Has anyone developed a simple program that can download signals from a C2 system and enter them into IB’s TWS? A program like that would be a great help to both system designers and their subscribers. In my case, all I would need are buy and sell stop orders, buy and sell limit orders, and buy and sell market orders for stocks.
I’ve looked at Trader68 and TradeBullet and, though impressive, they are way more than I need.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Cliff
If you are talking about autotrading in real time, then I think the 2 you mentioned are Gen 1, and then there is Gen 2 and Gen 3 also. I suggest you read the "AutoTrading set of links on the left of this page(yellow “Autotrading” title bar with red letters)
I don’t know of any Gen 1 alternatives… but you might want to read the Autotrading
I also am not sure whether you mean your OWN signals from your system, that are not necessarily realtime.
I gave up on Gen1 and 2 with IB and go myself an options one account and an FXCM account for generation 3. I could not get trader 68 to work with IB.
Thanks Randall and Index for the replies. I may be able to purchase a better autotrading solution for my subscribers, or I may be able to develop something myself.
Cliff
Hi Cliff,
Did you get any further with this? I’m using Trader68 but like you find it overkill and with some drawbacks.
I’m tossing up investing some time to develop a simple C2 -> IB system if noone’s already done it.
Hi Swig,
I’m still looking into it. I did get an offer from someone to build a solution for $500. Also I’ve learned that IB occasionally has webinars on using its API with Visual Basic. I’m not much of a programmer, but since my needs a pretty simple I might be able to do it myself.
IB is a very popular broker with traders and I’m surprised C2 doesn’t offer a simpler solution. If you could develop something I would be very grateful.
I see the complexity of the current autotrading interfaces as a big limitation on attracting a wider audience of subscribers. In fact, it is actually far more simpler for me to submit orders directly to IB than to C2, nevermind deal with the issues from C2 to a broker.
From corresponding with Trader68. the issues involved with syncing and reconcilation with C2 can be a huge headache. My impression is it needs to run 24/7 or it is liable to mess up.
TWS does support basket trading. Perhaps making available a downloadable CSV file that can be imported into TWS each night is a simpler solution?
For interface software, I think the easiest method for C2 would be to modify the TradeStation to IB systray application to recognize emails sent from other TA platforms. I would think TradeStation is priced out of the market for those interested in autotrading.
Maybe the simplest solution of all would be adopting kaChing’s Genius model and get rid of the broker interfacing alltogether.
um, how would that work with futures, options and forex?
Trader68 is a freebie. TradeBullet seems lot more time tested.
Definitely seems a lot more opportunity to get a basket of trades from C2 to than the current methods.
The whole autotrading thing seems like something that continuously hampers newer traders. T68 and TB require a lot of clunky expectations. The Gen3 should be a lot less expensive and on a lot more brokers, especially for small instruments. $4 RT is a lot to add…
Index, we charge money because doing this is actually quite hard and requires a ton of programming, legal, sales, and compliance overhead. Lots of customers use Gen3 AutoTrading and are delighted by it. Those customers who don’t want to pay per-trade fees for Gen3 AutoTrading have other excellent self-service solutions to choose from. Incidentally, Gen3 AutoTrading is still free for stocks and options.
Hi Cliff,
I’m running IB’s TWS under linux and therefore tradebullet oder trader68 is not an alternative.
I found an already existing project for “c2 -> tws”.
See:
http://freshmeat.net/projects/algotrade
http://sourceforge.net/projects/algotrade/
I didn’t have the time to test it…
Hi John,
I’ll look into that project.
Thanks very much,
Cliff
What good is Gen3 being free for stocks and options if the only broker offering it is overpriced optionsXpress? All the rest of the brokers offering Gen3 are forex-only bucket shops.
What can we do to get professional-level brokers such as thinkorswim or Interactive Brokers to offer Gen3?
MB Trading now appears to be supporting Gen3 in the autotrade setup under “Under construction.” They’re not as cheap as Interactive Brokers on a per share basis, but there’s also no hassle of Trader68 or TradeBullet.
This is an encouraging development!
Broker interfaces under “Under Development” are not yet ready and will not actually trade. Just sit tight and hopefully we’ll be able to announce something soon.
Hi Matthew,
Would you be good enough to give us more information? I’m interested if you are also looking forward to get gen3 trading work with Interactive Brokers.
Best regards
Josef
Hi,
well, while GEN3 is definitely superior to GEN1, money matters, as otherwise people would not be here 
- I just cross-checked with my FX-account. I subscribed to a good system. On C2 it is plus - in my account I am in a drawdown. So I checked and my loss nearly exactly matches the Autotrading commission, without this I would be break-even. If one adds in the high spread the FX-brokers take (e.g., compared to IB), then I would probably nicely in the winning zone…
Anyway, I don’t want to mourn. I only wanted to emphasize the discussion going on here. Even if Gen1 is a hazzle, it is better to have Gen1-hazzle and win money than to loose with Gen3.
(Actually, I am trading another account with Trader68 and it is altogether not so much of a hazzle, if it would not be for some rather awkward T68 behavior.)
So, I wondered: did anyone make any progress along the earlier lines of this thread, i.e…, direct C2 to IB interface, lightweight, simple, no gadgets?
Thanks a lot
Klaus
Hi,
did anyone already check the algotrade option?
Klaus
