Futures Trading With IB Trader Workstation & Why I Don't Use It

[@jimmybieri1138]

PS, i use to have the same problem with buy stop and sell stop orders where you would place the trade on the chart but it would move to a totally different place, if you call IB they will fix that for you, it is a software issue, personally i think they try and screw people, but now i have had that issue fixed, where ever i place the buy stop or sell stop, thats where the order goes, so call IB.Thanks for a fantastic video

[@VerrilloTrading]

It is 100% related to the software. I'll comment back if we figure out the way to fix that.

[@cancanturco]

I do have that problem with IBKR!! they place my orders wherever they want!! they are stealing my money!!

[@williamjames7509]

Thanks for discussing all these different parts of IB appreciate it!

[@VerrilloTrading]

You bet!

[@gustavorueda7404]

Just found your videos. Great tutorial. Well explained. Thanks.

[@VerrilloTrading]

Welcome!

[@Alch8Fi153]

IB is great for the SIMPLE INTUITIVE TRADER who’s not very analytical-minded about objectively discerning so much data, in order to be more subconscious intuitively discerning. Love it for that very reason, so to be more in tune with my inner subconsciousness perception, instead of focusing so objectively on many data points. The less data to analyze the better for heightened intuitive discernment, which is a skill that must be developed, with serious unwavering definite deliberate practice & constant meditative reflection. Not an easy journey at all, due to how our modern society is structured with so many data points constantly coming our way, and the contrary subjective nature of learning to “live within” via intuitive discernment, but definitely worth the price to pay for transcending the outer analytical mind of constant objective reasoning. As with developing any skill, it takes strong desire and disciplined commitment to hone, which is why it’s serious work. As Albert Einstein said, The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

[@VerrilloTrading]

Thank you, great comment.

[@jimmybieri1138]

Excellent video, man you need to ring IB and get them to hire you for video explanations, on how to use the system. Again excellent video, on another note, i have noticed you can have the buttons on the chart itself, currently it is set for alert, buy, sell buttons inside the chart, is there a way to add more of these buttons inside the chart rather that underneath the chart?

[@VerrilloTrading]

Glad it helps! I think they only have those 3 buttons inside the chart. The other more customizable options are only accessible through the buttons panel.

[@mosesmcmorris4098]

yes, he is doing a very good job and this helps a lot of traders !!!

[@droscor1455]

Great tutorial. Thank you!

[@VerrilloTrading]

Most welcome!

[@sean7932]

Thank you. I enjoyed the video.

[@VerrilloTrading]

Most welcome. 🙏

[@richardcrbb]

Chris could you add this video to the LEGACY IBKR watchlist please

[@VerrilloTrading]

It is in the playlist Interactive Brokers Videos which is suitable. The video is not old enough to be in the Legacy playlist.

[@Profitbringer88]

Verillo, Do you recommend a Futures broker in Canada or than IBKR? or as mentioned Sierra Charts do you recommend syncing to IBKR? I have looked at Sierra Charts and it is very labor-intensive with a huge learning curve. Do you have a video on Futures trading with the DOM or price ladder with Sierra Charts? Kind of limited in Canada with low Commissions & Fees with trading futures.

[@VerrilloTrading]

Hello, I do use Ironbeam for futures trading. Many of the futures brokers in Chicago will allow Canadian customers, you just need to reach out and ask if they do it. For linking Sierra to IBKR, it is not a user friendly process but for trading stocks and options there are some advantages here. For futures trading with Sierra Chart you are best to use the order routing service from Sierra Chart (Teton CME Order Routing). It is supported by most of the retail Chicago based clearing firms. Here is a video showing trading with the DOM or price ladder in Sierra Chart: www.sierrachart.com/index.php?page=doc/VideoLibrary.php#SC_Trading_Interface

[@Klyki.]

its a pretty solid platform as long as you got the enough RAM and only use intraday charts instead of historical

[@VerrilloTrading]

Agree!

[@raion9692]

How much ram would you consinder giving it to the programm ?

[@zo9fg]

If you could show the entire of your order execution settings and how u use them during live session, that would be great for newbies. I believe a good setup would help u scratch trades, at least u get stop hunted then losing money. If you could also comment on how many ticks away before u set ur stop to breakeven, that would be great too

[@VerrilloTrading]

Thanks for the suggestion. I would argue that most trades especially A+ setups need to be left to breathe rather than over manage. It depends, different traders know different nuances about their setups. Regarding ticks, I don't ever used fixed ticks in live trading it is based on a model which adapts to current market conditions. It is also not totally automated because there are cases where you would adjust something discretionary.

