Trades (6E & 6B) 10/27 (Tues) & Interactive Brokers

6E 5min

6B 89-Ticks

It's been a long time - that whenever I make ONE point on 6E, I'll see "11" as the first 2 figures on my NET PnL.

My other broker had spoiled me with "12". When things seem too good to be true, they usually are.

I'm very contented with IB now. I've never been calmer in my trades. Even when I was getting in and out of trade chasing that run up on 6B yesterday, there was not a single incident of "fills" issue on IB's BookTrader. I covered my longs either at exactly where market was, or at a price higher than market (ie. my offer was matched with a bid).

D has not received a certain piece of document from IB - it was supposed to have arrived days ago.

Unlike before, we hadn't made a fuss.

No one's perfect. And no company is perfect.

IB is far from perfect of course - terrible charts, substandard service, its TWS MUST die on the dot at 9:30pm ET EVERYDAY and 12am ET (that's my daytime and trading time) - despite all these, it gives me a chance to make it at trading by fairly matching and sending my orders. If ever I make a loss on a trade, it's always due to the fact that I had made a bad judgement call at my end in the first place, NOT coz I had entered at a super lousy price, or couldn't get filled when I'm on the right side of the market (on the wrong side, I DO get filled. Which is why the issue of my internet connection is irrelevant).

The consequence of not getting filled consistently when you are aligned with the market is that you end up taking inferior setups after that, if you were not already sitting on a paper loss after CHASING price up/down after missing your golden WINDOW (and really, how many of such windows do we have in a day - particularly for those who have only a limited time to trade per day?). The opportunity cost is merely the tip of the ice-berg.

This Business Of Trading

I'm NOT going to be trading today and tomorrow.

Something else has caught my interest - something I believe is knowledge that I have to have as a serious trader.

Until recently, I've never really given much thoughts to issues such as data feeds, robustness of trading platforms, and how my orders are processed (the routes they take to get to the Exchanges, the intermediaries involved, the clearing process etc, etc), coz they are hardly topics you'll find in your Trading 101 syllabus.

For some, the above might NEVER be an issue. But for me, having a thorough understanding of the workings within the industry and the order flow process is instrumental in guiding my decision making in the various aspects of my trading career.

As I've said before, I have no intention of changing my trading style just to get around a problem that I can readily fix by simply eliminating certain undesirable variables. The way I trade is the outward manifestation of my core beliefs and assumptions- about the market and the mobs that trade them, and about myself - as well as my personal values. I can't trade any other way except that which comes as 2nd nature to me , especially if it's one that gives me an edge.

It makes sense for me to look for alternatives that accommodate me, allow me to exploit my edge, and keep me in business.

If I were a farmer running a LARGE farming operation today, I'm not going to be using horses (inefficient, and could trample me to death), coz it simply doesn't make sense when my competitors are using tractors.

SPREAD Is The Issue In Question

Following the discussion on my frustration with trade execution, this is what I want to say to wrap up the issue:

The problem I'm having is with SPREAD. Not connection, not speed, not the specs of my PC, not with feeds, not with charts. It's plainly the ridiculous SPREAD of 3 to 4, and on some occasions, 5 ticks (even during active US trading session on non-volatile days!)!

And of course, the covering of an additional contract that I wasn't aware of (no confirmation that order went through, and with DOM confirming there was just 1 contract trading) which DOUBLED my loss.

I have none of the above problem when trading on IB's platform.

I am looking for a video software to capture a live trade on the AT platform. Once installation is done, I will trade the NQ (since it has the smallest tick value among the instruments I trade) live.

TransAct's "Technical Analysis"

TransAct came back with a reply. What they are suggesting is that the problem originates from my end (connection problem).

D wants to do a video capture of both IB and AT platforms to show that we have no connection problem.

I told him to forget it. In the first place, connection problem was NOT what I was complaining about!

