Signal 7.1 and IB TWS (Integrated Trading)

[wombat53]

Does anyone know how to enter a futures transaction using the dialog trading box that is now available in eSgnal 7.1, when integrated with IB? I have tried symbols like ES Z2, NQ Z2, and supplied the expiration date, but am told the symbol is illegal, or not approved for my account (I do subscribe to eEMini quotes in eSignal) . I can and do trade futures with IB, but I do it directly from their platform. In fact, I just switched to IB because of the integration, in an effort to simplify my life, but simply cannot get a futures transaction through.

Thks
wombat

[dloomis]

Re: Reply to post 'Siognal 7.1 and IB TWS (Integrated Trading)'

the symbol might be ES with an expiration of 200212
----- Original Message -----
From: "eSignal Bulletin Board Mailer" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 6:45 PM
Subject: Reply to post 'Siognal 7.1 and IB TWS (Integrated Trading)'


> Hello dloomis,
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>

[gspiker]

I tired mailing this in, but it has been a few minutes and hasn't shown up. Thought I would post directly - but now this may well end up being a duplicate...

If you are running build 500+, you should get prompted if you want to add the symbol to the Symbology database when trying to add "ES" or "NQ". Say yes to this question.

IB Symbol = ES
eSignal Symbol = ES #F (or whatever symbol for ES you use on your charts - so that it can autopopulate correctly.
Exchange = Globex (or CME) whichever you want to use (I recommended Globex)
Expiry = DEC02 (for now, this will change of course...and yes, this means another place you have to remember to change it)

[EdKoF]

I think expiry date should be entered as 200212

Edo.

[eSignal_Todd]

Yes the expiry must be the 4 digit year followed by a 2 digit month with no spaces. It must also currently be updated manually each time a new contract comes out if you use the #F symbology. If you use the individual contract months, it would be best to just enter the next years worth of symbols in the Symbology.

There are 2 images of this Here and Here.

[gspiker]

Todd,

That's pretty odd, because DEC02 works great for me!

G

[wombat53]

Many thanks to all. Another(related) question. When would one choose to use the #F (continuous) contract vs. the more conventional expiration month? In other words, what are continuous futures?
Thks
George

[eSignal_Todd]

That's interesting. The API information we got from them specified that we needed to send the expiry in a format like I described, but there are always undocumented work arounds. If it also works that way, it's just another great piece of info we can use.

[ACM]

Re: Reply to post 'Signal 7.1 and IB TWS (Integrated Trading)'

George

Continuous futures are nothing else but the individual futures contracts
'stitched' together. They can be back adjusted to offset differences in the
values of the futures contracts caused by interest rates or other factors
(the back adjusting can be achieved in a number of ways) or can be just the
contracts attached one to another in series without any adjustments (this is
the way eSignal does it).
They are particularly useful for long[er] term analysis or backtesting.

There is no difference between the continuous contract and the specific at
the time when the specific is the front month. This means that as of now you
could use for example either ES #F or ES Z2 as the values of the two
contracts are identical from September 12th. As of December 12th the
continuous will be identical to the Mar03 specific contract.

Alex