Interactive Brokers SDK/API review for quant development

Please feel free to read my new post – “IB SDK/API review”

 

This article reflects my experience developing an automated equity trading platforms using the IB SDK/API. I have written this article as an individual, not representing IB (Interactive brokers) in ANY way. The IB Application…

http://caapitech.blogspot.com/2011/12/ib-sdkapi-review.html

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I have a lot of experience in IB API also. Main issues:
1. No real-time for demo account.
2.GetHystoricalPrices has a lot of limitand buggy

 

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1. Good Point. I didn’t bother to write any information about the IB Demo Accounts , because its lack many features, But I will add it to the review.
2. Do you mean : reqHistoricalData ? I didn’t have any problem with that function , Can you be more specific ?

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reqHistoricalData – exactly.
No more 6 symbols and no more 10 times per 10 min if i do not mistake.
reqRealtime bars don`t work.
And some other about history.

 

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No broker gives realtime dat for free in a demo account (edemo/demouser) immediately accessible worldwide: that would be foolish and also probably impossible.
IB provides realtime data in paper trading.

In my opinion IB is currently the best and most serious broker around, and this is confirmed by public pooling and reviews.

See for instance: http://www.elitetrader.com/br/ ,
number speak for themselves. It’s not however a broker for dumb people or for people with no money (personally, i consider less than 100K be “no money” when trading is concerned).

Being the #1, it is also the object of many envy “wanna be” brokers, as well as object of denigration attempts from various scammers (mostly forex) that need continuosly new sukers for their activities.

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For my strong opinion IB is the best, of course.

But i talk about issues that happened during developing custom apps with IB API.

 

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MbTrading provide a free demo account with realtime bars, even thow , they write in there webpage that Demo logins may not see the current day for day bars, the current hour for min bars, or the current 20 mins for tick bars , I still get realtime bars with my demo account.
As a developer , I would expect the broker to give me a free access to the API ( for a period amount of time) , in order to test it , and see if it can be useful to my clients needs . After all , I want to deliver the best quality customer service to my clients, And build for them a trading platform that will maximize the return of there investment.
And from the other side , If I see that I’m happy with a specific API , then I will suggest it to other clients. AS I see it, Giving me a temporal free access to the API , is a win win situation , for both sides.

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Regarding the reqHistoricalData,reqRealTimeBars ,

Its not a bug ,Its a limitation. As I wrote in the review , you are limited to 60 data requests in any ten-minute period.
For more Info you can read :
http://interactivebrokers.com/php/apiUsersGuide/apiguide/api/historical_data_limitations.htm

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regarding the free data realtime to anyone it seems to me that is not the mission of a broker. It might perhaps be a (welcome) service of exchanges.

Only a broker with relatively few customers, which is not the case o IB, might probably endure that. (Not sure what advantage could have though).
Once you open the account you can download all the realtime data you need for free (if the account is funded and active). Frankly if i were a broker i would do the same.

>As a developer , I would expect the broker to give me a free access to the API …
> Giving me a temporal free access to the API …

Not sure in which sense you are making this remark. To make sure, let me say that there is no such thing as temporary access to API with IB (as for instance for brokers like OEC).

IB API are free for anyone and one can develop right away using the demo account, which provides delayed or fictitious data, which is anyway good enough for development and debugging purposes (with the additional advantage that you will not have the mkt restrictions you would experience in paper trading, which emulates exactly a real account, and therefore would require subscriptions to test some specific instruments and markets). This is a right philosophy and i hope they won’t change this.

Anyone can download from the links:
http://download.interactivebrokers.com/download/tws40_install.exe (TWS and GATEWAY)

API: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/download/InstallAX_966.exe

and start immediately coding a platform and strategies… 😉

 

 

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