But just for argument's sake:

On IB, I have 30 tickers and on TOS I have also 30 tickers and both are streaming in on second by second basis.

My used bandwidth is less than 90kbps (with IB, TOS and TransAct running). Then I turned off IB and TOS, leaving just TransAct on.

With ONLY TransACT on, I'm looking at a pathetic used up bandwidth of less than 10kbps.

When I download videos or files from certain servers in the US, the consumed bandwidth can easily go up to 5Mbps - that is 500 times more than what is required for TransAct.

So, my question is: how could my internet connection be a problem??

D (being a techie himself) challenges his colleagues in other tech departments FOR A LIVING. he knows when someone is pulling a fast one on him.

AT Platform & TransAct Issues - Last Straw

I was at my workstation at 8am local time and started watching forex futures. For 3 hours I sat just watching, and finally I see what I want on both 6E and 6J.

I clicked on "Join Bid" after price has taken out the high of the previous candle (I was long the 6E).

No fill.

So I clicked on AT's DOM 3 times - at a place that's 1 tick above market - 3 times coz each time, my orders didn't get through.

Still nothing happened. It seemed. But I knew all too well what was going on, and I clicked "Cancel All" to make sure that I have indeed no orders pending. The DOM IMMEDIATELY showed "Cancel All Complete":

For some strange reasons, I was only allowed to trade 1 contract today. Given what I saw last Friday, where 6E was completely GONE from my list, this was an improvement. At least I could still trade today!

Anyway, just to see if my order was indeed completely cancelled, I clicked bid way below market price (just so that I will definitely NOT get filled), and I wasn't surprised to see "Position Limit Exceeded" on my DOM and on my trade service log:


That was a confirmation that my previous order was still pending (coz I could trade just ONE contract). It was a good 2 minutes after my last execution and my order was not filled, but not cancelled either, and during this time, price has gone way above where I wanted to enter a long on both the 6E and 6J.

I've had a really nasty experience last Friday, where I entered a TF trade at market at around 1:30pm ET, and my order wasn't filled. So I clicked again, and this time, my order got through, and the AT DOM reflected a "+1". I got a really lousy fill (expected, since I was forced to enter at market after I've experienced too many no fills when I clicked on the DOM - even at 1 tick above where price was trading), and when price turned back down 4 ticks, invalidating my entry, I covered. And I was very surprised to see a "-2" on my DOM, meaning that I had lost 8 ticks on the trade (I was up 6 ticks for the day before this trade). I checked my trade log, and saw that I was actually trading TWO contracts, coz my first entry had actually gone through without my knowledge. The DOM showed a "+1" the whole time.

I wrote to Anthony, and he advised that I install the newest Beta version of AT. I did. And this morning, I was using the newest AT version. And it seemed that my problem got worse. First the contract size limit error (I have near $10k with IF - I know that even if I trade globex hours, I can trade MORE than 1 contract), then the fill problem, and then the misleading "cancel all complete" status.

After hours of patiently waiting for a decent setup, and price had moved enough for me to take my usual scalps, on both instruments I had wanted to trade, and I was TRAPPED OUT BY MY TRADING PLATFORM, I would have raised hell.

But I went to make coffee instead. D wakes up to the smell of homebrewed coffee (D's working from home). Yes, I'm scheming. D jumped out of his bed indeed, and as he was sipping coffee, I told him what happened.

D took a look at the trading log that I never knew how to access. And when he showed me what actually happened, I was NOT PLEASED.

The trading log above showed that my orders were cancelled only 2 sometimes 3 minutes later! Had I not been limited to just 1 contract (thank you, AT???), I would have entered 3 to 4 contracts AT LEAST, without knowing!), thinking that all previous orders were cancelled!

D copied an email that he sent to Anthony last Friday, where he highlighted exactly the same problem he faced. Anthony advised installing the new AT version, And that was when D installed it to see if things would improve. He was able to enter by hitting "Join Bid" on Friday.

