Been Trading Using Interactive Brokers Charting...need to Change! HELP! Ninja?

[radante 10]

Hi guys,

 

I've been trying to trade off technical indicators that come with Interactive Brokers platform and have found that I'm at a distinct disadvantage. The system always crashes and they are missing key tools like VWAP.

 

So, I need a new platform. One that is speedy, integrates with IB and comes with all the indicators I need to implement Jperl's approach.

 

Any advice?

[brownsfan019 17]

If trading futures, demo Open ECry's software. You can get 2 weeks to kick it around. While VWAP is not preloaded, this post on the forum has the code to easily do it! Gotta love that!

[BlowFish 10]

Ninja & Multicharts both integrate well with IB.

 

Both support VWAP SD's & PVP. The former through EasyLanguage (its pretty much fully compatible) The latter through NinjaScript.

 

Ediit: Oh and Amibroker links directly to IB & Head2k did great work on the indicators (used the former two for Jerrys stuff not Ami)

Edited February 19, 2009 by BlowFish

[Kiwi 16]

My pick. Interactive Brokers with Sierra Chart.

 

Works really well. If I was big on the Dom I'd go with Ninja for entry (although SC has a dom, Ray's is prettier) but I finally decided last year that I the fakeouts outweighed the valid info I was getting from it. Less info flicking back and forth = less stress. Goodbye Ninja dom and goodbye SC dom. 6 months later I can happily confirm it was good riddance.

 

Anyway, Sierra Chart as front end and just enter/bracket/exit on the chart

[Mavrik00 10]

Ouch...stay away from IB, they are a HUGE comapny with lots of thigns going on that will only drag the average trader down.

 

IB has to be one of the most difficult brokers i have ever funded and account and traded daily with....what a mess they were.

 

My best solution: Ninja Trader w/ Zen Fire Futures Data, and open an account with Mirus and RCG.

 

No more mess like IB, just trading the way it was meant to be.

 

Call Sean at Mirus futures, they will take care of you.

[momentom 10]

This post doesn't really say anything about IB except that you don't likr them for some reason. It would be real helpful to get some facts that say something.

 

On the other hand, in 5 years I have found IB to be problem free although inflexible which is no bad thing. Their margins are happily high too.

[StrangeTastingFishSticks 10]

For those who use IB for data, how do you find IB's RT data for charting the currencies, stocks, and ES? Is it accurate or no, and is it up to speed or is there lag? I am thinking of connecting it through Amibroker and saving some money, but I don't want to if the data isn't tradeable. I don't need tick data, but it has to be accurate. Thanks

[lordbinder 11]

when you compare with zenfire (take a trial and watch for yourself) you get pale and say WTF, IB seems in futures at least as if there were less trades on their datafeed. Now I trade stocks and options on IB and futures on mirus

[Bobb999 10]

But Intreractive Brokers DOES offer VWAP data, that comes free with an IB brokerage account. Although you can't plot the Brian Shannon version of VWAP on a line on a chart with IB the way he shows on his charts, you can access the exact same VWAP data he uses. You can call up the current daily VWAP value at any given time of the trading data.

 

I posted a piece describing exactly how to access daily VWAP, 2-day and 3-day VWAP, etc. data, using Interactive Brokers' charting system, as a blog post: http://vwapfreeforstocktraders.blogspot.com/

 

LIBERATE, and SPREAD the VWAP!

[BlowFish 10]

For those who use IB for data, how do you find IB's RT data for charting the currencies, stocks, and ES? Is it accurate or no, and is it up to speed or is there lag? I am thinking of connecting it through Amibroker and saving some money, but I don't want to if the data isn't tradeable. I don't need tick data, but it has to be accurate. Thanks

 

They aggregate ticks as you probably know. If you don't need tick charts or sub 200ms charts (there aggregation period, unless it changed) they are fine for accuracy timeliness and completeness of traded volume. Back fill is slow if you need historical data.

 

There is no better for the breadth of traded instruments available. Of course if you only trade a couple of exchanges that wont bother you.

[Bobb999 10]

I'll concur that IB's data feed and trade execution has no lag that I'm aware of. Their platform is pretty dependable.

I'm not sure of their exact ceiling on the number of real time charts you can have open simultaneously at IB, but it's probably about 50. I had over 40 IB charts open today.

 

You can reach a point where you try to open another chart and IB will give you a message saying you already have the maximum number of windows open, and that you'll need to close one or more before you can open a new chart. Rarely do I have problems with charts not updating or not working properly. Occasionally, at the start of the trading day, after 9:30AM, it can take a few minutes before charts start updating properly. But this is not a typical occurrence.

 

I used to have constant problems with IB's charts and platform taking forever to load, and freezing up on me. And I was unable to have more than about 8 charts open and functioning at once, at the best of times -- but it turned out this was NOT the fault of IB. The culprit was my outdated, slow old Dell pc with insufficient RAM! Since I upgraded to a new pc last year, IB's platform works beautifully.