NT 8.0.21.0 issue with IB Gateway

[jvanelli]

Running NT 8.0.21.0 along with an Excel spreadsheet both connected via IB Gateway. If I open the spreadsheet first and request data, then open NT, everything works as expected. If I open NT first, without opening the spreadsheet, NT connects to the gateway and is identified as a client, but is unable to access data; i.e. data requests from NT are ignored, not relayed to the IB data farms. But if I connect the spreadsheet and access some data, then disconnect and reconnect NT, everything works. I have NT set as client 31, the spreadsheet set as client 7. It is as though the gateway needs to be "primed" with a data request from Excel before it will honor any request from NT. I failed to notice this for quite a while because my normal mode has been to launch the spreadsheet first and work with it for a while prior to launching NT. Never experienced anything like this prior to upgrading to NT 8.0.21.0. Any ideas or suggestions?

[NinjaTrader_BrendanC]

Hello jvanelli,

Thank you for your post today.
It sounds like there is a problem with establishing the connection with NinjaTrader connecting and receiving data from the Interactive Broker connection that is being made through the Gateway.
I would recommend to check over the version of the Gateway that you have installed. Currently, the version that NinjaTrader 8 is designed to use is Gateway 973.2. You may download that version at the link: Download

Additionally, I would recommend looking over the Interactive Brokers connection guide for NinjaTrader 8. It goes over the details regarding how to set up the account connection correctly. Here is a link to that page: https://ninjatrader.com/ConnectionGuides/Interactive-Brokers-Connection-Guide

Another cause of that symptom you describe may be due to a firewall or antivirus software that is installed that is causing the connection to not complete when NinjaTrader is requesting data from the Interactive Broker servers. Ensure exceptions have been added into any firewall/antivirus/backup programs for the Documents > "NinjaTrader 8" folder.

• What instrument symbol (and expiry if applicable) have you selected? For example, ES 06-20, AAPL, EURUSD, etc.
• (For a chart) what interval is selected? For example, 5 minute, 1 day, 2000 volume, 4 Renko, etc.
• Do you receive an error on screen? Are there errors on the Log tab of the Control Center? If so, what do these errors report?
• If you follow these steps and still are unable to receive data without loading Excel, does any data load at all until you load Excel?
• What other symptoms do you see that are associated with the 'ignored data requests from NT'?

Please do not hesitate to reach out to us for additional support.

[jvanelli]

Thanks, Brendan. I upgraded to Gateway 978 several weeks ago. Reverted back to the earlier Gateway 973 and looks like everything is back to normal now.

Perhaps of interest to some, I have been using the API Socketbridge to enable DDE comms with Excel from the 64bit Gateway/TWS versions. What was happening is that the Gateway and NT would initiate a connection (yellow light), but never complete (no green light), thus unable to pass data. Something I noticed was that I could close the NT connection, then launch the API Socketbridge (associated with that Gateway instance), then reopen the NT connection and it would connect and operate as normal. It would continue to operate even if I then closed the Socketbridge. So this seems like a client/server timing issue of sorts.