive Brokers system. If there is anyone out re who is familiar with the Interative Broker system and would be willing to discuss it with me please respond. Here is the situation: Over the past several days I've been trying to short stock if it falls to a pre-determined price. I've also tried to buy stock if it rises to a pre-determined price level. On paper, I'm a millionare. In reality, I'm getting my butt kicked. The problem is in the execution which I don't believe is IB's fault. I think it's the way I've been placing the orders. An example: XYZ is trading at 9.50. I put in a buy stop at 10.00.XYZ hits $10.00. hits 10.20 at which point I no longer want it because most of my profit has been squeezed out by then. Same thing happens when I sell stop XYZ on the downside. Perhaps someone can give me specific instructions. I've read the manual as well as the additional descriptions they give on their web site and I'm still unclear. Here is what I would like to be able to do. Again using XYZ: I want to put in a buy order which automaticaly becomes active when XYZ rises from 9.50 to 10.00. But, I don't want that buy order to execute if XYZ can'/t be purchased between 10.00 and 10.05. If the buy order is executed between 10.00 and 10.05, I want to automatically sell xyz when it hits 10.30 on the upside and to protect myself on the downside, I want to automatically sell XYZ at 9.70 if it goes against me. I would also like to be able to do the same thing when shorting stock. Could anyone give me some help understanding how this might be achieved? I've read their manual at: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/html/manuals/java_tws_manual.html and also the specific instructions at: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/html/tws/order_types2.html
Using your example you would want to place a buy stop limit order for XYZ. The stop election price would be $10.00 and the limit would be $10.05. Once XYZ traded at $10 or above your order would become a live limit order to buy however you may or may not get filled as the market may quickly move above you. Read the manual further for instructions regarding the placement of stop orders and OCA orders (which would be two orders, a sell stop and a limit sell working at once).
There is a great deal of info (and a lot of historical IB Q&A)shared by IB users at the following website. http://www.siliconinvestor.com/stocktalk/subject.gsp?subjectid=32122 Also, I suggest you visit the MICR chat room for IB users, on trading days. Some of the most knowledgeable (and helpfull) IB users are there. You can find the MICR access info at the above address as well.