[@emanueledegaudenzi1546]

I Love yoir content! What broker would you suggest to start practicing with futures trading? I use IB for long term investments, but I'm looking for a trustable broker to get some experience with low stakes. Thanks in advance

[@VerrilloTrading]

Thanks! Depending on what kind of platform you are looking to use. For more active futures trading and lower margins I use Ironbeam broker with Sierra Chart Teton order routing platform.

[@rick-kv1gl]

thanks man i really learned a lot.

[@VerrilloTrading]

Glad it helps! 😎

[@Michael-xy5dn]

In the beginning you say while loops in C++ increases the chance of the software or code breaking. Could you please elaborate so we can avoid the issue? thanks

[@VerrilloTrading]

There is no problem with the while loop itself. It is just a matter of understanding that it could result in an infinite loop which would be wasting CPU cycles. there are other methods in c++ to reduce this strain on the processor. One of them would be the use of sleep timers.

[@GIXC90]

Thank you so much for this video! As from Canada what broker do you use for trading futures?

[@VerrilloTrading]

I use Ironbeam for a few years now, never had an issue.

[@SaeedAhmed-sd6zu]

can I trade micro e-mini's with a 2500$ cash account, or is taking a margin loan mandatory in IBKR?

[@VerrilloTrading]

Futures are leveraged products, you cannot trade them with a cash account. They have a capital requirement which is less than the notional size of what it is worth.

[@captainprice2025]

by the way when market going to be going down boyz please use a stop order even if its 100 points away (saves u accounts when u superconfident just in case) bc down candles go down faster in a big momentum down days

[@zo9fg]

Premarket short squeeze ain't fun

[@Ashtradesnow]

SO as of today, IBKR margins are half of what you said in the video right, i checked it on their website, also I am very inclined to use Tradestation, they claim to be 'special' and their per contract fee is also double of IBKR, any opinion on that? I am a retail guy with a 10k account and will trade from UAE, so i need to get it right as quickly so that i dont waste time learning TWS to soon realise that its not good enough.

[@VerrilloTrading]

I have not used Tradestation so I could not really say. Some friends of mine use it for many years and say it is also good for trading stocks. It depends on the requirements you have, I would say go ahead and learn the software and you will learn in time if it supports your requirements. Overtime those are going to change too.

[@Klyki.]

the classic tws and mosaic layouts are way faster than custom layouts btw

[@VerrilloTrading]

Thanks for sharing, we also found IB Gateway to be much more lightweight.

[@chrisahmed9772]

Does TWSOption Trader app/window allow for the use of presets on COMBO orders? For example you create an iron butterfly and with a limit profit stop of 15% and a stop loss of 45 percent.

[@VerrilloTrading]

I’m not sure if this exact configuration is possible but it would be easy enough to try.

[@nicolehustles]

hello kind sir, do you know if TWS has a setting to see " Large Market-On-Close Stock Order Imbalances " before close? I know TOS does but I'm not seeing it on IRBK ... hmmm

[@VerrilloTrading]

I'm not sure if they provide this sorry!

[@garyb455]

Awesome video thanks

[@VerrilloTrading]

Thank you.

[@Nevinhope]

So we can trade futures in IB with out the trade station??

[@VerrilloTrading]

You can, if you have another software that can connect.

[@Zenscape99]

Thanks for the sharing! just wonder why my TWS does not have "create target/stop exit bracket" option to add bracket to existing position? only has order ticket and order entry in the dropdown list. In the chart trade button setting, I also cannot find BUY STP and SELL STP. Is the version difference? I use the stable version. Thanks!

[@VerrilloTrading]

Yes I believe those features only exist on the latest versions. Glad it helps.

[@Zenscape99]

@@VerrilloTrading thanks! just downloaded the latest version and it has such option, thanks mate!

[@albertoreboeiras4801]

First! Thank you for the video. I'm looking for information on how to trade micro e-mini futures, specially s&p for beginning and came accross with your wonderful channel. I've trying tp find the total cost of trading those contracts per side per contract for a inicial account and other costs involved but it's been very difficult to find this information. I've checked this with Optimus and they gave me the value of $ 0.76 per side per contract. Is this possible to know how is it in IB in order to compare this aspect? I would appreciate if you could help me on that.