As I have mentioned, I have been having problems with the AT platform for weeks. And at different times, it gives me different problems. And the problems have gotten more grievous. I have been getting lousy fills getting in and getting out, and I decided to change the way I trade to get around the problem.

I switched to less noisy charts and wait for a more stable setup and timeframe to trade. And I really don't like it when I see price takes off without me, NOT coz I had place a limit at the wrong place, but coz AT doesn't want my business (unless I enter at market and give away 3 to 4 ticks of slippage!).

I am still cool now. But I am not going to put up with this anymore. Last week was filled with lousy executions on good setups and I ended up having to scratch all my trades at lousy fills (I know I was trading within a 2-point range, but it wasn't something I hadn't done before - and 6E's volume was NORMAL - damn, I'm so done with repeating the story!)

The thing is, I'm frustrated that my business being disrupted. I was telling J I am dead serious with what I'm doing, and I have been VERY patient, given that I have by default a very short temper and a very high expectation of the things I use.

Sierra charts gave me a headache over the weekend after I installed the new version. Even my IT guru couldnt' retrieve the data files that I had on the previous versions. He kept going back to the older versions and installing each one of them until he could finally get one that could retrieve my files. At one point I broke into tears and D was shocked. He said he would always be there to help, and asked me not to cry. I told him that was precisely what I didn't want: HELP. I never wanted to fix anything that wasn't broken, and he kept giving me new versions of something that get worse with each version and this time, I lost all my files!

What I still haven't told him til today was that I had gotten really desperate! I can't keep sitting on my hands and give up trading opportunities, and losing money - and sometimes MORE than what I projected I would lose if I laid a bad bet - coz of bad fills and platform faults (telling me that I'm holding one contract instead of two is a fault!). I am aggressive, impatient, ambitious and extremely controlling all at the same time, and all this software issues are really testing my thresholds!

I am writing not to trash Anthony. He has done his best and always prompt in responding. I know it's a TRANSACT issue, and he never once blamed them. I'm very unhappy with TransAct (particularly, the consistently bad fills at market!), and I just want to find out if I am the only one facing all the problems I have mentioned.

I am not even going to give it another week. I am looking for a new trading software and platform (I'll keep Sierra for now, coz I really like the old version!) that allows me to trade SERIOUSLY.

I have asked Lonely for his recommendation, and he's suggested Mirus that's using Zen-fire feeds. I would really appreciate any sharing of experience with TransACT, Zenfire, AT platform (I have used Ninja and don't like it - my coach uses Ninja and IB feeds and loves it - I gather it's coz we trade very differently - he doesn't scalp).

I am not unreasonable - AT's free. But so is IB. IB at least gives me a fill after SECONDS, or outright reject my fills without misleading me, or just kept me logged out forever on a rather regular basis during US session (globex session was fine). But IT DOESN'T MISLEAD ME nor gives me lousy fills! It's actually within one of my considerations now! I'll simply give them the margin they ask for - which I can more than afford, and simply don't understand my folly of going for a $500 margin. Oh yes, I hated their customer service, if there was any to begin with!

So, I'm paying. I am going to pay for a platform that allows me to scalp (for 8 ticks - which I won't even categorize as a scalp - and I really don't want to give away a slippage of 4 ticks for that!), and provides reasonable customer service (a number to call, and someone's actually there to pick up).

I know about TT's X_Trader but I'm looking for something that's less professional for home trading. I'll be using X_Trader in Jan when I join an arcade to trade the Asian market, but I still want to continue to trade the US market from home.

It's 12:47pm now (midnight N.Y.), and I'm wrapping up, with ZERO trades. I am not going in to give away ticks each time anymore. It simply doesn't make any business sense. I am definitely not going to swing trade to accommodate the platform. I scalp. I like it, and I do it well. It is the way I will continue to trade. I simply have to find the tools that allow me to do what I do best PROFITABLY in the long run.