IB Trader Workstation for day trading?

[Sean M 3]

I'm currently using DAS in SIM mode now, and it's great, but I am curious if any of you are using TWS from IB. Now that it has VWAP indicators, it seems it could be used effectively, and for a fair amount less per month than DAS. Would appreciate any insight, thanks!

[Lee W 82]

The last I saw, people were complaining that their VWAP indicator wasn't accurate or it wasn't the same as everyone else's. Is that still the case?

 

I'd like to hear from others that use TWS, too.

[Sean M 3]

Today I was comparing while running both platforms at the same time, and the VWAP on TWS was the same as DAS.

[Lee W 82]

This is great news. Hopefully we will have some feedback from users soon.

[CassA 0]

I see this thread is stale, but is there anyone else out there using IB TWS for day trading?   Or, if there's anyone out there that moved to DAS from IB TWS that would comment why from a platform perspective?  It would be much appreciated since you have experience with both platforms.  I understand (or at least I think I do) that DAS is direct access the benefits that provides. Thanks.

[BBT Member 001 27]

I used TWS for about six months before switching to DAS. It is completely worth it. TWS graphs get all ugly when you zoom and unzoom and market data lags compared to DAS. TWS can be a good alternative if DAS is down but definitely DAS is 10x better.

 

Also TWS software seems to require more processing power, memory and kbps/second and platform is not as stable (it disconnects quite often and has higher latency).

 

 

 

 

[U R 0]

Hello

I am using both TWS(Mosaic) and DAS. I was worried IB didn't have hot buttons but created for long and short and works as you click like DAS. But the chart is not as clean as DAS. I relay on chart then L2 or other stuff. Chart needs more time to appear which is not what I want. I will include my IB set up here when I get to my workstation next time. Price comparison, it is very cheaper then DAS $150 vs $45($45 or something like this).

Lets see if other members are using IB.

[nickyang07 6]

I can share some of my experiences. I have used TWS for over 6 months. At beginning, it does not have VWAP, which is a big problem. Late last year, it includes VWAP, which is awesome. However, TWS has some big issues:

1. Unstable, very heavy CPU and memory consuming. It is written in JAVA, which is no wonder to be slow. I used MAC, it regularly froze during the premarket. 

2. Although the data subscription is much cheaper than DAS, by default you can only open 3 market depth trader (level 2, just like Montage). If you want to open more, you need to buy the data boost package. It depends on your commission per month. They have a formula to calculate how many market depth trader you can open by default based on your monthly commission. Currently, I have 7 montages in my PC, if I want to have the same number in TWS, it will cost more than DAS. 

3. TWS has hotkey, but it does not have hotkey for selling or covering a certain portion of your position. This is very useful feature to scale out your trade. Besides, TWS does not have hotkey for chart and other feature. Every time I switch from 5 minute to daily, or other timeframe, it's very inconvenient. 

4. TWS sometimes has random number in the Times and Sales window. I don't know if it's caused by the same issue as market depth trader, it's really annoying. 

5. It does not have price marker (YY high low, Y high low, etc.). This is very bothering to draw level before the market open.

Good thing of TWS compared with DAS:

1. The watchlist is synced. Every time you input a symbol in a watchlist, all other watchlist is updated. In DAS, you have to input one watch list by one.

2. The chart trend line is also synced per symbol. You draw a horizontal line, it will also appear in other chart if you switch to the same symbol. In DAS, you have to save it first, and load other chart. This is also very bothering...

3. In my opinion, TWS chart is prettier than DAS. The UI is also better. DAS does not have good UI, but it's really lightweight, and fast. 

4. TWS has a completely different login for DEMO account. You will never make mistake on switching between DEMO and live account. I just switch to DAS less than one month. Just like other people, I also made mistake on the account once. LOL. 

5. It has Mac version. To use DAS in MAC, you have to either use Parallel, or Vmware Fusion. I use Vmware fusion. But to be honest, I think day trader should buy a windows computer. I have Windows laptop, but for desktop, for some reason, I only have a iMac.

Summary:

I think DAS is much better for day trading. It will be perfect if it can automatically sync the trend line among charts and watchlist, and also add daily moving average in the price marker!

 

BTW, I have used Active Trader Pro from Fidelity. It's a nightmare!!!

Edited June 15, 2018 by nickyang07

[Andrew Aziz 97]

Thanks Nick! I know DAS is trying to implement that sync levels to all charts. Lee W is working with them to tell them exactly what we need.

[nickyang07 6]

That's really awesome! Andrew, can you also suggest them to add Daily moving average in the price marker? It will save lots of time to draw it in the premarket. Sometimes, I also need to manually update it during intraday., since it may change if the price and volume surge.

[vle60 0]

On 6/14/2018 at 9:57 PM, U R said:

Hello

I am using both TWS(Mosaic) and DAS. I was worried IB didn't have hot buttons but created for long and short and works as you click like DAS. But the chart is not as clean as DAS. I relay on chart then L2 or other stuff. Chart needs more time to appear which is not what I want. I will include my IB set up here when I get to my workstation next time. Price comparison, it is very cheaper then DAS $150 vs $45($45 or something like this).

Lets see if other members are using IB.

Hi, has your experience with IB TWS improved? If you're still using it, can you post your IB setup file as you said? I've just signed up with IB and would like to see what TWS is like, before committing to the $150 DAS.

[Peter S 3]

The Trader Work Station updates automatically which is all very nice, but is not necessarily the best route to speed and stability as Microsoft demonstrate so superbly.  There is another version of TWS which does not auto update and which you might prefer using, which you download once and then it stays the same.  As this is IB they do a fine job of hiding it.  If you want to try it you will have to hunt around, can't remember where it is, type in "downloadable" in their search or something.  But it does exist even though I started doubting it myself last time I hunted.

It looks the same, with the unfriendly charting and all the other things you may not like, but it doesn't have to waste time looking for updates.  It may or may not help with your IB user experience.

[Andy sandel 0]

Is it worth for a beginner to pay for DAS and TI

or rather start with IB TWS Desktop

and upgarde only after I start making money?

[RTrader 20]

On 12/3/2019 at 1:50 AM, Andy sandel said:

Is it worth for a beginner to pay for DAS and TI

or rather start with IB TWS Desktop

and upgarde only after I start making money?

Another option is to use TradeStation.  The platform is excellent, and I’ve always had great execution with them. They are now commission free as well, so you don’t need to worry about that. You just pay the finra/exchange fees which are very low. They got rid of their platform fee as well. So with that including the commission savings, your business costs will be at least 500$ less each month. If you trade big size then you might save thousands per month in fees, lowering your break even.

[Andy sandel 0]

Thanks RTrader for your reply

I actually just signed up today with DAS

at first I wanted to try out IB TWS, I tried their Paper account, I paid for full data a total of $65 (no options-futures). after a few minutes of sim-trade I realized that execution is delayed a good few minutes and is not accurate.

customer support suggested its only in paper mode, but real account has no issues. but I lost fate in them, plus i needed sim-trading high speed so i decided to go over to DAS and pay the $150 a month.

going back to your suggestion about TRADE-STATION, i see they work together with Trading-View charts which is great. on the other side they only have 24 reviews on https://www.tradingview.com/brokers/ 

ANYONE ELSE HAD EXPERIENCE WITH TradeStation?     PLEASE SHARE