Bracket Order Offsets Broken with IB

[leigh]

Hi folks,

When using the chart trader with IB the offset prices for bracket orders are showing up incorrectly.

For example:

- In order defaults for IB connection set bracket type to "StopLoss and TakeProfit". Leave offsets to 10 and 10.

- 2 min chart of the SPY

- Click "Sell" button and click on $83.00 on the chart.

- The order ticket displays and the offset prices show up as:

Stop Loss: 84.74
Take Profit: 84.54

The offset values are showing correctly at 10 and 10 but the prices are way off. How can I take a profit at 84.54 when I shorted at 83.00? The proper prices should be Stop Loss: 83.10 (+10 ticks) and Take Profit: 82.90 (-10 ticks)

- The limit price on the order ticket properly displays 83.00 but it appears that the offsets think it's 84.64... weird.

- I tested with other instruments and the same odd behavior is present (try the YM).

- The offsets work just fine with the eSignal Paper Trade account.


My Setup:
- Vista Home Premium 64bit (I've tested eSignal in WinXP compatibility mode to no avail.)
- eSignal 10.3.1491.1162
- IB Bridge 1473 (I've tried 1494 to no avail)
- IB TWS 891.5 Jan 22 (I've tried the previous version to no avail.)
- Java 1.6.0_12


Is anybody else seeing the same behavior? I returned to eSignal for this very feature and it seems to be broken.

Take care,
Leigh

[eSignal_AveryH]

This behavior appears to be when you placing the order to be filled at Market Price.

On your order ticket what do you have selected as the Order Type?

If it show market it's going to use the best Ask price (highlighted in green) and the Brackets will be based off of that price. If this is not the case please provide screenshot so that we can better troubleshot where the price might be coming from.




AveryH
eSignal Support

[leigh]

Thank you for your reply Avery,

The order type on my order ticket was indeed "Limit".

Here is a snapshot just before clicking (to show bid/ask):




... and here is the order ticket:





After further testing I have found that the size of the chart window also affects what prices show up in the bracket offsets.

Here is a smaller chart just before clicking:





... and here is the order ticket:






To summarize:

- Limit order was selected and bracket prices are incorrect.

- Changing the size of the chart window changes the bracket prices (but they are still incorrect).

- If I switch back to eSignal paper trade everything works perfectly. The problem appears only when using IB bridge.

Thank you for your help!

Take care,
Leigh

P.S. Same behavior is exhibited with Vista Aero enabled or disabled.

[leigh]

Still a problem...

I tested this on Windows 2000 with the exact same results. Can someone confirm that this is indeed a problem that eSignal is working on?

Leigh

[eSignal_AveryH]

Hi Leigh,

I apologize for not getting back to you sooner with our finding. I’ve continued to test the IB configured plug in and was able to duplicate the same issue.

I’ve reported this as a bug to our Product Manager and Developers.

[leigh]

Great! Thank you Avery.

I wanted to make sure it was in the bug tracking system.

I should also note that there are further bugs with bracket orders unrelated to IB. For example, bracket orders do not execute for stocks (SPY, GS, etc) using the eSignal paper account. It's probably safe to conclude that it's the case with every account but I can't test that until the IB bug is fixed. When I get the time I will post a detailed bug report in the main eSignal forum. If this is already an acknowledged bug let me know.

Take care,
Leigh

[eSignal_AveryH]

Hello Leigh,

We’ve identified and corrected the incorrect pricing on the Bracket Trades. Please download and install this new Interactive Broker plug in 1504 . Please let me know you should have any issue.

Also once you've installed the new plug in let me know if you continue to experience the other issue you mentioned with Paper Trading.


AveryH
eSignal Support

[leigh]

Solved!

Hi Avery,

I have been testing the new bridge since you posted it and I can happily report that it has solved all of my problems!

Thank you very much for your help!

Take care,
Leigh

[eSignal_AveryH]

You are most welcome. Glad I could be of service.

AveryH
eSignal Support