Interactive Brokers

[sudris]

If in few months our local brokers start giving facilities like trading from chart....then we can always close this account....but this feature of Chart Trader is definately worth opening an account for few months. TWS and chart trader is definately superior to anything available to us as of now.

We are traders ....if we find someone else giving more attractive terms with better trading tools...we will switch as soon as possible......but till that is available we may as well use these facilities.

ST

thanks ST for enlightening all of us here about the pros and cons of IB.

regarding the closure of account, I'm sure they might have some stringent policies for it too.

 

[DataRam]

Quite simple actually. This has come out of necessity. I have in past suffered some major losses when my position was kept open due to power failure, computer hanging,Internet disconnection , broker's phone lines being busy etc. As I daytrade and many times keep my positions open for covering till 3:25-3:30 ,as we get best rates in this period, it becomes all the more necessary to have a back up system in pace. I have a fully loaded computer with all programmes on it so if computer develops problems, the spare machine can be put in without wasting time to rectify the defective machine.

But imagine at 3:26 the computer hangs or internet connection goes off and suppose for example we have a 100 Bank Nifty short position open there is no time to log in the spare machine, .....I have another machine running with different broker's terminal and separate internet connection. So if the main terminal fails, we can buy 100 BNF on the second machine with different broker. So at EOD you will have 100 long in one account and 100 short in the main account. We have taken care of prices going against us, opening gap against us etc....so next day you put the opposite orders when both terminals working fine and market is stable. It involves double brokerage but it is much safer than keeping the position open.Both computers failing simultanously is very rare.....

This arrangement gives tremendous comfort level particularly near the market closing time. The trade off is double expences of internet etc and double margins....

Smart_trade

I must say that your's is a very intelligent approach regarding risk management. This is true to the core that proficient risk management is the main attribute of a seasoned trader.

Thanks for replying & sharing. :clapping:

 

[ragsid]

@ST, I am thinking of getting IB account opened. Just like you said for me also entering order is key, well its true for anybody Only thing is they do not seem to have a mobile platform for India yet, else actually 2 PC is not required, you could use your mobile as your alternate solution for entering order at nth moment.

I guess you would be actively using IB TWS now, would like to know:

1. Your feedback overall with IB India guys here,
2. TWS as a platform itself and if you are using TWS with Amibroker or something like that, how is that integration?
3. How is charting in TWS? How many days hourly chart can you view? If this is decent enough, I need not buy RT data? Can you get the RT data from TWS to Amibroker?
4. Importantly, I think you mentioned they have bracket orders in one of the post here, apart of the multitude of other order types (I did check their webinars on this, I was very impressed and as you said it will take 5-6 years easily....)
5. I think I did see they have GTC orders also, I can place such orders when exchange is closed, lets say I want to buy a stock when it dips on intraday basis tomorrow or in few days (for a swing) or build a position or have SL for my existing position placed after market hours as GTC orders?

Cheers!

 

[Smart_trade]

@ST, I am thinking of getting IB account opened. Just like you said for me also entering order is key, well its true for anybody Only thing is they do not seem to have a mobile platform for India yet, else actually 2 PC is not required, you could use your mobile as your alternate solution for entering order at nth moment.

I guess you would be actively using IB TWS now, would like to know:

1. Your feedback overall with IB India guys here,
2. TWS as a platform itself and if you are using TWS with Amibroker or something like that, how is that integration?
3. How is charting in TWS? How many days hourly chart can you view? If this is decent enough, I need not buy RT data? Can you get the RT data from TWS to Amibroker?
4. Importantly, I think you mentioned they have bracket orders in one of the post here, apart of the multitude of other order types (I did check their webinars on this, I was very impressed and as you said it will take 5-6 years easily....)
5. I think I did see they have GTC orders also, I can place such orders when exchange is closed, lets say I want to buy a stock when it dips on intraday basis tomorrow or in few days (for a swing) or build a position or have SL for my existing position placed after market hours as GTC orders?

Cheers!

Hi ragsid,

I am giving the answers to your questions in the same serial order below :

1) I find IB India guys pretty helpful. They are bit rigid at the time of opening the account and compliance ...but once account is opened, it is smooth.

2) TWS platform is very good, they have now introduced a new version, but I have still not downloaded. The current version is sufficiently advanced, it is good enough for my trading needs. It has many sub platforms such as Advanced Trader, Chart Trader etc. I mostly use chart trader where I keep looking at charts and can put in the order from the chart itself.

I am using Chart Trader as a stand alone utility and not tried to integrate TWS and Amibroker.

3) The charts are very good, I have tried charts upto one week only.....the charts have all basic studies like SMA,EMA,RSI,MACD, Bollinger Bands.....etc but they the choice is not as wide as what Amibroker has. I have stopped using Amibroker for daytrading. But still I update Ami with IEOD data for my EOD analysis. I have not tried to fill TWS data into Amibroker. It is better to fill Ami with IEOD data, as many inexpensive options are available. I find Chart Trader of IB for daytrading and Ami for EOD analysis as a better combination.Ami has many more utilities, AFL, bar by bar etc But as I am not a AFL trader, chart trader suits me fine. A small example is I wanted to draw a 50 SMA lines bands from taking highs of 50 bars and lows of 50 bars as inputs (ie 2 separate SMA lines ), but it cannot be done in IB charts as they have close and midpoint as inputs.....The charts updation is very good much better than what I was getting from my data vendor for Ami real time data.

