IB TWS setup

[jack 4]

Kim, I would love to see your TWS setup (which windows, which tools, positions) and the settings options...

Is there a thread where this was already discussed?

 

Could you post screenshot of your TWS.

 

I tried matching my trades window layout with yours (the one you post in trades section), but cant quite get there... Could you post a screenshot of your settings?

 

Also - if others have any good idea what is the best organization of windows, it would be great to see... Are you using multiple monitors?

 

How do you trade when being away from desktop? (do you use mobileTWS)?

 

thanks,

Jaka

Edited September 29, 2015 by jack

[Kim 7,943]

I don't really have any special setup. I just create few quote pages, organized by strategies. I don't use mobile TWS.  

[indiana*josh 59]

I find mobileTWS cumbersome to use, so I only use it when I have no other choice to place a trade.  It seems like it would be almost impossible to rely on it as a primary way of trading.

 

I would like to know if and how others here use the OptionTrader tool.  I've used it a few times, but it seemed like I was always having to go back and forth between that and the main quote monitor screen, so now I mostly just use the latter.

 

I do use multiple monitors - one for trading, and two more for my real job. 

[BobS 14]

I find both TWS and mobile TWS cumbersome as well. I use to use TOS, which I think is easier to use than IB, but I find placing trading there was just too expensive. My TWS has four screens (standard), left hand top corner is the trade screen, right top is monitor of my account, bottom right is activity for the day, left bottom corner, news. I have used TWS mobile but only when I have to. Again, a lot more difficult then TOS mobile.

 

IB TWS has a lot of information in it, but again it is not easy yo use. Therefore, I am now using OptionNet Explorer to interface with IB. Kim held a webinar on it and it was recorded for anyone who has not seen it. It is not free ($700 for a year) but I think it is money well spent if you decide to make trading a serious part of your everyday life. It is an extremely simple tool where you can model your trades in and then send them directly to IB to be filled. All the Risk Profiles you see from Kim are from OptionNet Explorer. Yesterday, I had one glitch with it when I tried to send over the VIX trade and support uploaded my log files to understand the problem (they are very responsive). However, every other trade I have sent directly over has gone right thru. Simple interface which makes it almost impossible to make mistakes unlike what I have experienced working in IB. It also has great tools to report performance and you can easily do back testing. 

[samico 8]

Ib mobile works fine for me. I trade solely by it. Just a matter of being used to. I SEcond what has been said about opttionnetexplorer. ITs great really. Just my two cents.

 

[]s Samico

[jack 4]

I find both TWS and mobile TWS cumbersome as well. I use to use TOS, which I think is easier to use than IB, but I find placing trading there was just too expensive. My TWS has four screens (standard), left hand top corner is the trade screen, right top is monitor of my account, bottom right is activity for the day, left bottom corner, news. I have used TWS mobile but only when I have to. Again, a lot more difficult then TOS mobile.

 

IB TWS has a lot of information in it, but again it is not easy yo use. Therefore, I am now using OptionNet Explorer to interface with IB. Kim held a webinar on it and it was recorded for anyone who has not seen it. It is not free ($700 for a year) but I think it is money well spent if you decide to make trading a serious part of your everyday life. It is an extremely simple tool where you can model your trades in and then send them directly to IB to be filled. All the Risk Profiles you see from Kim are from OptionNet Explorer. Yesterday, I had one glitch with it when I tried to send over the VIX trade and support uploaded my log files to understand the problem (they are very responsive). However, every other trade I have sent directly over has gone right thru. Simple interface which makes it almost impossible to make mistakes unlike what I have experienced working in IB. It also has great tools to report performance and you can easily do back testing. 

 

Hey. thanks for response. I am trialing the ONE too, but did not yet used it to make a trade to IB... How is with setting the limit price? How are you then adjusting the existing trades? From ONE too?

[jack 4]

Ib mobile works fine for me. I trade solely by it. Just a matter of being used to. I SEcond what has been said about opttionnetexplorer. ITs great really. Just my two cents.

 

[]s Samico

 

Hmm... how do you close combined options? because as far as I tested twsmobile(and even talked with helpdesk), TWSmobile displays all combos as separate legs... to i think it is really difficult and risky to close combined options, as each leg might be not executed at limited price etc... also takes a lot more time, and leaves me open to fluctuations in underlying price...  maybe for extreme situations only yes, but i dont see twsmobile as it is today as useful tool for daily use.

[4REAL 110]

I don't really have any special setup. I just create few quote pages, organized by strategies. I don't use mobile TWS.

Hi Kim,

How do you track/ follow the bulk ? I mean in TWS OptionTrader the number of stocks you can track/ follow

is rather limited (to 15).

Do you track the bulk rather in ONE ?

[meshka 2]

Hi Kim,

How do you track/ follow the bulk ? I mean in TWS OptionTrader the number of stocks you can track/ follow

is rather limited (to 15).

Do you track the bulk rather in ONE ?

 

Hey thanks for posting this. Do you use TOS for the OptionNet Explorer live feed or IB?

 

 

KAS

[BobS 14]

Hey. thanks for response. I am trialing the ONE too, but did not yet used it to make a trade to IB... How is with setting the limit price? How are you then adjusting the existing trades? From ONE too?

You will first need to set-up an account in ONE and configure it to align with either IB or TOS using your account number from either one (not sure if they any other interfaces, that will need to be looked into) You pick the underlying that you want to trade and enter it and it will pull the option chain from IB or TOS. There are two columns; model and Pos (position). You enter the number of contracts in the model column at the strike price and option contract date and then clink on a button called "commit trade" and it will then provide you with the ability to save it or execute it to the broker, what the midpoint price and if you want to change it, if it is a debit or credit, the profit and the loss target you want and the name you want to give the trade. Once you save it or execute it, the number of contracts move from the model column to pos column. The nice thing here you can model any trade and follow it without executing it and if you decide to change anything you go into the trade and in the model column enter offsetting contracts and the risk profile will automatically reflect the adjustments compared to the original trade. So to answer your questions; you can set pricing, adjust in ONE and then execute it from ONE. The free trial is great and I believe it is for 30 days; plenty of time to get your feet wet and ask their support questions. They will answer almost immediately via chat. or worse case get back to you the nest business day. As you can see, I like it a lot and I am not being paid to say it...

