Trading and getting fills with Interactive Brokers

[Guest]

Live data will cost you money, delayed I am not sure. I know IB has an inactivity fee of 10 dollars a month. 

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Maji said:

Based on what I read on IB's website, if I fill in an account opening paperwork, I am allowed to start paper trading. After I fund the account, I will then get to live trade... obviously!

My question is:

1. If I don't fund my account, how long can I have the paper trading account?

2. Does the paper trading account have live streaming quotes or are they delayed?

In reality, I am just trying to find a way to plot the intraday charts for mainly calendar spreads. I trade with TT and don't have that ability. I also don't need live data, I can just plot the intraday charts at the end of the day and check what the general minimum and maximum values of the Mid prices. If someone knows a better way that is free, please let me know.

Thank you.

I have been with IB since they started.

My memory is vague on this,and things very well might have changed, but, I do remember a time when you can open a an unfunded account for 45 days.

Then it had to be funded.

But, like I said, that was a very long time ago, and things could easily have changed.

I think TOS allows you to have an unfunded account forever, with live data.

Are you saying that TT does not have any charting ability?

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Bull3t007 said:

Live data will cost you money, delayed I am not sure. I know IB has an inactivity fee of 10 dollars a month. 

That's true, but the inactivity fee is waived if you do , I forgot, either $30 worth of trades, or 30 trades.

I remember the number 30, in the fee waiving process.

[Guest]

51 minutes ago, cuegis said:

That's true, but the inactivity fee is waived if you do , I forgot, either $30 worth of trades, or 30 trades.

I remember the number 30, in the fee waiving process.

The 10 dollar is just for inactivity, so 10$ worth of commission erases the fee. 5$ commission and you pay the remaining 5$ fee.

 

That 30$ fee your talking about is actually on some data fees that get waived when you trade above 30$ commission. 

 

 

[Guest]

9 hours ago, Maji said:

Based on what I read on IB's website, if I fill in an account opening paperwork, I am allowed to start paper trading. After I fund the account, I will then get to live trade... obviously!

My question is:

1. If I don't fund my account, how long can I have the paper trading account?

2. Does the paper trading account have live streaming quotes or are they delayed?

In reality, I am just trying to find a way to plot the intraday charts for mainly calendar spreads. I trade with TT and don't have that ability. I also don't need live data, I can just plot the intraday charts at the end of the day and check what the general minimum and maximum values of the Mid prices. If someone knows a better way that is free, please let me know.

Thank you.

I believe you can use that charting software for spreads to track their price on their demo account. I was trying to get it to work and found it a bit clunky. I’m not sure if that had anything to do with the fact that it was a demo account, or operator error. Probably the latter. IB stated to me I could use the demo account for as long as I wanted and it doesn’t expire. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, cuegis said:

I have been with IB since they started.

My memory is vague on this,and things very well might have changed, but, I do remember a time when you can open a an unfunded account for 45 days.

Then it had to be funded.

But, like I said, that was a very long time ago, and things could easily have changed.

I think TOS allows you to have an unfunded account forever, with live data.

Are you saying that TT does not have any charting ability?

TT does not have charting of spreads... they are “working “ on it is what I hear from their customer support. 

[Guest]

@Rob by demo you mean paper trading account?

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Maji said:

@Rob by demo you mean paper trading account?

Yes. But I believe that expires, so when the start up icon boots up, there is an area that says demo account, hit that link.

[Guest]

I am unable to submit an order for closing a 7:2 hedged straddle (as one order), I get the following error:

The weird thing is that I can issue such orders with no problems for hedged straddles with less legs, for example 6:2 or 5:2.
I'm not aware of a "Trading Access" section in the Account Management. There is one called "Trading Permissions", but I couldn't find any setting there such as "maximum number of legs per combo". There is such a limit but not in the Account Management. It is in TWS's settings under Presets / Combos / Precautionary Settings / Size Limit but I've upped and also disabled that and nothing changes, I get the same error when trying to close the 7:2 hedged straddle.

Any hint would be highly appreciated.

Edited October 22, 2018 by BlackBat

[Humble]

Could be a bug in their algorithm. You can try to close 6:2 and then close the remaining straddle.

[Guest]

Dear IB folks.  I re-opened my account with IB after several years.  I've been using TOS instead, and I've gotten used to the platform in TOS.  The main issue with IB is that I can't see which contracts are working by looking at the options chain.  In TOS, there is a little icon that says "buy" or "sell" next to the contract in the options chain.  For those of you have have many trades working, how do you keep track of which strikes in the chain have trades working (not filled)?  I would appreciate any help.

[Guest]

Forgive me if this is the wrong topic. Does anyone know if it's possible to set the defaults this setting refers to:

https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/software/tws/usersguidebook/configuretws/charts_settings.htm#XREF_83067_What_to_show_when

by contract type? When I have a chart for an option or spread, I'd like to show the midpoint automatically without having to go into "Chart Parameters" > "What to show" > "Midpoint" each time, but without actually selecting "Retain Current" in the link I posted (so that I see trades if I select a stock for that chart, etc.).