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Interactive Brokers - experiences and opinions

  • #641
  • Apr 14, 2015 7:28pm Apr 14, 2015 7:28pm
Quoting teddybomber
It sounds like the error wasn't the platform itself, but instead a date that they post to their actual interactivebrokers.com website calendar. Whoever put the date up, typed in the wrong date apparently. I highly doubt someone with that much money is not using a high end software program to trade through, rather than the interactive brokers free software. It is odd that he would only look at one place on their website for the date, instead of checking somewhere else for the same date to be sure when you have that much on the line. But their website...
It is weird that a trader that trades million of $'s in contract sizes would rely on a date on a website calendar to make his trading decision and put all his stake based on that ONE single date and not verify it with any other sources like the exchange itself. I would understand if a trade goes wrong due to an error in the platform but on a website calendar? Who base their trading decision SOLELY on a date on a calendar on a website, a website not even of the exchange but of a broker?
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #642
  • Apr 14, 2015 7:58pm Apr 14, 2015 7:58pm
Quoting Forexia
{quote} This IS disturbing indeed. Interactive Broker's trading platform for Forex is equally "antiquated" as this article has put it and that's the best adjective that you can use to describe its platform. I don't know if its platform works better for other instruments like stocks and options and etc. Their commission is certainly cheap but I guess you get what you pay for. Just out of curiosity, can't you use a 3rd-party software like Ninja Trader or MultiCharts to trade futures with Interactive Brokers? I certainly would NEVER trust Interactive...
why never trust? can tell more about it? u seem more favor to ctrader from ur posts. http://www.financemagnates.com/forex...-fall-profits/ i actually plan to open account with interactive brokers or tradestation.
  • #643
  • Apr 14, 2015 9:10pm Apr 14, 2015 9:10pm
Quoting onlyufx
{quote} why never trust? can tell more about it? u seem more favor to ctrader from ur posts. http://www.financemagnates.com/forex...-fall-profits/ i actually plan to open account with interactive brokers or tradestation.
Nothing wrong with Interactive Broker's trustworthiness but I wouldn't trade large amounts on its trading platform which is outdated, slow and error prone.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #644
  • Jun 18, 2015 6:27am Jun 18, 2015 6:27am
IB's a great broker no doubt about it. But their software is cranky and a bit shitty. So take that out of the equation and use Button Trader.

Yes it costs but if speed is your game (in entering orders), BT will super charge IB. I love it but as with most things there's a learning curve because the software is powerful. So it lets you trade real-time simulation, practice on that for as long as you need and you'll get good.
Road To Wisdom? To err and err and err again, but less and less and less...
  • #645
  • Jun 18, 2015 6:05pm Jun 18, 2015 6:05pm
Quoting Calculus
IB's a great broker no doubt about it. But their software is cranky and a bit shitty. So take that out of the equation and use Button Trader. Yes it costs but if speed is your game (in entering orders), BT will super charge IB. I love it but as with most things there's a learning curve because the software is powerful. So it lets you trade real-time simulation, practice on that for as long as you need and you'll get good.
The Button trader MAYBE a step-up but it is still a far cry from being user-friendly and most important of all, it is designed mostly for futures and options trading and is clearly geared towards that. There is NO specific functionality in button trader designed for forex trading nor does it address any specific needs of forex traders ; forex trading usage is just a tag-along at best like "oh yeah by the way, forex trader can also use it." So hardly a "super-charge".

The speed of execution is not that big of an issue with IB's platform really but its ease of usage, user-friendliness and the presence of bugs that never get fixed or even acknowledged by IB. And none of these problems are being addressed by this button trader so hardly a "super-charge". And to make traders PAY to use it that's barely an improvement is ludicrous.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #646
  • Jun 19, 2015 12:59am Jun 19, 2015 12:59am
FX is no different from e-mini or any other market, they're all just numbers, all have a bid and offer so Button Trader works tremendously well with FX. I also use it to trade the DAX and there's no difference. Like I said, all are numbers.

From my perspective IB is superb, been using them for over 10 years and never had a single problem with their software. Bugs, I'm not aware of any because my software is rock solid, always has been. As for ease of use, that's where Button Trader comes in. I can put an order in for whatever size, limit/bid/stop, with associated limit/stop order in well under a second. One click then moves limits/stops higher/lower and it's all very visual. So for me, Button Trader really has 'super charged' IB.

