Not able to trade through IB using NT8

[cgeorgan]

Hello-

I have an IB license (from NT7) and have in the past traded successfully on IB through NT7. I'm working this morning to port my workflow to NT8, and can't seem to figure out how to enable trading.

My TWS has already been set up for use previously in NT7, so I don't think that's the problem. As a further precaution I followed the connection guide for NT8 and IB, and confirmed that I'm correctly set up.

Right now, my NT8 is "locked" in Global Simulation Mode. I don't have it pre-set to start that way, but I can't seem to turn it off.

When I connect to IB, I do get market data. However, I don't get any of my accounts showing up - it only shows "Sim 101" under accounts when IB is connected.

I also confirmed that I don't have "Read Only API" set under my TWS Global Configuation.

Thoughts on this?

[NinjaTrader_EricB]

cgeorgan,

Thank you for your post,

Based on what you're describing, you have no entered your live key into NinjaTrader 8 yet (Help > License key). In NinjaTrader 8, this is required for the account to show up from the Account tab.

Please follow these steps to enable the ability to place live trades:

Navigate to the Control Center > Tools menu.
Left-click on the ‘Global Simulation Mode’ option.
You will now be able to select any live account associated with your connected datafeed in any Account drop-down box on any order entry window.

[cgeorgan]

cgeorgan,

Thank you for your post,

Based on what you're describing, you have no entered your live key into NinjaTrader 8 yet (Help > License key). In NinjaTrader 8, this is required for the account to show up from the Account tab.

Please follow these steps to enable the ability to place live trades:

Navigate to the Control Center > Tools menu.
Left-click on the ‘Global Simulation Mode’ option.
You will now be able to select any live account associated with your connected datafeed in any Account drop-down box on any order entry window.

As it turns out, this was one of the problems (I forgot to enter my license key). However, this as introduced a new set of problems.

Whereas before, the connection would show a green light and would provide real-time market quotes, now the connection is yellow and shows no data. It shows my associated IB accounts, but does not show any positions.

Ideas?

[NinjaTrader_EricB]

Hello cgeorgan,

Thank you for your reply,

Do you have a Linked Account? We had seen this behaviors with Linked Accounts before, which are no longer supported.

[cgeorgan]

Hello cgeorgan,

Thank you for your reply,

Do you have a Linked Account? We had seen this behaviors with Linked Accounts before, which are no longer supported.

Yes, this is a linked account. I didn't realize that this was no longer supported. I was told just a few weeks ago that this was a feature that - while not supported in NT7, would be supported in NT8.

Has this feature been permanently removed? I mean, I don't want to say this in a rude way but I paid for an IB license so that I could do this sort of thing through my IB account. At least in NT7 you could trade through an individual account using a direct account number (i.e. not using an allocation).

[NinjaTrader_EricB]

Thank you for your reply,

Sorry for the miscommunication, Linked Account support was removed in Beta Release 13


http://ninjatrader.com/support/helpG.../?8_0_0_13.htm

[MohrTrader]

Are there plans to add linked account support back in a future release?
If not, how can it get added into the plans?

I have to say that I'm incredibly disappointed and frustrated to have put a lot of effort into migrating to NT8 only to hit this roadblock.

[NinjaTrader_EricB]

Hello MohrTrader,

Thank you for your reply,

There are currently not plans to add Linked Account support back into NinjaTrader 8, however, this is an item that our Product Management team are tracking for future consideration; I'll certainly make sure your case is also tracked.

Thank you for your use and interest in NinjaTrader 8.

[NinjaTrader_Brett]

I'm not sure how many accounts you have linked but an alternative option would be to split them back up and then login with multiple TWS/gateway instances and make multiple NT connections to bring them all into NT. Our support team could assist with the setup if needed however then you have to run multiple TWS/gateway instances which might be inconvenient. I'm not sure which program you mainly use but wanted to provide it as an option in case NT was the primary use.

-Brett

[cgeorgan]

Seconded

Are there plans to add linked account support back in a future release?
If not, how can it get added into the plans?

I have to say that I'm incredibly disappointed and frustrated to have put a lot of effort into migrating to NT8 only to hit this roadblock.

I wanted to second what MohrTrader has said here. I'll go one step further by stating, for the record, that the ability to trade multiple accounts in IB was specifically relied upon when I recently purchased a lifetime license. By that, I mean that this feature was directly referenced to me as being an update in NT8 that was not available in NT7.

[NinjaTrader_Brett]

Thanks for the second. With NT7 we had some limited support of linked accounts, with NT8 we currently do not. Here is some background information if it helps.

With IB there are 3 types of accounts which have to be handled uniquely:

* Regular (Single)
* FA Account
* Linked Account

We wanted to improve FA account support in NT8 better than what we had in NT7. When we implemented those changes it came at the cost of limited support with linked accounts (unknowingly at the time). We went through ~1 year beta and had no demand for linked accounts on IB until weeks right before production release of NinjaTrader 8. As such the limited fashion of the demand and volume of work/risk it would take to update our IB adapter to support linked accounts we made the call to go without linked account support and track demand to see if we would need to implement that in the future since we had customers utilizing that.

I've taken your feedback internally and additionally and wanted to make sure your aware of a workaround which is to connect to each account individually and not have them 'linked' on the IB side. Which our support team can help you setup once you have the accounts 'unlinked' but understand that is not an ideal solution if you have many accounts or use TWS quite often.

-Brett

[cgeorgan]

Brett-

Thank you for the response. I'm not sure about MohrTrader, but my interest is in FA accounts.

I understand that you're tracking interest in this functionality, but this may be a "chicken-or-egg" questions. In other words, in having FA support you may be more likely to attract FA interest.

I have gone the route of leaving NT7 hooked up to an individual session of TWS. I wasn't aware that you could have multiple instances of TWS, however. Is it literally as simple as starting it up multiple times and using different logins? As far as NT7 is concerned, that's fine for me.

That being said, it would be a shame, in my opinion, not to include FA functionality in NT8.

[MohrTrader]

Brett,

My primary interest is linked accounts.

It is possible that many who tried NT8 beta did the same as I did and only connected to their IB paper trade account.

[tradertakeo]

I trade linked accounts by making multiple IB gateway connections as Brett mentioned.

[NinjaTrader_Brett]

We support FA accounts in NT8. Its only the 'linked' account type that for now is not supported and can be done using multiple connections like traderTakeo posted.

-Brett