DAS 1000 Shares as Default Issue [RESOLVED]

[Eric 6]

UPDATE: I gave DAS another chance and found the root cause. By clicking on Setup > Order Templates, I found the Global Default Order Configuration. On it was a default order for 1,000 shares...

I've never seen this interface and had to dig really hard to find it. What has been happening is that every time I entered in a new symbol, these parameters were getting fed into the montage. I never noticed this before because MOST of the time my hotkeys overrode this. However, on occasions, the hotkey would fail to override this very dangerous shares default. This was on a new computer with a fresh image of Windows and DAS install for version 5.5.0.3. To DAS Trader, I lost over 10 thousand dollars because of this repeatedly happening, and even liquidated all of my mutual funds in an attempt to go to another brokers/service before giving this a final chance. Not the end of the world for me, as it was only a couple weeks or so worth of trading progress directly lost over this configuration issue intercepting my hotkey instructions, but this is a very serious problem and potential liability. I don't know how this ended up being a 1,000 share default, but I don't trade with that kind of size and this is really dangerous.

Clearly, the hotkey system is not infallible at guarding against this default, as the same thing happened to me 5 times in one day according to my Trades log. This could blow up a 30k account in less than 5 minutes if trading something like NFLX. Please look into why I ended up with this as a default, and consider something safer as a default, such as 100 shares or even 10.

 

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EDIT: REDACTING MY COMMENTS HERE. 

I did some digging and believe the problem lies with Interactive Brokers, and that it is unstable at the core. Moving my portfolio ASAP to CenterPoint Securities, which also has direct access and competitive margin rates. Was thinking I'd need to quit trading over this just because of someone else's tech problems. To DAS Trader staff: You might want to take a hard look at your relationship with IB, both in terms of business and tech interfacing.

 

 

 

After using the same hotkeys for over a year, I started having a bug potentially lethal to my account where it would add 1,000 shares instead of 100 shares. This started last week, and has happened 7-8 times now, costing me thousands of dollars. My hotkey is only is for 100 shares, and my log clearly showing it adding lump sums of 1,000 shares sporadically. 

I tried to notify DAS Trader support about this, but they just argued with me saying it's not a software error and to "prove it" by making a live trading video and showing them the log. So what happens if it orders 10,000 shares and blows up my account? No thanks.

Going to Sterling Trader. It's a shame because I had 300+ hotkeys setup which was the result of very extensive work in simulation. But cannot trust them anymore. Very sad. Posting here for awareness. Please be careful and potentially on the lookout for this bug before it gives you a margin call.

This was my hotkey by the way:

SwitchTWnd; CXL ALLSYMB; Route=SMRTL; Price=Ask+0.10; Price=round2; Share=100; TIF=GTC; Handinst=Any; Buy=Send;

First DAS support tried saying this happened because of 'price=round2'. No, try again; that's there to truncate floating points so that there is not a problem with a long-tail floating point calculation messing up an order. Then the support agent was DETERMINED that it was because I had 'Share=100' too far to the right, and that it reads left-to-right. And that she would need to see evidence that this still is ruining my account after moving this instruction further left. But if the syntax was broken, why would it be working most of the time?

All trust is gone. Moving on. Was a great chapter with them but oh well.

[Abiel 474]

This is weird, I just tried your script and it bought me 100 shares in sim. Do you have any hotkey that buys 1000 shares? 

[Eric 6]

My only hotkey is for 100 shares. About 39/40 times it will buy 100 shares, then but then it will buy 1,000 shares randomly. It did this to me for the first time last week, throwing me into a half million dollars of NFLX while it was dropping when I just wanted to DCA into it lightly. Then it did it right away again with MSFT. This made me lose a lot of money...

I have used this hotkey thousands of times. Did 956 trades in one day on Monday alone. This problem is new. Happened to me five times today according to my trading log. This was out of 217 trades so far today.

Already cancelled my DAS Trader service over this. I tried to let support know as a courtesy but they just told me that I need to prove it with a video. That would require more live trading... But I only wanted to let them know before they lost more customers over this or someone lost seriously money and begins exploring the liability. I checked on Stocktwits and I'm not the only one who has had this issue.

 

[Justin 262]

Does the log show that it's taking a single 1000 share trade? Or multiple fills leading up to 1000?

