Is TWS an unpopular trading platform?

G'day all.

Since getting started on my trading journey a few years ago (mostly sim) I've been with Interactive Brokers and the Trader Work Station platform. Something I'm seeing, or not seeing, is any representation of either on this site.

So am I missing something, is IB and TWS an unpopular platform?

I was really impressed with the Trade Explorer on this site and think using it would be invaluable to quickly gaining a look down view of my account, positions, risk, history etc etc. I contacted FF to see if Explorer was going to be compatible with IB and they said it was one they were working toward.

It seems MT4 is one of the most popular platforms. Any thoughts from those who use or have looked at TWS?

Hi there,

I've been with IB for the last 10 years now and I pretty much only use it for my futures trading. Unless its changed, the way IB show you your forex position is heavily confusing and when I had multiple entries on the same pair, or even trades open on a variety of pairs I just got too confused what my position was. For example if you go long GBP/USD and then you also go long GBP/JPY it would show your position as your total exposure (long GBP, short USD, short JPY). While this is correct, it is confusing as hell and did my head in. It shouldn't be that hard and shouldn't require me to do any mental calculation to determine - that is the software's job.

You probably won't see many people using IB on this forum because it requires a 10k minimum to open an account and the smallest you can trade is 25k lots. I'm not being rude to the folks here, but its a fact that many here are wanting to trade with micro lots and open accounts with a couple hundred bucks.

You don't have to use mt4 to chart things. There are a large variety of charting packages that will communicate via the TWS to present you with market data. Do some research on how IB deliver data. They use a time sampling delivery system rather than a tick based system. For some approaches, this will be unsuitable (ie, if you are intending to do anything regarding tape reading).

All my best,
MK

Thanks MidKnight.

Could you please explain what you mean by "tape reading"? I'm unfamiliar with the term.

True, I'm looking to trade (when Live again) an account ~20k and that's what I'm using for sim. IB does seem to limit the range of lot size to mini rather than micro. 17K is the smallest I see, GBP/JPY. Most are as you say 20-25K.

IB has also removed one's ability to alter the size of your sim account. So while simulating, the Account page on TWS is largely useless as I need to track my account and perform all the calcs elsewhere.

This is all a large part of why I had an hallelujah moment when I saw the Explorer.

If I am correct tape reading used to be an old trading technique where people got the current price of a stock printed on an endless peace of paper. With this tape they managed to see trends and used this information to trade. (Basically it's trading without a chart but therefore only seeing the price displayed as a number)

Tape reading refers to monitoring the order flow through some sort of time & sales analysis. IB does not distribute tick data so any time & sales analysis is useless if you use them as your data provider. All the best with IB. I like them as a broker that lets you trade pretty much any market in the world with tight spreads and competitive commissions. However, as mentioned, their Forex position reporting doesn't make it easy to know where you stand when in the thick of it in real-time....

With kind regards,
MK