[meshka 2]

Thanks for this walk through. I'm still stuck on getting optionNet and the  IB api to talk to each other. I'm on windows 8.1. I've looked at a few of the tutorials on Option Net and IB regarding this.

 

I have a paid subscription to OptionNet and I have an account with IB.

 

Questions :

 

1. I saw the area where an account number can be added to the OptionNet settings but see no mention of this in any of the how to's on OptionNet's site.

will it work without an account number? Where did you read about adding an account number?

 

2. Are you using the stand alone version of TWS?

 

3. Did you ever get the API 9.7.1 must be installed when you tried to set this up? If so can u point me to the documents or help desk that you used?

 

 

Thanks

[Kim 7,943]

ONE has an excellent support. Very responsive and professional. Each time I had a question or an issue I was very impressed by their response.

[meshka 2]

Thanks Kim I'll hit them up today.  

[BobS 14]

Thanks for this walk through. I'm still stuck on getting optionNet and the  IB api to talk to each other. I'm on windows 8.1. I've looked at a few of the tutorials on Option Net and IB regarding this.

 

I have a paid subscription to OptionNet and I have an account with IB.

 

Questions :

 

1. I saw the area where an account number can be added to the OptionNet settings but see no mention of this in any of the how to's on OptionNet's site.

will it work without an account number? Where did you read about adding an account number?

 

2. Are you using the stand alone version of TWS?

 

3. Did you ever get the API 9.7.1 must be installed when you tried to set this up? If so can u point me to the documents or help desk that you used?

 

 

Thanks

Meshka,

 

First to Kim's point, I have worked with OptionNet support (Nicholas) on numerous occasions and he is great. I go to OptionNet support after I sign in and then set-up a chat...he is very responsive. A few things I have learned; I am running 1.27.8 beta version dated 8/1/15 (it appears to be the latest); you need to make sure you are signed into TWS before signing into OptionNET ( cannot transmit until that is done and sometimes does not work if you get into OptionNet first); you need to make sure your account set-up is correct (account number, host address and port; support can walk you thru this); if that is all right then you should be all set to interact with IB and send trades. The only issue I have is with a VIX trade (I currently have ticket in with them). I was able to enter and transmit the VIX November call calendar to IB but when I tried to close it, it did not show up in IB after transmitting it from OptionNET. Not sure about the API and where to find what we are using so please share it when and if you find out.

[meshka 2]

Bob, thanks so much for your input, please keep us posted on your VIX issue.

I too was helped by Nicholas in a very timely manner via email. Great customer service, all I had to do was ask : ) All systems go !!

In case anyone else is having problems getting the API to connect 'll list what I ran into and what Nicholas advised me to do to resolve it.

I turned on the API settings in TWS via this how-to from OptionNet: http://support.optionnetexplorer.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/41

 

But I was still getting an API connection error.

 

Nicholas had me do the following test - 

 

Client3 Test:

1. Open TWS 
2. Open API Test program Client3 from directory C:\TWS API\samples\TestActiveX_VC\Release
3. Select connect and press ok within the Client3 test program.
4. Then select Req Contract Data
5. Within the contract description change Symbol to IBM (uppercase)
6. Type to OPT (uppercase) and press enter

Within the TWS Server Response a completed request will be displayed as: 

ID=****==========END========= 

 

 

I could never do this connection test because I got a  "side by side ..." error message so he sent me this link , which had steps to resolve the "side by side" error message.

 

Once i did this I was able to run the Client3 program and thus view my active API connection. Once I fired up TW and IB data was getting to OptionNet everything worked fine.

 

Side note - I was a bit confused about the different flavors of TWS the stand alone downloaded version and the version that get's launched from the website.

I'll reach out to Nicholas but I think that one must use the standalone down loaded version to use the API is this correct? 

 

Hope this helps. Thanks.

[meshka 2]

Juts tested it - Looks like both versions the standalone and the java applet based TWS can be used to connect to the data feed. 

Edited October 10, 2015 by meshka

[BobS 14]

Meshka, I use the downloaded version BUT in talking to IB support they suggested I use the beta version. Big mistake (beta means exactly that), the software updates everyday and the Friday version appeared to have a bug and would not allow me to trade. Deleted it and downloaded the latest TWS and the API appears to work fine. So the VIX issue maybe only associated with the beta version but will keep you updated.

[4REAL 110]

Meshka, I use the downloaded version BUT in talking to IB support they suggested I use the beta version. Big mistake (beta means exactly that), the software updates everyday and the Friday version appeared to have a bug and would not allow me to trade. Deleted it and downloaded the latest TWS and the API appears to work fine. So the VIX issue maybe only associated with the beta version but will keep you updated.

I had same issue Friday, in the morning could not enter new trades, very annoying !

b/c IB advised me so, I used the beta version since a week or so.

Friday the suggested I should use the "lastest" version.

[Thinkola 13]

Hi, experienced IB users!

 

Suddenly today my "account - portfolio" shows profits and loss separately for each leg, but I want to go back to where the combo was shown (regarding both entrance prices, market prices and profits/loss).

 

Anyone that knows what can have happened and how to go back to former "setting"? (I believe it must be some short-cut keyboard combination or me misclicking somewhere that has made the change).

 

Thank you very much for helping! :-)