Finacial advisor w/ IB

[rightcoast]

1. I have strategy "A" that runs automated with NT 6.5
2. I have a financial advisor account with interactive brokers
3. I have 3 people requesting that I trade strategy "A" for them as well
4. All 3 have accounts @ IB ($100, $200, $300) respectively and my account is $400
5. Combined = $1,000
6. Strategy "A" says buy 10 shares market with protective stop
7. Ideally I need to allocate (1, 2, 3) shares for 3 customers and 4 shares for me.

Questions:
1. I believe you do not support IB's allocation alogrithm?

2. Do I need to copy Strategy "A" 4 times each with it's own share allocation? and in
turn run all 4 in 1 chart?
3. Should I instead use 4 instances of NT on seperate machines?

[NinjaTrader_RyanM]

Hello rightcoast,

1) Correct, we don't support IBs allocation algorithm.

You may be able to create 4 strategy instances within one NinjaTrader installation - Each one with different order quantity here and assigned to the appropriate account. You can run from a chart or the strategy tab of the control center.

The main consideration here is if all 4 accounts are available under one login used to connect with TraderWorkStation. Only one connection to IB can be made at a time so if this is not possible you would have to move to 4 separate machines.

[rightcoast]

All 4 accounts will be accessible under 1 login for TWS. So the workaround seems to apply Strategy as "A1, A2, A3, A4" each with it's own trade quantity logic. and
it's possible to trade all 4 on 1 chart. If this is correct, how can I determine the maximum # of strategies as well as the maximum amount of customers and lastly the
maximum amount charts I can run before I need to move to another machine? Kinda hypothetical 3gb ram 3ghz CPU. Thanks

[NinjaTrader_RyanM]

Yes, all strategies can be run from the same chart. Unfortunately we aren't able to offer these performance guidelines. There are too many factors beyond your computers specs. You should evaluate on your machine on simulated accounts with market replay. Can see here for performance tips you can take to reduce Ninja's resource requirements:
http://www.ninjatrader-support.com/HelpGuideV6/PerformanceTips1.html

[everington_f]

I also have an Advisor account at IB, with several clients attached.

So simply put if NT sends an order for 10 contracts to an IB advisor account ... TWS at the IB end will not be able to allocate those trades across the accounts?


If this is the case you guys really should get this sorted out and support the IB Allocation Algorithm - A multibroker licence is frankly useless without that ability to allocate trades.

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hello everington,

Thank you for your post and for your feedback.

You are correct. The order allocation portion of this account is a feature of TWS itself.
Unfortunately, this feature is not avaialble to NinjaTrader as it stands currently, but a change here is on development's list of future considerations for the software.

[everington_f]

NT is a good system, but getting that issue sorted would attract a whole bunch of new clients for you. There are an awful lot of CTAs out there who would then see NT as a truly professional tool. Please get that allocation issue dealt with.

Regards

Expanding CTA.

[ninjaGeorge]

I have the same problem, and without the ability to trade multiple IB accounts I'll stick with my current solution. Pity.:(

[tradetree]

I found this thread searching for information on trading Interactive Broker accounts. I have a variation on this question. I have multiple of my own accounts at IB. Can I trade them using NT, or are you saying that I can't trade multiple accounts, even my own? That would definitely defeat the purpose of NT, which is to be a one-stop platform. Also, I have accounts other places than IB. I currently have Vision Financial. So I assume I can trade both Vision and IB accounts?

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hello tradetree,

Thank you for your post.

To be clear, it is possible to trade multiple IB (or IB and Vision) accounts through NinjaTrader. What is unavailable is the component within TWS which handles automated order allocation to the different accounts.

[tradermike]

With all due respect, you guys have literally been saying for YEARS that this (IB allocation) will be "added to your list"!!!!!

In all seriousness, under what circumstances would Ninja actually consider implementing this?

Is there anything that customers can do to influence making this happen? Clearly there is and has been a strong desire from our side.

