IB Trader Workstation Day Trading Setup

[WilliamH 67]

@CassA @Peter de Beir

DAS is just a middleman between yourself and your broker to execute trades more efficiently. The only fee that DAS will every charge is their monthly cost.

Any other fee associated with trading is charged from the Broker.

The tricky part is understanding that DAS does not have a perfect relationship with brokers to calculate all the fees correctly. DAS tries to calculate the broker fees, the ecn fees, the regulatory fees, the clearing fees, that are charged through the broker, but most of the time, if not 100% of the time, the fees are inaccurate.  For example, if you are looking at your fees/commissions on the DAS platform, those are guesstimates and are most certainly inaccurate. You need to go to your actual broker statement to find the exact charges.  

As far as I know, you can request DAS to charge whatever your broker charges for the actual commission fee, but all the other fees, especially the ECN fees or rebates, are very likely to be inaccurate guesses.

For anyone using Interactive Brokers and DAS. take a screen shot of your account page in DAS with the commission and fees after you are done trading the day. Save it. Later that evening when your broker fee is available around 8pm EST or so, log onto IB and compare the commissions in IB with the commission in DAS. Mine are ALWAYS different. IB/your broker will always be the more accurate one you are actually getting charged.

[PeterNL 6]

Hi WilliamH,

Thanks for your explanation! I did indeed expect that DAS would give me the correct fees, so it is good to know that it is not. 

My initial post was not about the fees btw. I probably didn't make myself clear. When using TWS, you still pay for the data ($ 45). And DAS with data is $ 150. So that is a difference of about $ 100. 

I made my choice and just subscribed for the DAS platform. Responsive time is important! So coming week I'll have a live account with IB and DAS.

Starting easy (small size, few trades), as I am pretty busy with my 'normal' job at the moment. I am curious whether IB will place the PDT rule on my account or not. While I'm not a US resident.

[PeterNL 6]

11 hours ago, peterB said:

they will apply the PDT to every margin account.

what is the technical reason you think the das shall be quicker as you say? 

In that case, I will have to fund more money. Or trade less (no option 🙂 ).

I have no idea why TWS is slower, but that's what I understood from the info at the forum. Do you have a better experience with TWS? 

[CassA 0]

Hi peterB,

My disclaimer is that everyone try out different platforms to see what ultimately works or doesn't work for them.

My personal experience between DAS and TWS is that TWS sometimes takes a few seconds to update charts and related windows when switching between instruments.  (Note: Before someone asks, I have a 3.2GHz quad core processor with 8GB of ram, not the best, and not the worse.)  The TWS charts do not update as fast as DAS charts.  Overall, the DAS platform is "more responsive".   I liken it to using the same  iPhone for 5 years.  At first, it is responsive, but then you find yourself waiting after tapping.  I could but won't comment on the "technical" side of why this might be as that would be speculation.

[Paul aka Aurbano 82]

Hi guys ! shared my setup, layout and hotkeys configuration here ! bock in dark theme and andrew's theme red over white !

 

Edited May 15, 2019 by aurbano

[SirPatrick 9]

On 9/14/2018 at 4:36 PM, peterB said:

that is right

it can not be done

this is closing 50% of all portfolio (green) so not usefull for daytrading.

but i did not know that when i was printing the sticker so i kept it there 🙂

There are two options that I have been exploring. Option one is "Close Portion of Positions" hotkey. Downsides of this is that it isn't instantaneous, as a window pops up that you have to click through (let's you set your %, +/- price, etc.), it's not super fast, and it will do this for ALL of your open positions (long or short, unless you change to just long or just short).

 

The other option would be to utilize separate Buy / Sell hotkeys with a known QTY of shares which are equivalent percentages of what you typically buy (e.g. typically buy 100 shares, so have a hotkey for a sell of 25 shares). You can hit that 4 times. Downside is of course if you do it too many times then you are shorting.

 

Any thoughts?

Edited July 25, 2019 by SirPatrick

[SirPatrick 9]

2 minutes ago, peterB said:

that feature above is useless for daytrading. it is usefull only for long term investing with big portfolios.

 

Is this due to the speed (or lack thereof)?

[CassA 0]

My TWS Win10 Latest, has started freezing recently.  Sometimes, it recovers and sometimes, it crashes/closes.  Looking at the Task Manager, I see spikes on Memory up to 4GB.  I have the memory setting at 1.5GB (which is recently updated from ~750KB).  Anyone  else seeing this issue?

[SirPatrick 9]

17 hours ago, CassA said:

My TWS Win10 Latest, has started freezing recently.  Sometimes, it recovers and sometimes, it crashes/closes.  Looking at the Task Manager, I see spikes on Memory up to 4GB.  I have the memory setting at 1.5GB (which is recently updated from ~750KB).  Anyone  else seeing this issue?

