TWS rapid-fire bracket orders?

Discussion in 'Interactive Brokers' started by yosuji198, Feb 19, 2021.

  1. yosuji198

    yosuji198

    Hi Community,
    I am looking to trade futures minute-by-minute using mostly bracket orders and I just can't seem to do it with TWS. There are hotkeys and default bracket order settings - but I need to be able to constantly adjust the stop price and take profit price.
    Meta Trader 4 has something decent as shown below where all options are in front of you all the time.
    [​IMG]

    Is there some way to do this with IB or do I have to look into Excel or Python API?

    Thanks!

    Obi
     
  2. TWS does not have this functionality "out of the box". The way how to create a bracket order in TWS is rather clunky, time-consuming, and it is easy to make mistakes. You would have to look whether there is any third party product that could do this. Or have to develop your own software, by using IB's API, that could do this.
     
  3. Bad_Badness

    Bad_Badness

    No Problem. Use the hot key "increase" or "decrease" the price by ticks. Select the order you want to change and press the key, one time or multiple times. You can setup multiple keys for different increments. It can be instantaneous or parked awaiting a "transmit" aka "update".

    I do it all the time. SOP.

    If you want to create an entirely new bracket, that is a bit harder since they can be put in, but the OCA key will not be set, so you would need to "clean up" the extra order once one fills. The OCA key can be set, to bind the brackets, in the API, but it is not worth the effort, imo.
     
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2021
  4. El_Cubano

    El_Cubano


    I do this to adjust orders quickly....you hotkey to put in your orders. Then you use tab key to switch between the orders on your chart....can be hard to see because the lines are thin and the highlight of the order is subtle, but its there....then I use ctrl+ up and down arrow keys to increment adjust the price of the order up and down by a penny. But you can customize the increment amount so it can jump by whatever amout you want. Then I use shift + up and down to adjust the position size by a certain amount if I want change the sizing.
     
  5. yosuji198

    yosuji198

    How do you use a hotkey to put in orders? I have created hotkeys in TWS - but they don't actually do anything. If I press the hotkey buttons on the keyboard nothing happens. Is there some trick to it? I just want to - for example, create a buy order with a trailing stop with a shortcut key as shown below.
    upload_2021-2-22_15-57-25.png
     
  6. Bad_Badness

    Bad_Badness

    You have to have the right window active, usually a chart or a quote monitor.
     
  7. yosuji198

    yosuji198

    Well my TWS must be broken because it doesn't work in any window. The Ctrl+H to show hotkeys does work in the chart window - but my custom hotkeys don't work anywhere
     
  8. maxinger

    maxinger

    I doubt there is this ONE-CLICK function where you can enter the order in
    less than 0.1 second.

    If the market is moving very fast, IB is not a good platform for day traders.
     
  9. yosuji198

    yosuji198

    You are right my custom hotkeys only work on the Watchlist window, not the chart or order entry or any other windows.
    Thanks for helping!
     
  10. yosuji198

    yosuji198

    OK i'm still wresting with TWS here. I've got the hotkey working and it submits an order when pressed - but it won't auto transmit my stop loss? How does that make sense? The stop loss is part of the trade as defined in the shortcut
    upload_2021-2-22_22-8-58.png
     
    #10     Feb 22, 2021