Question about real money trading in Interactive Brokers

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Question about real money trading in Interactive Brokers

posted Jan 18, 2016

Seeking Help Getting Started

After months of backtesting, I would like to put my first algo for real money trading in IB. I have couple questions need some clarification from expert in this community.

Once my algo is up and running in IB. If I deposit more cash in the IB account, does algo takes care of new inflow capital for further calculation?
Do I need to use the same number of real-money account as my input of initial capital in backtest?
Can I still use TWS software to login and do other trades as usual? Or this IB account should be controlled by Quantopian completely for avoiding confusion?
How to know does the algo is running or still in warm-up period and how long of warm-up period will be?

Thanks.

1 response

Jamie McCorriston

Hi Adam,

Some of your questions are addressed in the live trading guidelines, but I'll answer them all here for convenience:

If you deposit cash into your IB account while the an algo linked to that account is running, it will appear as a jump in cash. Your algo will recognize that you have the new cash which will be incorporated into values like your portfolio value, total cash, etc. but your returns plot will have a big jump in it - the algo doesn't know where it came from. So yes, the cash is considered for further calculation, but your returns plot might look wonky.
The initial capital in your backtest is actually discarded. The cash in your IB real-money account will be used in its place.
You cannot login to the TWS software using the same login/password. If you want to still login to TWS, you an create a sub-account with IB that has different credentials.
When you launch your algorithm, you will get a live dashboard that will tell you when your algo is running and when it is warming up. The warm-up time will depend on your code. To test this, I would recommend that you first try trading with an IB paper account (you should always test your algo first with IB paper!)

I hope this helps.

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The material on this website is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation to buy, or a recommendation or endorsement for any security or strategy, nor does it constitute an offer to provide investment advisory services by Quantopian.

In addition, the material offers no opinion with respect to the suitability of any security or specific investment. No information contained herein should be regarded as a suggestion to engage in or refrain from any investment-related course of action as none of Quantopian nor any of its affiliates is undertaking to provide investment advice, act as an adviser to any plan or entity subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, individual retirement account or individual retirement annuity, or give advice in a fiduciary capacity with respect to the materials presented herein. If you are an individual retirement or other investor, contact your financial advisor or other fiduciary unrelated to Quantopian about whether any given investment idea, strategy, product or service described herein may be appropriate for your circumstances. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Quantopian makes no guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of the views expressed in the website. The views are subject to change, and may have become unreliable for various reasons, including changes in market conditions or economic circumstances.

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The material on this website is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation to buy, or a recommendation or endorsement for any security or strategy, nor does it constitute an offer to provide investment advisory services by Quantopian.

In addition, the material offers no opinion with respect to the suitability of any security or specific investment. No information contained herein should be regarded as a suggestion to engage in or refrain from any investment-related course of action as none of Quantopian nor any of its affiliates is undertaking to provide investment advice, act as an adviser to any plan or entity subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, individual retirement account or individual retirement annuity, or give advice in a fiduciary capacity with respect to the materials presented herein. If you are an individual retirement or other investor, contact your financial advisor or other fiduciary unrelated to Quantopian about whether any given investment idea, strategy, product or service described herein may be appropriate for your circumstances. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Quantopian makes no guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of the views expressed in the website. The views are subject to change, and may have become unreliable for various reasons, including changes in market conditions or economic circumstances.