Was anyone caught in the IB platform crash/disconnection on Friday, 1.5.18? IB was down for several hours. Not sure, but it may only have affected live trading. I happened to close a small winning trade and took a break, apparently just a few minutes before the event occurred, so I didn't actually see it happen.
Other than setting up a second brokerage account where one could go and place a counter trade from the one you have been severed from in this type of instance, is there any other way to protect yourself? (As I understand it, IB was unable to execute stop orders that were submitted before the event occurred.)
it is rather hard to protect yourself if the broker feed itself had technical difficulties and you are unable to execute.
Always have your trade desk number handy.
You can take protective measures if failures occur on your side whether technical or other.
However, in both cases, you can have a second account to execute from and it could be a good alternative.
Matt Z
Optimus Futures
There is a substantial risk of loss in future trading. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Trading futures and options involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. You may lose more than your initial investment. All posts are opinions and do not claim to be facts. Please conduct your own due diligence. Use only Risk capital when trading Futures.
1 800 771 6748 local 561 367 8686 email support@OptimusFutures.com
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However if a stop in place it should be in order book.
Problem comes when no stops. Rarely at this time trade desk number helps if broker side problem...due to L waits. However if broker is good they should help reconcile. I have had TS give me credit
Cheer n good luck
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My understanding with regard to the IB event is that everything on the IB side (at least for live trading) crashed, so stops already placed by traders did not function. Would be interested if someone would confirm that this was the case. As mentioned, I was 'flat', probably 20 minutes or less before the event.
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I hold an options position with IB but it doesn't expire until mid Feb, but it is very disturbing when one of the largest futures brokers has a system crash lasting many hours, especially when there was little to no news about the cause.
I've been with IB for 10+ years and I can't recall an issue that lasted more than a few minutes and those were very rare.
I thought IB had multiple redundant backup systems, that would take over in the event of a system-wide crash. I guess not.
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Agree with you completely. I would really appreciate it if IB would post something on their website explaining what happened and what, if anything, they are working on to try to prevent such severe future events.
I would be happy to provide IB a signed instruction (standing, contingent order) that in the event of such an occurrence they immediately flatten my position through some hardened back channel (which they may need to develop.) Might not be fail-safe, but the effort would be appreciated. Reaching their help desk in the event of this kind of event would be an extremely slow process. With the above suggestion, no call would be needed.
Stops live on the exchange, so they would still function if already submitted. I agree with other posters as far as preparedess, have their phone number handy. Even if platforms do go down, there are still people who submit orders the old school way over the phone.
Hello I was caught in it too. As I work in Europe, I imagine that their failure included the US and Europe, since you guys are on the Westcoast.
They were of course completely unavailable on the phone for the duration of the crash. No market data, no access to the trades.
Today (a normal day) their swiss bureau took a full 20mn to answer my call. I asked for explanation, they just answered they suffered a major incident. They did not volunteer any compensation for at least the market feeds I pay for . All in all, a very poor handling of the post-crash: no information on their site, no apology to the clients, no explanation given as to whether this will be fixed in the future.
Regards
Geodoc
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I also experienced the outage on Friday. I was lucky to be flat as well (been taking cold meds and cant trust anything my brain tells me). It was frustrating because their status pages said all was well and I couldnt initiate a support chat to see if it was just a problem on my end. Had also checked here to see if there was a thread. Really opened my eyes to a class of risk I had been overlooking, even though I almost always attach a stop to the entry order or right after being filled.
My understanding from IB is that transmitted stop orders rest at the market and not with them.
(I asked about stop orders re another concern with IB - however now they have taken to scrubbing old messages from your message box - beyond a certain age - I can't retrieve that for you. This is another I dislike very much about IB, but with IB its always our way or the highway - arrogant SOBs)
Send them a message asking what happens to your stop orders if IBs computers are down.
(As a side-not you can mention to them that a system status board is supposed to automatically refresh each minute - not days later.)
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peace, love and joy to you
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Interactive Brokers has really taken the cake this time... I just got a e-mail alert saying my account was down ~20k. Freak out because I shouldn't have any open positions - sign in and in fact see that a good chunk of my account is missing, even though I do not have any positions. Phone wait time is incredibly long, and this is all you see on their very difficult to find status page.
To all Traders:
There appears to be an issue with position display for some clients which we are working to resolve. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Guessing it's a transient issue (still haven't gotten through on the phone), but I'd rather my broker didn't misplace 20k and only have this ambiguous status message.
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IB has enjoyed a good reputation as a broker on this forum, so experiences like these are troubling.
Naturally, there will be issues from time to time with anyone and anything. But I do occasionally see comments about their attitude....
Anyone else have particularly good or bad experiences, overall? There has to be a reason they are well thought-of. How do the pluses and minuses balance out?
I have been using IB for a few months now with my IRA account, and like them. The TWS platform is pretty easy to get used to, and i have not had any issues with them as a broker. I think pretty highly of them when compared to experiences i have had with other brokers. The commissions are also low which is great, but i agree that getting through on the phone often takes a while. The double security thing is also pretty annoying, but you get used to it.
I do consistently have issues with IB and Ninja trader though. But that is NT's problem in my opinion and my preference for NT is slowly dieing.
Realize we're at risk of hijacking this thread for stuff that should maybe be in broker reviews, so apologies...
IB have generally been pretty good for me, but I have such basic requirements - server side bracket orders with an EMA indicator. I trade on a mix of a Windows laptop, MacBook and follow markets on my phone if I am commuting for example. They seem to be the only folks that can do that (without resorting to CQG Mobile) and the price of the platform / commissions is right. Their performance metrics suck, but when you trade across 3 devices you really need a cloud solution anyway. I just signed up for Tradervue and with the futures.io Elite discount, it's looking like a good answer.
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Boy am I glad I decided to be flat today (FOMC day)... Haven't been able to sign in to IB TWS for the past 20 minutes on either my mobile or desktop. System status is all green on their site. This has been a craptastic month - 20k disappearing from account one night, problems with bar data due to rollover and daylight savings times, and now system unavailability... I've been using them for around a year and it had been good, but might soon be time to start looking.
Just choose a backup broker. No need to stress like this. CQG and TT have mobile, desktop and downloadable products.
Matt Z
Optimus Futures
There is a substantial risk of loss in futures trading. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Trading futures and options involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. You may lose more than your initial investment. All posts are opinions and do not claim to be facts. Please conduct your own due diligence. Use only Risk capital when trading Futures.
1 800 771 6748 local 561 367 8686 email support@OptimusFutures.com
The following user says Thank You to mattz for this post:
So sorry to be a party pooper and provide a practical solution LOL
Matt Z
Optimus Futures
There is a substantial risk of loss in futures trading. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Trading futures and options involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. You may lose more than your initial investment. All posts are opinions and do not claim to be facts. Please conduct your own due diligence. Use only Risk capital when trading Futures.
1 800 771 6748 local 561 367 8686 email support@OptimusFutures.com
