TWS and intelligent prg should never be in the same sentence! LOL Yes it is very annoying so I load TWS the night before and then "hibernate" my laptop.
What's with the volume indicator? As each bar on the chart is building, its accompanying volume bar goes up, then back down, then back up, then WAAAY up, then all the way back down.... Then the next bar prints, and the prior bar's volume changes to a completely different value.
as i said very long time ago my request for market data via API returns -1 for previous day closing price at the first, intial request. i have to subscribe for a market data TWICE for each ticker to get that damn number.
Regarding loading and focus during execution/login, I use a program called TWSStart. It manages the login process fairly well. It does automatically log you in, so if you are paranoid about this then you should either stay away or monitor your connectivity to assure yourself nothing goes out (my router handles this for me easily). TWSStart performs a unique and valuable service if you are trading fully automated and wish to use the IB Gateway (over TWS) to improve latency. TWSStart can log you into IBG and relabel the program window to "trick" certain software into believing you are logged into TWS (esp NinjaTrader which has a wholly free trading desktop which you can use to explore the market while your Automated Trading is relying on the faster IBG).
Currently, TWS IB risk navigator is not able to add spot forex tickers for risk analysis; stocks & futures tickers worked normally though. Already informed customer service through live chat during standalone version 946 release. Unfortunately till now with 948, this bug remains. Another recent bug discovered was analysing CFD in risk navigator. One is not able to use CFD ticker with custom scenario to analyse the resulting P&L. However it's not a big issue here as one could replace CFD ticker with the underlying stock ticker to analyse the resulted P&L in the custom scenario. Hope IB get this fix soon.
Both, I usually let tws finish loading before asking excel or Quotetracker since both feed off tws. But I've never noticed any focus issue that would prevent simultaneous loading.
Had a good laugh today when I deleted my Portfolio page--didn't even know you could do that. I had to call them to figure out how to get it back. Now there's a good way to avoid looking at your P&L....
Updated with the latest standalone TWS for windows (build 948.2a, Dec 9) today & had further bugs with risk navigator; was not able to launch risk nav window after update. Latest web TWS (build 948.2, Dec 15) is able to launch Risk navigator though. However the above mentioned bug of not being able to add spot forex tickers into risk nav is still not fix. Rather disappointed with the developers of IB, simple platform yet filled with bugs for the most basic functions..