[@kartiknogia1057]

How to set max number of day trades and stoploss limit for a day?

[@VerrilloTrading]

There is no way to do this in TWS natively.

[@velious2121]

Ok but why does Sierra website look like look it was coded in html from 1995?

[@VerrilloTrading]

No idea.

[@samchan9616]

Thx for sharing. Is there anyway I can track or marked my trades on Chart on IBKR?

[@VerrilloTrading]

In TWS Software it only shows trades from the last 7 days, if you need longer than that you need to generate an account statement in the Client Portal.

[@daniels9835]

How can I trade short or long synthetic future on ibkr.

[@VerrilloTrading]

Are you referring to futures options? In that case yes they do have them.

[@cubalkan]

Hi..do u know how I can trade future butterflys in IB?

[@VerrilloTrading]

I don't specifically know about the butterfly strategy but, to get a spread these are the steps you can take. When you search for a futures symbol (when you add a new symbol to your watchlist or chart) you get the option to choose the expiry, a continuous contract or to create futures spreads. The menu for futures spreads is what you would use to create the futures spread.

[@cubalkan]

@@VerrilloTrading thxs for your reply. A butterfly Futures spread is 1:2:1 spread ..meaning simultanously buying the First and selling the 2nd spread. As far as I know the IB spread Trader only covers 2 legs but not 3 legs

[@thawdani]

can you further elaborate on aggregation of multiple symbol data? (without giving away your edge) i do the same but its probably different so im curious

[@VerrilloTrading]

Not over a KZbin comment sorry.

[@thawdani]

@@VerrilloTrading thanks for replying

[@thawdani]

@@VerrilloTrading will you ever make or have made a vid about it?

[@trade_with_toby]

HI, if I want to trade Futures with Sierra and Donali Data Feed, do I need Data feed as well at IB? Thx

[@VerrilloTrading]

If you are trading from Sierra and getting the data there then no you will not need to subscribe to real-time data in IB. Maybe on your phone you might want only the level 1 data if you're on the go.

[@trade_with_toby]

@@VerrilloTrading thx

[@zo9fg]

Btw do u know what platform option traders use? I'm trying to find one that allows me to set conditions easily

[@VerrilloTrading]

Not sure sorry. One way to approach trading with custom conditions would be programming the logic yourself.

[@cdgadea1]

why will people keep trading options vs futures?

[@VerrilloTrading]

They are different products and each one can be used to do different things.

[@Moxking]

I scalp MES and got tired of slippage on IBKR. Switched to amp global with cqg with sierrachart..and problem is solved. Ibkr need to up there data feed game. Tws is fine though.

[@thawdani]

like stated, its not for daytrading

[@zo9fg]

What do u mean by slippage tho? How comes ur order is affected by data feed? Isn't it server side?

[@VerrilloTrading]

Your comment can be misleading to inexperienced users, so we will clear a few things up. The first thing is that slippage has nothing to do with the data feed; they are two completely separate things. Slippage can also vary depending on market conditions and on things that even the trading service themselves have no control over. One way to truly test the quality of an order routing service is: 1. Have access to both trade services 2. Have a stop order set to trigger at the same price 3. Wait for the order to trade, then go look at the exact timestamp (in microseconds if supported) of the order execution on both trading services. This test will need to be done with a live account; do this test as many times as necessary during different market conditions. This should be a decent indication of how the speed of order routing compares, which in the long run can contribute to more or less slippage on stop/market orders.

[@Ben-jq3ov]

Can you please do a video on the new TRADINGVIEW x IBKR integration, where you can know trade directly on TRADINGVIEW using IBKR as your trading client

[@alexandermarcek1096]

i do not see any integration option with IBKR on Tradingview...it does not list IBKR on the trading panel..or am I wrong?

[@Ben-jq3ov]

@@alexandermarcek1096 hmmm i live in the UK so possibly why i have access to it. That's sad because its amazing.

[@VerrilloTrading]

We might do this at some point. Thank you.

[@VerrilloTrading]

The integration is on the Tradingview side. You need to have an active Tradingview account and then log in to your IBKR account through their broker/trading panel.

[@Jp-ui3fw]

Hey can u plz help me. I have 2000 and I want to trade futures is that possible?

[@VerrilloTrading]

Yes it is possible. What do you need help with?