[Eric 6]

The logs repeatedly show 1,000 shares being traded at a time, all at once. For example: 1,000 shares all at once to ISLAND, and then 1,000 shares to BATS, and then 1,000 shares to IBKRATS. Meanwhile, I was hitting the same 100-share hotkey, and ending up in 600k positions that way when I was only bargaining for 10% of that. Lucky I still have an account...

When it sweeps an order, it will show them broken down into individual trades. It will never just combine them in the log. It shows how they sweep across the exchanges, one discrete order at a time.

[Alastair 111]

Wow !!! thks for update. Sorry to hear this messed u up.

[Eric 6]

@Abiel @Justin @Alastair

While the circumstantial evidence against DAS Trader was overwhelming, I believe that I've narrowed down the problem to IB being the unstable element.

I have had many problems with IB's API in the past, and have a stack of videos showing how their bracket orders will keep getting orders upside down unless the application is reset. Ran into that error over 17x about a year ago and simply had to stop using their menu for those kind of bracket orders.

IB's instability however could cost some customers a lot of money and they might not be as open-minded as me regarding who the weak link in the chain is. I lost several thousand dollars over these hotkey malfunctions, but someone else might lose millions. Please look into this for the sake of your business and the safety of customer accounts. Thank you.

I edited my OP with a strong redaction.

[Abiel 474]

Thank you Eric, this is the first time I hear something like this in 2 years trading and supporting this community.

[Eric 6]

@Abiel Perhaps this is because I have been putting a unique amount of stress on the application. Would I be correct to assume that you have not seen this level of trading volume either? 1k trades/day? That might have something to do with it.

 

 

[Abiel 474]

Are you using automated trading?

[Eric 6]

No, those are all synthetic calls using the hotkey I showed you to buy 100 shares of AAPL at a time. All the red triangles are 10% or 33% partials. What makes them synthetic calls was having a net bearish options position, negating the need for a stop loss when buying shares.

[RTrader 20]

If you scalp like this you should be trading futures anyway, not stocks. I used to have DAS with IB, and IB's API on other platforms. The API, whether FIXAPI or anything else, all the same! Total piece of junk. My fun issue with DAS and IB was that I would end up in a short position randomly, from an order that I cancelled in DAS minutes or hours earlier, but it ended up not being cancelled in IB's system. I would find out later on, when I would be short some amount of shares in a stock I traded earlier in the day! It certainly made me lose all confidence in the situation so I moved on and never looked back.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Justin

[Eric 6]

@RTrader I have had the same experience dozes of times myself with uneven ghost orders. However, my biggest complaint about DAS Trader by far is the lack of conditional logic, meaning that I can't do genuine bracket orders. Sure I can do a clunky range order, but those lack agility to say the least as a hotkey, and I can't use trailing stops which are essential to my system. Instead I have to stand there and cancel the other manually after a target or stop gets hit. Walking away with both a stop and target active can lead to very unusual and dangerous positions...

Why would I be trading futures? Those are a real puzzle to hedge overnight, and during the intraday I have more control with shares and can let them run without worrying about extreme leverage from /ES or /NQ, both of which have liquidity issues--where you are basically trading against the CME computers rather than enjoying direct access. I'm actually trying to break into the futures, but finding a way to manage the risk has been keeping me distant. My reason would be to add a part-time job overnight, but if I am sufficiently capitalized for shares, I'm simply not following as to why I would be trading futures on the intraday. The micro contracts have even worse liqudity.

Besides, when trading with shares I can bag hold if they get trapped and convert them into options structures, such as a short iron condor but with shares instead of held calls. 

[vic 11]

Give Bob from Lightspeed a call, to scalp options and have the best L2 there is nothing better. Sterling and Lightspeed are the same company anyway. 

[Eric 6]

@vic Lightspeed would charge me 6.50% margin interest, which would break my entire playbook.

This is compared to 0.75% margin interest at CenterPoint Securities.

For example, I like to hold bond ETFs in excess of my account value and collect 3% yields on them. With a margin interest rate of 0.75% I can still collect about 2% arbitrage on that. But with 6.5% interest I would be forced to outperform that extra cost per dollar invested just to break even. Can't see any reason to do that when I'd just be using Sterling Trader anyway as the software interface, while also getting direct access and the largest supply of stocks available for shorting.