How can I manually trade and auto trade with IB at the same time?

[pipal]

Hello,

I trade with IB using NT7. How can I do auto trading and manually place trades at the same time on NT7 using a single computer? Can they be done on a single account or with 2 accounts with IB, one for auto and one for manual ones? Or any other ideas? Many thanks.

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello pipal,

When you run an automated strategy, you can trade manually by opening another NinjaTrader order entry window, such as the SuperDOM. Select your live account and you will be able to trade it manually as well. This can be done using a single account.

[pipal]

Thanks Jason. Follow-up questions:

1. If both auto and manual trading are to be done on a single account, and for the same intrument, my manual long position will concel auto short position, or vice versa. If yes, that's not I intend to accomplish, as I want to trade on my own while the strategy runs on its own.

2. It appears that NT cannot login to more than one IB accounts on the same pc. If correct, I need to run on two pcs, one for manual trading on IB account #1, and another on auto mode on IB account #2. Any other idea to run two IB accounts on 1 NT with 1 pc?

Thanks for your clarification.

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

1. Yes, if you trade automatically and manually at the same time, it will affect each other. For example, you run your strategy which puts you in a long position. If you manually submit a sell order which executes, you are flat again. However, your strategy will think it is still long - there can be a difference between strategy and account position. Please see the link below for more information on this topic.

http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/forum/showthread.php?t=4033&highlight=strategy+account+brokerage

2. Correct, it is not supported to connect to multiple IB accounts in NinjaTrader on one PC.

[pipal]

Thank you. Am I supposed to need two NT licences if I automatically trade on 1 pc and manually trade in another pc at the same time?

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Yes, you would need two license keys. It is against the EULA (end user license agreement) to trade live using the same license key on two PC's simultaneously.

[DaveE]

Even if you get get two NT licences you might still have a problem with IB.
Last time I tried connecting to IB from two computers at the same time I got an error saying something along the lines of "only one Trader Workstation connection allowed". And this was with one computer using paper-trade account, another using live account (NT was not even used). IB seemed to have the accounts linked as "one user" and tried to close down the "additional" Trader Workstation connection.
I cant see that this restriction makes much sense. Perhaps it was a temporary bug. It has worked at another time.

Are any users trading on more than one instance of Trader Workstation at the same time (reliably)? Any hints for how to make this reliable?

Without a resolution NT/IB users are unlikely to be able to use extra NT licences they may want to buy.

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello DaveE,

Unfortunately I am not aware of this limitation. I suggest to contact IB for clarification.

[maxpi]

Is there no way for a Script to get position info from the broker?

[NinjaTrader_Bertrand]

Unfortunately not maxpi, here are the account items you can access programmatically in NT7 - http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/h...countvalue.htm

[monpere]

Are you trying to auto trade and manually trade the same instrument at the same time with the same broker? Most brokers will not allow you to be long and short the same instrument at the same time. If you try to go long and short on the same instrument at the same time, IB will combine both positions, and put you net long or net short. You can easily auto trade and manually trade 2 different instruments though with no problem with NT and IB

[jerry1]

Yes, you would need two license keys. It is against the EULA (end user license agreement) to trade live using the same license key on two PC's simultaneously.

Hi Jason
Does that mean if I havr two different accounts with the same broker I can only use 1 computer?

[NinjaTrader_Austin]

jerry1, Jason is saying that it is not allowed to use NinjaTrader on two computers at once if you're using the same license key for both.

[jerry1]

Thanks Austin for clarifying that.
Jerry

[billr]

I have a related question, what if I want to trade the same instrument with 2 separate accounts, but same broker, using the same computer? Ex: MBT accounts, each is futures acct, I want to auto trade in acct 1 and manual in acct 2, same instrument? (note: this would require two separate log-ins) If it can't be done with a single lic. Can it be done with multiple broker?