Why is charting so slow with IB?

[jws33]

It takes me over a minute to load a chart using my Interactive Brokers data feed. The same chart only takes 1 second if I use my TD Ameritrade data feed.

Why is this?

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello jws33,

Once historical data is loaded in NinjaTrader, it is saved automatically. I assume you did not delete historical data between testing the two broker connections. So when you connected to TD Ameritrade, NinjaTrader did not need to load the same amount as most of the requested data was present in NinjaTrader. Please see the link below under 'When does NinjaTrader load historical data?' for more information.

http://ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt7/historical_data.htm

If you create a chart for a similar instrument for which you did not load data before, do you experience a longer loading time than 1 second?

[Lord Devil]

I am having the exactly same issue...and I think it can't be related with historical data or hardware... - when using NT offline, the historical data is loaded really fast - the problem starts with going online with IB and syncing...

So I totally have to agree with this. Its really horrible slow to use IB Connection Feed together with ninjatrader (I am using NT8b11). Before when I was using FXCM, everything was smooth and fine. Not sure why the IB Gateway is so horrible slow, because when using their own platform -> TWS, everything is very fast too. So you should definite look into this.

To reproduce just put a few charts on. Reload All historical data and then close NT8. Now load NT8, it should load fast and fine, and once you connect, it really gets slow.... We are talking about 30s+ to 1-2 mins here till you see the final charts again (and I am having a 4.5Ghz Hexacore system with nvidia titan x - so it can't be related to hardware).

Kind regards,
Oliver

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello Oliver,

I experience similar loading times with IB Gateway in NinjaTrader 8 on my end. I created 5 charts that request 14 days of Minute data and it took about 2 minutes to finish loading. When I test FXCM, it loads much faster. Different broker technologies can have different loading times.

When you use TWS, do you load historical data in TWS itself or do you connect TWS to NinjaTrader 8?

For future reference, please post any NinjaTrader 8 beta items in the NinjaTrader 8 beta section of the support forum.

[Lord Devil]

For NT I use the recommended IB Gateway connection and I also tried the direct TWS connection - but both behave the same in regards of speed

I am not sure what is causing this, because in TWS itself the loading of chart data etc. is really fast. So it seems NT is handling the API in a bad way?

Also if you don't load any historical data - just connecting to IB and waiting for the charts to update and start working, sometimes takes several seconds to minutes...

Kind regards,
Oliver

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Thank you for clarifying.

Please note that TWS does not load data via the IB API. It uses a different source. Unfortunately I am not sure about the specifics. I suggest to contact Interactive Brokers for clarification.

[corplawyer]

Data for Charts Unreasonably Slow

I am using the latest TWS version as of this morning. I am using NinjaTrader8. When I request a chart on the TWS platform, the chart data populates in under 2 seconds. When I request a chart on NT8, it takes several minutes to populate. Something is seriously wrong. International Brokers is providing the data feed to both the TWS and NT8.

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello corplawyer,

I assume the charts request the same amount of historical data and have no indicators applied.

Please note that TWS does not use the same source to load historical data as NinjaTrader connected to Interactive Brokers. When you connect to Interactive Brokers in NinjaTrader, you load data via the IB API. TWS uses a different source.

[Pete Collins]

I used to use data through IB. It was so slow, I still use them as my broker (to trade options) through TWS. (Until Ninja offers Options etc) but use Kinetick for data through Ninja, the speed is 100x quicker than it was with IB.

The guys at Kinetick let me try the data feed for free for a day before purchasing with them which was nice as I wanted to see if it was definitely going to be quicker! I would do what I did, works out similar cost but so much better.