I presently trade futures using cable modem service with IB. I have no backup plan for trading in case of emergency, so I am curious as to what others would do in the following situations: You are long 7 contracts in an emini and one of the following occurs: 1)Your cable modem service fails losing connection to your IB trade account or 2)The IB servers go down but you still have cable service or 3)Your computer crashes(monitor fails,or hard drive fails) or 4)your lose power in your neighborhood for the rest of the day. What do you do immediately in each of the above scenarios?
Redundant Systems. Two Computers, Two separate connections, power back up, etc. If you can't afford it, then just have the trade desk number handy, and dump the position when and if it happens. An alternative, put your stop in with the trade desk and "forget about it"
IF you only have a few ES or one or two stock positions call the desk put a stop order go out have some fun give your broker a call at 3:45 and close your position out you may have your best day ever....
I now have a verizon broadband wireless modem for my laptop. That way I can connect even if power to the house is out. I also have UPSs on all trading computers and modems, as my primary recovery mechanism. Only about $60/mo, so pretty inexpensive insurance
A number of you suggested calling the trade desk and sell the position. This might work for conditions 1,3,and 4, but if the IB server goes down and everybody is trying to call at once, you will be out of luck. Several suggested a UPS backup. That's fine as long as it is large enough to handle not only the computer, but the monitor,and cable modem. I've ordered a large UPS so that should take care of condition 4. My wife has a computer in her room, so I guess I could set that up to connect to my IB account in case of condition 3. I'm still looking for a backup plan for conditions 1 and 2.
If IB is having problems such that you can't get through to them or they can't place trades then your only recourse is to have a backup brokerage account that you can place offsetting trades at (e.g. if you are long ES at IB you can go short ES at the backup brokerage)
I presently trade futures using cable modem service with IB. I have no backup plan for trading in case of emergency, so I am curious as to what others would do in the following situations: You are long 7 contracts in an emini and one of the following occurs: 1)Your cable modem service fails losing connection to your IB trade account I use my backup DSL service. 2)The IB servers go down but you still have cable service I repeatedly, try to reconnect while waiting on hold with IB and place a Hedge with my back up broker. 3)Your computer crashes(monitor fails,or hard drive fails) I use one of my other three computers. 4)your lose power in your neighborhood for the rest of the day. I get out my Yamaha portable gasoline powered back-up generator ($600.00 USD). What do you do immediately in each of the above scenarios? I have redundancy built into my trading room...also equipped with a landline and a cellphone..to backup the portable phones. I have the phone #'s written down on my hardcopy phone list directly to trading. I test these numbers occasionally just to make sure they work and have not changed. #2 in this scenario is the weak link.