And yes, Button Trader charges. This is a game where investment in your hardware or software often pays dividends.

You obviously don't like either IB or Button Trader, that's fine. All my post was designed to do was offer some information which may or may not help traders who are present using IB for trading, FX, futures, stocks etc. If people are therefore curious as to how to improve their speed and ease of entry I'd strongly advise they look at Button Trader as well as some of the other order entry platforms. Take the free trials, if you don't like the software don't sign up. If you do, then like me, you'll find ease of order entry really really improved whatever you're trading.
Road To Wisdom? To err and err and err again, but less and less and less...
  • #647
  • Jun 19, 2015 1:05am Jun 19, 2015 1:05am
http://day-trading-software.toptenre...er-review.html
  • #648
  • Edited 5:34am Jun 19, 2015 5:20am | Edited 5:34am
Here's a screen shot from my Button Trader.

3 main markets, Eur, Cable and Dax. Others available on Tabs.

The boxes on the left of each market are my pre-programmed trades, one click of either puts a certain order in to be working (size/limit/stop etc) or click another one and it will be a market order with associated limit and stop. Those levels can easily be moved by then clicking on the relevant price level.

The charts on the left are just tick charts, some might find them useful I don't really. For my charting, yes I agree with you FX, IB are crap, many brokers specialise in crap charting. So I use Ensign for Windows, great package, would cry like a baby if they discontinued it. And yes, like many good things in life, it takes time to learn how to get the best out of it, same with Button Trader. But think about this everyone - your competitors, the good ones anyway, WILL have taken the time to learn...

Like I said, BT has supercharged my order entry with IB.
Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: BT.png Size: 92 KB
Road To Wisdom? To err and err and err again, but less and less and less...
  • #649
  • Jun 19, 2015 2:27pm Jun 19, 2015 2:27pm
Quoting Calculus
Here's a screen shot from my Button Trader. 3 main markets, Eur, Cable and Dax. Others available on Tabs. The boxes on the left of each market are my pre-programmed trades, one click of either puts a certain order in to be working (size/limit/stop etc) or click another one and it will be a market order with associated limit and stop. Those levels can easily be moved by then clicking on the relevant price level. The charts on the left are just tick charts, some might find them useful I don't really. For my charting, yes I agree with you FX, IB are...
Glad Button Trader worked out for you but like you pointed out tick charts were totally useless to you as to about I would say 99% of us FX traders who again I would venture to say are chart traders. A list of pre-programmed entry/exit orders doesn't mean much (I am glad it works for you) if we can't see it how it panes out on a chart in relative to other price levels, S/R levels, Pivot levels and etc. but as you rightly pointed out, IB's charting is crap so this Button Traders is relatively useless to us FX Traders. All these running tick charts are more for Futures/Options traders who scalp.

IB wants to cater more to Futures/Options traders, fine (as illustrated by this button trader) but don't expect us Forex traders to be all jumping up and down in a frenzy and reaching into our wallet to pay for this add-on who's done pretty much nothing to address the needs of us forex traders.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #650
  • Jun 19, 2015 3:43pm Jun 19, 2015 3:43pm
I wouldn't think there's one person who uses Button trader for their charting, it's not supposed to be anything but very basic (nothing can even be changed) but soime people might find useful for visualisation purposes.

Most people would use at least 2 screens, one for order entry and the other for charting. That's what I do, charting is Engisn for Windows.

I still can't understand how order entry for FX differs from futures/stock or options or what a pure FX broker can offer that IB can't, or what specialist needs FX traders are after? FX and every other non-FX market have bid-offers, orders are all the same (limit, stop, mkt etc) and all move up and down. So if I want to buy 2 Dax there are only 3 ways I can enter that order, mkt, stop, limit. If I want to buy $50k of EUR-USD there are also only 3 ways to enter that order, mkt, stop or limit. The only thing that is different across all markets is the price, apart from that they're all numbers moving up and down. Button Trader therefore is pretty much the same for anything.

