FWIW, I was slamming one-click equity scalps years ago without issue. For the last 5-6 years, it's been one-click option moves -- mostly index. It's been so long since I modified anything, I don't even remember how to do it. (Which may be the passage of time, or may be the passage of something else entirely. )
This is why I've been with IB for over 20 years. Although the commission rates are competitive I have been offered option rates that are half of what I pay at IB from two reputable firms (not a zero commission broker). And that would equate to 6 figures of savings for me. All the other positive things you mentioned does not equate to this. I have been patiently waiting for them to either lower rates or to allow active customers to negotiate a lower rate. I'm loyal to them and in particular to tp. These people change my life and I will never forget this. However at some point this savings will be too much for me to ignore.
Yeah you can do that. It is a little cumbersome to set up, but sure you can set a hotkey for a particular number of shares, a particular type order, say limit, a particular entry, for instance buy at ask, or ask-1, or bid+1 or mid, and bracket orders as well, with type and initial price. You can also set it to transmit instantly if you want. So for instance to buy limit on the Ask, 100 shares, stop loss market sell order at parent order - 1%, profit target sell limit at parent order +3%, transmit and execute, I can simply press Ctrl 1. Bam. Done. Instant gratification. Then I move my generic stop loss to exactly where I want it, and my profit target maybe I move it clear out of the way. Maybe I set it a few cents below a level of resistance. Once the stock is well clear of the break even point, I can manually move my stop up just above break even to lock the trade into profitability. I wish I could set a hotkey for that, actually. You can also of course set hotkeys for transmit, (in case you don't want automatic transmit) cancel, or close position. Can't set a hotkey for scaling out of a position, though. You can scale out but you have to use the main menu. But you can easily close a position with a hotkey. Short entries the same way as long. The only real hassle is that TWS does not use a hotkey file. The hotkeys are buried in settings. And you have to set them for both live and paper trading, separately.
Wow, that's impressive. You can do all that with one hotkey? I take back my comment about rapid fire day trading.
OK, I'm definitely not a power user as you noted before, but what do you see as the shortcomings? It seems pretty good for futures, once you get used to it.
Can people please stop bitching about Java and Windows. TWS Runs on Java, Java is compiled into bytecode and the JVM runs it on your platform of choice (linux, windows, mac, ..) If you click on something in TWS and it goes slow, then this has NOTHING to do with Java, but only with the programmer writing shitty Java code, just as this developer could write shitty C++ code. What Java does with it's JiT compiling is that the first time you execute a function things could run slow. But the second time it's not. In Algoland many C++ programs are getting re-written in Java, - I have firsthand experience in this in Chicago and NYC - why? Because optimized Java code is as fast as C++ code and it's easier to program and to maintain with more devs available. If I going to hear one more thing about 'Garbage Collecting in Java is bad and that's why TWS sucks' I'm going to cry myself to sleep later tonight. Thank you.
Agree, the hot-keys can be quite powerful and I think pretty easy to set up. Back in the day I was a power user at certain times - particularly when it came to manually hedging warrants on the close in HK which settle over the last minute of trading. I was able to bang out orders and change price and size blindly with speed and ease. I emulated a number of unix short-cuts and guess muscle memory took over. As I'm pretty much only trading my PA these days, I don't need them but still use a few set up ages ago (price and size) out of habit. https://www.interactivebrokers.com/...e.htm#usersguidebook/configuretws/hotkeys.htm
It's Java. All the apps I use that suck on memory use and startup are java (tws, pycharm, jdownloader). I still use them but ... I was primarily an IB customer for 10+ years and do wish they'd fix the data but the move to IB Australia bought reduced function and service so now I'm an AMP/CQG customer & loving it. Regarding Linux I've used Sierra Chart with wine to give TWS decent responsive charting. Now I get it free from AMP; and CQG data and speed is what I always hoped IB would be.
Like what? How is it that IB is consistently rated one of the best platforms for day trading? I'm not arguing for or against it, I'm just curious. I've never used IB, but I was thinking of switching to it. I currently use Fidelity, and they're god-awful for day trading which is what I'm trying to get into.