Stay informed of marketplace events that could affect your investments with FYI realtime notifications sent to you ahead of takeovers, earnings, options expirations and more. IB FYI notifications are now configurable from within TWS. To view IB FYIs, click the "FYI" button within Mosaic. To configure settings and delivery options, click the configuration wrench icon and use the FYI Subscription Settings tab to turn notifications on and off. Use the FYI Delivery Options tab to specify how to receive notifications.
To find out more, see the FYI Feature in Focus page. To modify settings for the Dividends and Economic Event Order Suspension automatic actions, log into Account Management and use the Manage Account > Trade Configuration > IB FYI page.
The Mutual Fund Replicator tool, used to find ETFs that are comparable to a user-entered Mutual Fund, now allows you to enter an ETF and will search and return the top comparable ETFs. See the Highest Correlated ETF, Performance Analysis, and a Return Comparison between the entered ETF and comparable ETF(s).
To open the Mutual Fund/ETF Replicator from Mosaic, use the New Window drop down and look in the Technical Analytics section. From Classic TWS view, use the Analytical Tools menu.
See the TWS Users' Guide for instructions on using the replicator.
The Close Position action, which allows you to close all or a percentage of all or selected positions, has been redesigned to be more powerful and precise. You can now choose to close all positions, or just all long or all short positions, and filter by asset type. For example, you could elect to close 30% of selected long options positions or 75% of all of your short stock positions.
Additionally, for positions in a model or strategy, you can only elect to close 100%. Only positions in the "Independent" group, which means that they aren't part of any model or strategy, can be partially closed.
To use the Close Positions feature, select one or more positions and use the right-click menu to choose Trade and then your close positions selection. Elect to close a percentage of the selected position(s), or to specify and close a percentage of all positions. Define your filters and criteria in the dialog box and click OK to stage or submit closing orders.
A new column, Futures Open Interest, can now be added to TWS windows and displays the current quantity of that future's unsettled contracts. Additionally, you can now see Open Interest for derivatives in the Quote Details window. To enable this feature, click the Wrench icon in the Quote Details title bar and select Settings. In the Layout section of the Quote Details page ensure the "Implied Volatility, Open Interest" checkbox is checked. Also, ensure that the "Futures Open Interest" column has been added to your watchlist.
Once enabled and when data is available, the new Open Interest in Quote Details will display:
To maximize the Quote Details window and see all data without a scroll bar, double-click the title bar of the window. Double-click again to send the window back to its original space and size. Note that this expand feature can also be useful when looking at charts.
Single options contracts in which you do not hold a position now include a new "Strategy" button and menu selection "Build Complex Position" that are accessible from the right-click menu from the contract line to help you easily build a complex position using the existing options contract or contracts as the starting legs.
To use, select one or multiple options contracts and use the right-click menu to select the Strategy button (for a single selection) or the menu command "Build Complex Position" (for multiple selections). Note that the option(s) appear in the Strategy Builder to start the complex position, and the option chain allows you to select the rest of the legs. Click the bid or ask price for a put or call to add that leg, and when complete define order parameters and submit the order.
NOTE: If you see the "Roll" button and not the "Strategy" button, this means you have a position in the option.
Three new short-term volume history fields and three new market scanner parameters have been added. Add new fields to any TWS window by holding your cursor over a current field and then selecting Insert Column. New fields are in the High/Low/Volume/History category and show the short term volume on a contract. Interpolation may be applied if necessary
In the market scanners, select High 3min Volume, High 5min Volume and High 10min Volume on stocks, futures, and SSFs to return the contracts with the highest volume in these categories. In the Mosaic Market Scanner, find these new fields in the Fields and Filters section by clicking Add field. In the Advanced Market Scanner accessible only in Classic TWS, find these in the Parameter section.
Find the Issuer Country for stocks in IB TWS. Right-click a stock and select Contract Details> Description to see the "Issuer Country" field. Hold your mouse over the "i" above the abbreviation to see the full name of the country. Also find this information as a filter in the market scanners, and as a field in the Contract Description category that can be added to any TWS window.
A new precautionary setting, Size Modification Limit, has been added to Global Configuration. This feature is designed to help ensure you don't accidently change the order size when you are modifying an unfilled order by greater than the defined percentage, or 500% which is the default. To modify the Size Modification Limit, from Global Configuration select Presets from the left pane and then select an asset type. Scroll down to the Precautionary Settings section at the very bottom of the Presets page and enter a new percentage in the Size Modification Limit field.
Hedge Funds, Brokers and Financial Advisors with clients who elect not to use IB for clearing can now submit orders for away clearing using the Mosaic Order Entry panel. Previously this was not accessible for accounts that cleared away.
The assigned default API ports for production and paper accounts are now different to allow both accounts to run at the same time. Production port is still 7496 and paper port is now 7497. These ports are automatically assigned when TWS is installed or reinstalled. Likewise, IB Gateway users will see the change of default ports for paper go from 4001 to 4002, leaving 4001 for the production version.
To manually change the port in TWS, from Global Configuration select API and open the Settings page. In the Socket Port field modify the port number.
The chart in the ETF/Mutual Fund Replicator now identifies the distribution type for Mutual Fund payouts as either Dividend Income or Capital Gains. The tax implications for these different types of distributions may differ.
The Time & Sales window now displays historical data for US stocks and warrants in shares instead of in lots, for example "2500" instead of "25x100." Real-time data still displays in lots. This data change applies to the Time & Sales window only, and does not require any configuration. Data for all products other than US stock and warrants was previously, and still is, displayed in shares.
In addition to viewing FX quotes in the more precise 1/10 percentage in point (pip) format (versus the usual 1/2 pip display), you can now also trade FX quotes with this same precision.
To enable, from Global Configuration select Display > Ticker Row and scroll to the bottom of the window to select "Allow Forex trading in 1/10 pips."
A new time in force for US stocks has been added that will allow the stock order to be tagged as "Preopen Only." When selected, the order will fill during the pre-open session, or be cancelled.
For orders that use a trigger and are enabled to work over multiple days, a new checkbox, Trigger Once, allows you to tag the order to remain triggered until filled or cancelled. Leave the box unchecked to deactivate unfilled orders at the end of the day and allow them to trigger the following day if/when trigger conditions are met. This field is found in the Order Presets, and on the Basic tab of the order ticket.