I'm also not expecting anyone to jump up and down over Button Trader or anything else. All I wanted to do was share my view on BT and how it can help make order entry and management really slick with IB because I always found TWS to be lacklustre at best. For me BT's been a great investment, others won't like it or view it as unnecessary.
Road To Wisdom? To err and err and err again, but less and less and less...
  • #651
  • Jun 19, 2015 7:19pm Jun 19, 2015 7:19pm
A DOM is really nice for short-term trading, i find other means of order-entry rather cumbersome..
  • #652
  • Jun 20, 2015 12:28am Jun 20, 2015 12:28am
I used Button Trader to scalp the DAX 2/3 years ago and found it very powerful at the time as you can pre-program several trading strategies with TP, SL, trailing stops and execute the one you want with just one click. As I no longer scalp, I haven't used it in a while so can't comment on recent versions but it was definitely a great tool.
  • #653
  • Jun 20, 2015 3:31am Jun 20, 2015 3:31am
Quoting Calculus
I wouldn't think there's one person who uses Button trader for their charting, it's not supposed to be anything but very basic (nothing can even be changed) but soime people might find useful for visualisation purposes. Most people would use at least 2 screens, one for order entry and the other for charting. That's what I do, charting is Engisn for Windows. I still can't understand how order entry for FX differs from futures/stock or options or what a pure FX broker can offer that IB can't, or what specialist needs FX traders are after? FX and every...
You obviously missed my point. FX traders don't just look at the chart, we actually trade OFF the charts because we find that being able to visual where the current price of the instrument is at relative to other pivotal price levels helps us trade better and unfortunately neither of IB's TWS or FX Trader or this Button Trader addresses this needs. The biggest problem with FX Trader, aside from its user-unfriendliness and crappy charting (which is STILL crappy in button trader) which can be overcome with experience, is VERY error-prone and unreliable.

All I am saying is with Button Traders having made absolutely no improvement over FX Trader of TWS in terms of addressing FX Trader's needs, it really doesn't justify the cost it's trying to charge traders especially FX traders in using it. We traders pay enough just to trade and we shouldn't have to PAY for using a trading platform. Plenty of free, working trading platforms out there and no point using button traders.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #654
  • Jun 20, 2015 3:32am Jun 20, 2015 3:32am
Quoting actalis
I used Button Trader to scalp the DAX 2/3 years ago and found it very powerful at the time as you can pre-program several trading strategies with TP, SL, trailing stops and execute the one you want with just one click. As I no longer scalp, I haven't used it in a while so can't comment on recent versions but it was definitely a great tool.
DAX is NOT spot FX. Like I said, button traders is built more for futures/options trading not really for FX.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #655
  • Jun 22, 2015 2:50am Jun 22, 2015 2:50am
Quoting Forexia
{quote} You obviously missed my point. FX traders don't just look at the chart, we actually trade OFF the charts because we find that being able to visual where the current price of the instrument is at relative to other pivotal price levels helps us trade better and unfortunately neither of IB's TWS or FX Trader or this Button Trader addresses this needs.
How do you know that 'FX Traders don't just look at the chart, they actually trade OFF the charts'? Have you asked all of them, probably 500k+ the world over? You didn't ask me for example because I don't trade OFF the charts.

IB has a lot of clients, probably the largest western broker on the planet and I'd bet loads of them play purely FX using either TWS, FX Trader or a 3rd party order entry system like Button Trader.

And to say that traders don't want to pay for 3rd party software is a nonsense statement. Some do, some don't, just like life. I for example do and view the payment as an excellent investment. You don't want to pay and would therefore view the payment as wrong. Nothing wrong with either of those statements, we're all different, we all trade different, and we all have our preferred brokers.

IB is my preferred broker and I love what they offer but they're not perfect when it comes to software so I use IB + Button trader and for me, this has super charged my order entry and order management capabilities. Others might like to try the combination to see if it can help them. If it can then great, if it can't then DUMP Button Trader is my advice, nothing ventured nothing gained etc.
Road To Wisdom? To err and err and err again, but less and less and less...
  • #656
  • Jun 22, 2015 3:02am Jun 22, 2015 3:02am
Quoting Forexia
{quote} DAX is NOT spot FX. Like I said, button traders is built more for futures/options trading not really for FX.
DAX - a number which goes up and down. Traders who want to enter the market have only 3 choices - go to market, enter via a stop, enter via a limit order.

EUR-USD - a number which goes up and down. Traders who want to enter the market have only 3 choices - go to market, enter via a stop, enter via a limit order.

Yes, one is a currency and the other an index but whatever broker you use the order entry will be the same process for either market.

In effect all the different markets operate in the same fashion so order entry software will treat all the markets exactly the same as they're just numbers moving up and down.