No issues here. I have the same memory setting as you. Only issue I have run in to is the 1-min charts not showing any candles (have to cycle through different time frames to get them back). What does your Mosiac setup look like (how many charts, etc.) and how is the overall health of your computer?

Edited July 26, 2019 by SirPatrick

[BrianS 5]

I have run TWS with 768KB ram, which I think is the default, and I have never experienced a crash in almost two years of using it (knock on wood).   I have 10 chart windows open and 3 level 2 screens as well as a few watch lists and order entry windows.  To SirPatricks question on 1 minute charts, I currently never run charts with a time frame less than 5 minute but I used to look at one minute charts and I would occasionally have some stutter on those charts, but it was rare. 

[CassA 0]

SirPatrick, I have a similar issue with the charts not showing certain stocks.  CGC for example doesn't show up on my 1-min or 5-min charts.  Chart->Refresh usually updates the window.   I just don't trade those.   My computer runs everything fine, and doesn't crash besides for TWS and that only within the past week or so (before that is was 100% stable).  I upgraded to 16GB of ram, and instead of spiking to 4GB, it now spikes to 8GB and freezes.  I am trying the "Show more than 500 bars" option as unchecked.  It seems like when I go to Daily/Weekly zoomed out to find support/resistance levels, and then switch back to 5-min and scroll to the current day is when TWS hangs. 

BrianS, my setup is one L2 and 13 chart windows of various time frames and groups.  1 order entry, 1 watchlist, 1 trades, 1 orders, 1 t&s, and 1 portfolio window.  I don't see it as really excessive. 

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[BrianS 5]

Regarding the closing partial positions when you have more than one open position.  I found a product called zerolinetrader which is about $10 per month.  I have not tried this product but it has a lot of interesting potential functionality.  I would describe it as an order manager API that works with IB TWS.  Specific to this discussion of using TWS as your trading platform, it seems to allow scaling out of a position by a predefined percent or number of shares.  There is also a risk management componentas well as B/E stop functionality.  Anyway, looks like an interesting addition to TWS.  I have never tried any API onto the TWS platform so I cannot say if those already struggling with speed of platform would be adversely affected or not.

Link to product ( I am not affiliated in any way).

www.zerolinetrader.com

Edited August 4, 2019 by BrianS
forgot link to product

[SirPatrick 9]

On 8/3/2019 at 2:03 PM, CassA said:

SirPatrick, I have a similar issue with the charts not showing certain stocks.  CGC for example doesn't show up on my 1-min or 5-min charts.  Chart->Refresh usually updates the window.   I just don't trade those.   My computer runs everything fine, and doesn't crash besides for TWS and that only within the past week or so (before that is was 100% stable).  I upgraded to 16GB of ram, and instead of spiking to 4GB, it now spikes to 8GB and freezes.  I am trying the "Show more than 500 bars" option as unchecked.  It seems like when I go to Daily/Weekly zoomed out to find support/resistance levels, and then switch back to 5-min and scroll to the current day is when TWS hangs. 

BrianS, my setup is one L2 and 13 chart windows of various time frames and groups.  1 order entry, 1 watchlist, 1 trades, 1 orders, 1 t&s, and 1 portfolio window.  I don't see it as really excessive. 

Thanks for the feedback.

 

I haven't actually been using the charts in TWS. They are too clunky and difficult to use in my opinion. I have an account on TradingView and use their charts as they are so much easier to use. I just watch them and buy/sell in TWS when I see a trade I want.

[Hamza_hs 0]

On 8/12/2018 at 6:16 AM, Dhat said:

Guys,

I have been practising in DAS Trader Pro (paper trading) for over 6 months. I am now confident enough to start using real money, but my margins are small, so $150 per month would put a bit of a dent into my earnings. I have setup IB Trader Workstation to be almost identical to my DAS Trader Pro setup. I just have a few questions:

1. Has anyone/is anyone currently using the platform and have any tips on the pros/cons of it?
2. Can you setup the charts to have the daily open and close prices (same as DAS Trader)?
3. I've transferred money, more than enough to cover my level 2 subscription costs, but the subscription hasn't been activated yet...not sure why?

Any info is much appreciated.

Hi my freind

 

I am new here , I just finished andrew day trading course and now I want to start paper trading. at the moment i cant afford paying 100 USD montly for DAS paper trading , so I want to do it through TWS. Would  it be possible for you to help me make my screens in TWS ?

 

Thanks

[Hamza_hs 0]

Thanks peter , can u please send me screen shots on my email

 

[email protected]