Has anyone traded futures at IB with the new Gen3 interface yet and does it work properly?
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Melissa Karty, of BulldogFX, the introducing broker that one must go through to auto-trade futures at Interactive Brokers, has worked very hard with the folks at IB to iron out a kink in the process of linking my IB futures-only account to the BulldogFX account.
Unfortunately, it has not yet worked . . . at least for my account, so I’ve been unable to auto-trade.
Others may have better news.
We’d love to hear it!
On a related note, I’ve been manually trading stocks at IB for a number of months. Since presently one can auto-trade at IB only with accounts that are set up to exclusively trade futures, I made the following mistake:
I created a new, futures-only account by linking it to my current IB account. Although that is much faster than creating a fresh, new IB account, you will not be able to link an account to BulldogFX that is itself a linked account.
You must open up a brand-new, futures-only IB account in order to link it to BulldogFX.
I learned that the hard way too which caused delays.
After going through the application process for a brand new account with a different email address I made a minor mistake by putting a middle initial on my name which my two existing accounts don’t have and now I find out that because of that I cannot transfer funds to the new account. I asked IB to correct this and hope I do not have to go through a brand new application again.
After much delay I finally got my new IB account, futures only, approved and activated, however, I cannot link it to BulldogFX Corp at this time.
Has anyone be able to do that?
That’s precisely the rub, Karl. I, too (and others who have contacted me), am/are still in a holding pattern regarding Gen3 auto-trading at IB.
Please be assured that I’m corresponding almost daily with Melissa Karty, of the introducing broker BulldogFX, and she has assured me time and again that she’s doing everything in her power to resolve the problem at IB.
The problem remains at IB. Melissa emailed me today that she would let me know when IB has a resolution date.
The only comforting thought is this: Just think of how much money were NOT losing by NOT trading!!
SUCCESS!
It looks like the linking process “took” this time at IB.
Now I’m awaiting IB’s approval.
Good luck to all!
–Josh
Now I get a message from BulldogFX basically saying that my newly approved IB account for futures only is no good and was a waste of time and that I have to start a new application based on the invitation they just sent me.
Was it not possible for BulldogFX to find out what the right procedure is in the first place? Very frustrating indeed.
I’m happy to report that Interactive Brokers confirmed that my futures-only account is now linked up with BulldogFX and I’m ready to Gen3 Auto-trade futures at IB!
IB performs the linking operation only once a week, apparently, at 3:00 PM (CT? ET?) on Fridays. So that may cause a brief delay depending on which day you initiate the linking process.
Good luck to all!
–Josh
One note of warning: Gen3 at IB is not available to persons with a Canadian address.
I wanted to report that I began Gen 3 auto-trading of futures at Interactive Brokers last Friday.
In the set-up process I had entered a stop-loss. There was some issue with IB, so I was immediately stopped out with a $25 loss.
Melissa Karty of BulldogFX (the introducing broker) said the issue has been resolved and that one may now employ (or alter) a stop-loss as part of the Gen 3 auto-trading process with IB. Thanks, Melissa!
Has anyone else begun Gen 3 auto-trading with IB? I’d love to hear your experiences.
I began autotrading Gen 3 at IB through BulldogFX midweek last week…so far, no complaints. Everything working fine, futures only in my account. This is contributing to TOS for Golden LightSwitch.
Rob
A little while ago I set up auto trading for a system which had a short EUR position of one contract… I was shortly afterwards correctly filled but a little while later a second short contract was incorrectly added. A little while after that the second contract was closed out, I guess sync kicked in, resulting in an unnecessary loss of $28.
Not a good beginning.
For some reason IB was taking more than 2 minutes to update its position after a fill tonight, so it reported incorrect position info back to us during that time and Sync naturally tried to open a position it saw as flat.
Eventually IB caught up, reported correct positions to us and Sync readjusted your position.
We submitted a bug report to IB. Meanwhile, we’ll extend our ‘allowed’ delay so we ignore their positions for longer.
Would anyone be willing to share their costs of Gen3 futures trading at IB? What commissions and fees do Bulldog and IB charge?
I’m currently using OEC and their fees are quite high at $1.99 per contract on top of $1.29 commission. But at least I have no problem getting my account set up and connected to C2 and there is no introducing broker or third party software to deal with.
I think C2 does a very poor job of documenting how all this works and what it costs with different brokers.
Hi, Dan.
I’ve had just one trade (of one futures contract) opened and closed at IB via Gen3 auto-trading. I was charged $4.00 per side ($8 total). I’m assuming this includes IB’s fees and BulldogFX’s fees.
(I believe that BulldogFX charges $1.99 per contract.)
I know that IB has a lower commission structure for high-volume traders, but that’s not me . . . not yet, anyway.
If you’re getting reasonable fills and service with OEC, it doesn’t sound so bad.
–Josh
I think lots of C2 users would like to Gen3 trade through IB for all asset classes. As I understand this, it’s only possible right now for futures and only through an introducing broker (BulldogFX). C2 says IB will not give them the names of introducing brokers who would be willing to set up equities, forex, options etc for Gen3/IB/C2.
If anyone can help with this Catch-22 please send a note, thanks.
I would like to know, whether IB be charging Inactivity fees, as it does on other accounts
With both accounts I’ve set up at IB – my initial account and the new Gen3 Auto-trading futures-only account – I was charged a $10 per month inactivity fee. That charge ceased as soon as I began trading.
Hi Josh,
Thanks for your quick update, appriciate it,
ok so the way I understand, Inactivty rule still applies, and if trade fall into their inactivity conditions, inactivity charges still do apply,
because in my case the auto trading I do, rarely would be able to surpass the inactivity condition, and hence it will be an extra burden of $10 per month