4) and 5) I have not yet experimented with all order types. Even the bracket orders I have still not executed. As I am sitting in front of the terminal all day , never thought of putting bracketed order. I will try these various order types and let you know next week.

Overall I am pretty happy as it gives me all that I need.Backoffice, windows of orders, trades, open positions etc are very user friendly. The TWS displays our net position in each scrip and our M to M continuously in real time ( so no excuse for taking a big loss and saying I did not realise I am loosing that much )

Happy Trading,

Smart_trade

 

[ragsid]

@ST, thanks for responding to my queries. This definitely helps.

I currently do the same, have an RT data base and an IEOD DB + EOD DB. After market hours, I just use the IEOD DB and EOD DB for scans and analysis. RT DB is only during market hours. I think with this I can continue to get the IEOD data into Ami for scans and analysis.

As I cant be in front of PC all the time, I always wanted to have bracket orders with GTC as it makes analysis simple for positional trades, and no extra load for the mind during market hours. Also, I think they have some kinda Trailing SL order which could be helpful as well.

It would be great if you could check and tell:

1. If you could place bracket orders as GTC (and after market hours)
2. How many days of intraday data (5, 15 mins, 1 hour) you can see on the chart and EOD data (I remember it as 5 years from one of the webinars).

Appreciate your help again.

Cheers!

 

[ragsid]

@ST, I am almost there and convinced to open (though IB is expensive compared to discount brokers that we see around like RKG, RKSV, Zerodha) for their features, which I feel would be useful as I cannot be in front of PC all the time. Would be great if you could tell (as you might've had some decent time now trading using IB):

1. How is your experience with IB (though you could've had/used other brokers/terminals and for less brokerage also) viz-a-viz other terminals? and service so far?
2. Did you try with importing/getting RT data in Amibroker through IB plugin?
3. How many days of intraday data (5, 15 mins, 1 hour) you can see on the chart and EOD data (I remember it as 5 years from one of the webinars).

Thanks in advance.

 

[Smart_trade]

@ST, I am almost there and convinced to open (though IB is expensive compared to discount brokers that we see around like RKG, RKSV, Zerodha) for their features, which I feel would be useful as I cannot be in front of PC all the time. Would be great if you could tell (as you might've had some decent time now trading using IB):

1. How is your experience with IB (though you could've had/used other brokers/terminals and for less brokerage also) viz-a-viz other terminals? and service so far?
2. Did you try with importing/getting RT data in Amibroker through IB plugin?
3. How many days of intraday data (5, 15 mins, 1 hour) you can see on the chart and EOD data (I remember it as 5 years from one of the webinars).

Thanks in advance.

My observations are as under :

1) IB is good, it never hangs, it sometimes looses contact with data but gets refreshed in just a few seconds. I somehow find then a bit impersonal ...but whenever I had any querry they were quick to help. But the comfort which I have with Zerodha or RKSV is not there with IB...may be it is my fault, I am not contacting then for some small irritants in trading.

2) I tried to extract intraday realtime data from IB to Ami...followed all the steps but it is giving some error. I have not contacted their customer service and this is what I say ,the comfort,....if it was Zerodha , I would have contacted. They have not contacted me even once for setting up my TWS also after my account was operational. May be it is not expected from a discount broker....but in personalised service , Zerodha is better than IB in my view.

3) I have been getting data for last few days only....not even for 3 months...for this also I have not contacted them, the reason is my trading needs data for last 3-4 days only as I mainly trade daytrades and swing trades so my purpose is served.

But I suggest that you must get all these points clarified from their customer service/ support team before opening the account. Their chart trader, order input, cancellation, reporting, backoffice is very good and I am happy with that.Rest of the facilities I am not using because of nature of my trades.

Regards,

Smart_trade

 

[ragsid]

@ST, yes I am checking with the sales guys too, the things I need more clarification. But, they are sales guys anyways, I prefer customer/user reviews to sales people. So far interaction with sales guys is slow, but GOOD, and very transparent I would say.

 

[tinkug112]

@ST
hi ST can you post the commission difference between zerodha/IB for 10 contracts of NIFTY.
for Zerodha (below) what about IB ?
Turnover 5005000
Brokerage 40.00
Stt Total 426
Total Tran Charge 245.25
Service Tax 34.23
Education Cess 0.68
Higher Edu Cess 0.34
SEBI Charges 5
Total Tax and charges 751.5
Points to Breakeven 1.5
Net Profit 4248.5

 

[abhay_vibgyor]

Hi Smart_Trade

Can you give us a review of their Excel API?

Thanks