A good and quick example of this is FXCM. I use them to test out certain trading ideas with very small risk (spread betting). If I click on EUR-USD I get exactly the same order entry ticket as if I click DAX or Crude. Why? Because they're all just numbers and FXCM knows that order entry is the same for all 3.

Same with Button Trader, entering and working and order on EUR-USD is no different from DAX or anything else as the trader only ever has 3 choices.
Road To Wisdom? To err and err and err again, but less and less and less...
  • #657
  • Jun 22, 2015 3:04am Jun 22, 2015 3:04am
is a nonsense statement. Some do, some don't, just like life. I for example do and view the payment as an excellent investment. You don't want to pay and would therefore view the payment as wrong. Nothing wrong with either of those statements, we're all different, we all trade different, and we all have our preferred brokers. IB is my preferred broker and I love what they offer but they're not perfect when it comes to software so I use IB + Button trader and for me, this has super charged my order entry and order management capabilities. Others might like to try the combination to see if it can help them. If it can then great, if it can't then DUMP Button Trader is my advice, nothing ventured nothing gained etc.[/quote]

Wow IB must be paying you HEFTY commissions for your endorsement of them. LOL I NEVER said that
Quoting Calculus
{quote} traders don't want to pay for 3rd party software
only that they shouldn't HAVE to because Button Trader REALLY didn't offer anything extra to justify the extra cost over the existing FX trading platform that they provide for free:

Quoting Forexia
{quote} All I am saying is with Button Traders having made absolutely no improvement over FX Trader of TWS in terms of addressing FX Trader's needs, it really doesn't justify the cost it's trying to charge traders especially FX traders in using it. We traders pay enough just to trade and we shouldn't have to PAY for using a trading platform. Plenty of free, working trading platforms out there and no point using button traders.
You obviously responded without reading my comments again. This is getting really annoying that I have to repeat my same comments again and again and again. You do this ONE more time, I am going to have to start ignoring you and reporting you to be a commercial member working for IB.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #658
  • Jun 22, 2015 3:09am Jun 22, 2015 3:09am
Quoting Calculus
{quote} DAX - a number which goes up and down. Traders who want to enter the market have only 3 choices - go to market, enter via a stop, enter via a limit order. EUR-USD - a number which goes up and down. Traders who want to enter the market have only 3 choices - go to market, enter via a stop, enter via a limit order. Yes, one is a currency and the other an index but whatever broker you use the order entry will be the same process for either market. In effect all the different markets operate in the same fashion so order entry software will treat...
Ok you just proved my point. If IB has already provided a platform that can enter trades for all instruments then WHY do I have to PAY to use another when this more expensive one offers NO value-added features or benefits?

Thanks for confirming what I have been saying all along. LOL
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #659
  • Edited 4:49am Jun 22, 2015 4:30am | Edited 4:49am
Please put me on ignore Forexia because you're being very naive. Be a sneak/grass as well if you want and report me, I'd love to see if the Mods agree with you that I'm pimping IB.

IB is a multi billion $ capitalised firm so to suggest they're paying me or anyone else a commission to pimp them on this board is the most ridiculous statement I've heard this month, and believe me, I've heard a few.

Assume they were though, how much do you think my pimping would be worth? $50, $100, surely it can't be more. Would you pay that if you were head of marketing of a multi-billion corporation or would you view such payments as a complete waste of time and a joke.
Road To Wisdom? To err and err and err again, but less and less and less...
  • #660
  • Jun 22, 2015 4:38am Jun 22, 2015 4:38am
Quoting Forexia
{quote} If IB has already provided a platform that can enter trades for all instruments then WHY do I have to PAY to use another when this more expensive one offers NO value-added features or benefits?
You don't have to pay if you don't want to or view Button Trader as not worth the money. Nobody is putting a gun at your head and nobody will. Your decision is the right one for you.

But for me, the right decision is to pay and I'm very happy with my investment. Others might agree with me, others might find my comments useful, others won't. But this is a thread about the merits of IB the broker. I'm happily to report, unpaid I can assure you, that IB is a great broker for FX and if you tag on Button Trader everything works even better.

If people therefore are unhappy with putting in orders and order management with IB, as I was, I'd recommend they take a free trial of Button Trader. Nothing ventured nothing gained. If they like it and view the investment would be worthwhile, they'll probably keep using it and will pay. If however they are like you, they won't like it and will view it as a waste of money/investment. Either decision will be the right one for them, that's what's important.
Road To Wisdom? To err and err and err again, but less and less and less...
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