[Operandi]

Would this solution work?

Run multiple instances of TWS each connected to a different IB account and then create different account connections in NT for each TWS instance, but communicating on a different port to each TWS instance?

So we run one instance of NT with mutiple charts each connected to its own instance of TWS but via a different port number.

[NinjaTrader_Dierk]

With all due respect, you guys have literally been saying for YEARS that this (IB allocation) will be "added to your list"!!!!!

In all seriousness, under what circumstances would Ninja actually consider implementing this?

Is there anything that customers can do to influence making this happen? Clearly there is and has been a strong desire from our side.

Our priority is getting NT7 out of the door. This is what 99.9% of our users expect from us. Thus, we pushed off any feature requests. At a later stage we will evaluate all pending feature requests (including this one) and prioritize them. Unfortunately there is no ETA.

Thanks for your understanding

[NinjaTrader_Vincent]

Would this solution work?

Run multiple instances of TWS each connected to a different IB account and then create different account connections in NT for each TWS instance, but communicating on a different port to each TWS instance?

So we run one instance of NT with mutiple charts each connected to its own instance of TWS but via a different port number.


Hi, this is a scenario we have not tested and therefore don't know if this will work.

[Operandi]

Is it possible for NinjaTrader to test this suggestion please?

Thanks

[NinjaTrader_Vincent]

We have tested and were able to connect to a Live account and a Demo account at the same time with 2 TWS Standalones installed. Port numbers where changed on one connection option and in 1 TWS.

We are however, not able to submit Live trades so we can't tell you what the result will be.

[Operandi]

OK Thanks Vince.

Might it be a good future enhancement to also allow an IP address and port number for a TWS instance?

For example you could then run two seperate servers on the same LAN - one for the NT instance and the other for various instances of TWS. A competitive product already allows this.

Chris

[NinjaTrader_Vincent]

Thx for the suggestion will pass this on. However, as there's mentioned in one of the earlier posts, development is fully focused on the release of V7 and we can't tell when your request is being looked into.

[tradermike]

Hi Operandi,

A few comments...

1) I just tried your suggestion. I was able to successfully run two instances of TWS, one connected to my advisor account and one connected to a demo account. I went into the TWS for demo and changed the port. I was then successfully able to connect NinjaTrader to both intances of TWS.
Please note that I did not try to execute a trade, but rather, just observed the connections. Also this is possible even w/o a multi broker ninja license because we are going to the same brokerage.

2) I have multiple IB accounts, including an Advisor account with multiple client accounts connected to it. When I connect NinjaTrader to my Advisor account, I am able to "see" all client accounts from the Ninja side. So in this scenario, there is no need to have multiple TWS instances running, as you can already open up a separate chart/DOM for each sub-account.

3) The whole point of the ongoing "feature request" here is to enable the true functionality of IB allocation. This is a really cool feature whereby a single trade in the main Advisor account can be spread accross all the sub-accounts. This means you only have to place one trade, and manage stops on one chart. Right now this is a feature only available on the IB side. So in Ninja, I have to open a chart for each individual account.

Regards,
--tradermike

[tradermike]

Doh!

Sorry, I did not notice that there was a "page 2" of this thread which answered your question, prior to posting my reply.

[tradetree]

I wanted to vote positive for the need of this feature to support IB auto-allocation. I would even purchase a multi-broker license to do it.

[everington_f]

With all due respect, you guys have literally been saying for YEARS that this (IB allocation) will be "added to your list"!!!!!

In all seriousness, under what circumstances would Ninja actually consider implementing this?

Is there anything that customers can do to influence making this happen? Clearly there is and has been a strong desire from our side.


I agree 100 % with Tradermike on this issue. Instead of messing around with new indicators or other tweaks that experienced traders know simply dont help us make money, solve the issue of the IB allocation algorithm. Serious money managers and large lot traders need this more than anything else your developers could possibly come up with in a new NT version.