I am in the process of moving from Scottrade to IB. So far the only platform I have decided on is buttontrader. Can anyone offer suggestions of any other products that I should get? I'm considering tradeideas but I think I will also need charting and perhaps news. Thanks in advance
Get Medved QuoteTracker: http://www.quotetracker.com/ Setup instructions for IB are at http://www.quotetracker.com/help/ib.shtml QuoteTracker integrates with IB (as well as many others). Provides you with quotes, charts, T&S, news, alerts, integrated trading, and if you are so incined - an API for writing your own stuff without having to deal with the nuances of the various broker and data vendor APIs. QuoteTracker can be used for free or registered ($60 per year) which increases max # of days on intraday charts from 2 to 10, historical from 6 month to unlimited and gets rid of the ads You will find that quite a few people here use our product with IB and other brokers (Even with Scottrade). Jerry Medved http://www.quotetracker.com
I would be careful if you are going to use IB, for if anything goes wrong (and things always do) with IB they are always your fault
Yes, I have heard that the customer service is lacking with IB. In fact I put it to the test today. I signed up yesterday. I called today to ask about funding. When you call in you get two choices. If you have an account you are routed one direction. If you are inquiring about an account you are routed another. Well, I selected the inquiring route. The call was answered within one minute. Later today when I got my account number I had another question so I called again. This time I selected the existing client option. 10 minutes on hold and I hung up. Called back and selected the new account inquiry option. Answered again within one minute. He did answer my question but I did begin to feel that warning light going off in my head. On the other hand, I place, what I think are a lot of trades. 25 or more a day. With Scottrade that can really add up. Using IB will cut that number in half at least. For that price, I will exercize patience and also look elsewhere for help where possible. I weighed the tradeoff and seems fair
As of today, I have decided on buttontrader, tradeideas and maybe ibcharts. Any other suggestions would be appreciated. Buttontrader will be the front end but I am still open to any other suggestions.
IB + Ensign + Zero Line Trader (BT is good too but I'm cheap). IB is the shizzzzznit don't listen to these chumps. In this game you always have to have a back up for the back up. Shit happens be ready for it.
i gotta put a word in for quotetracker. imo, it is great. and i have never used a product where the product designer gets right back to you when you have email questions or suggestions. the charts are great, the service is great, and the price can't be beat. and new features come out all the time
It might help you to know, that when you take a 3rd Party Frontend as your trading tool (like ButtonTrader), that you then can (and it is even better to) use the support of the 3rd party instead (or aswell).... Asking questions and reporting problems to ButtonTrader and QT support will help you MUCH better and faster than when using IB-support (solely).
Ive been using IB for five years now and Ive never had to call them but once to close out a trade back when I was working so I dont know what their support is like. I had no trouble closing out a trade by phone. I am using Quotetracker and Buttontrader. Over the years they have risen above the crowd, in my eyes.