[@Jp-ui3fw]

@@VerrilloTrading so it is possible to buy a portion of a futures contract with 2000? Or do I have to find contracts that I can afford with only 2000? I’m trying not to use leverage.

[@millechemins8436]

im looking for another broker to trade 0dte futures option, instead of IBKR. before 11am ib let me buy 0dte FOP delta 50 , but arround 12h or 2pm, it dont let me buy 0dte FOP, sometime after 2m there is some oportunities on the ES. its says i need a margin requirement arround 13k or 20k i understand they protecting themself and me, if never the option expire itm and exercice. but if i wanna risk my money at 2pm, let me risk it. dont block my trade. because sometimes powel speak at 2pm, and the volatility is huge. But ibkr will let me buy 0dte FOP delta 15, 20. with a delta that low , it doest worth trading

[@zo9fg]

Wait u buying option and they block u? Which country is ur ibkr registered?

[@millechemins8436]

@@zo9fg depend of much money u have in your acount. there is a margin for option atfer 12

[@fatrodentrat7290]

Can’t wait to move to the US and use a actual broker that works well

[@3DsRenew]

i dont understand anything

[@chocolatecoveredgummybears]

LOL

[@Fire_soul1796]

Trader Workstation is painful to use.

[@VerrilloTrading]

It has it's moments!

[@Fire_soul1796]

@@VerrilloTrading it certainly does! 😆

[@cancanturco]

I have lost money trading futures with IBKR in Trading View!! IBKR sucks for futures!!!

[@VerrilloTrading]

Could you explain more specifically what occurred People lose and make money every day trading.

[@jasonmcdowell9195]

@@VerrilloTrading not sure what the above users issue was, but I recently went from a profitable trade to a loss in the overnight in Futures on the MES due a Stop Order that didn't execute until the 0930 market open. I just can't seem to get my Stops to execute in the after market hours with futures.

[@balsahota3918]

Can't thank you enough my friend. This is exactly what i was looking for - i am thinking of switching from DAS pro to IB for futures trading.

[@VerrilloTrading]

Glad to help! 😁

[@captainprice2025]

coders dont go sleep bc they work 25/7 to tune their skills even before code comes out

[@phils3628]

FYI as a newbie looking to trade vix mini futures I was lost from the beginning,, as you do not show what screen you are using and how to navigate to it in mosaic or classic TWS.

[@VerrilloTrading]

Sorry, sometimes it can be quite tricky to make sure we are catering to both beginner and intermediate level users. There are some beginner videos as well but yes, in the future, we will try to make things as clear and simple as possible.

[@Valentine828]

What is best platform to trade e minis :oil, gld, s&p??? .tk u

[@VerrilloTrading]

I would say the one you know how to use the best that has the necessary features to do your trading without technical barrier.

[@Hakiimblocktradeshunter]

Hi Bro are you introducing broker Iam interested that business

[@VerrilloTrading]

Hello, I am not an introducing broker.

[@Suat_senocak]

Tradovate is the best platform to trade futures for me. low margin and very fast + nice charting

[@VerrilloTrading]

Thanks for sharing!

[@tomcarter2876]

Hey, do you know what broker would be best to trade future with in U.K.? I use IB but find it clunky. Love the look of the thinkorswim futures ladder interface but can't seem to find anything like it available to U.K. customers - great video though :)

[@VerrilloTrading]

I am not sure about brokers in the UK unfortunately. I do know that some US brokers take international customers. My futures broker is Ironbeam you could try asking them if they do UK. You will still probably need to fund it in USD, and it is recommended to do so if you are trading USD denominated futures markets.

[@VerrilloTrading]

What you could do is a find a platform you like first by doing a platform demo, and then see which brokers support that platform and reach out to the brokers. I use Sierra Chart for trading platform but it has a bit of a learning curve at first. Good if you need to customize and build out your methods step by step, also good just for studying the markets.

[@hellmouthisnogod1843]

Well, you all explain how to trade futures - I would be lucky if I could enter a futures symbol in the trade window and not get the answer that "that stock is not found"; let's ignore that Interactive Brokers does not allow me to trade futures (having less than 100,000 dollars in the account?) I have no idea where and how to change from seeing stocks listed to seeing futures.

[@aristophanesloizides6665]

how do you put the volume on the x axis on IBKR charts anyone knows?

[@VerrilloTrading]

At the top of a chart select View > Volume Subchart. It is not supported on every symbol. For example we tried EUR.USD on IDEALPRO and that volume subchart is not available.

[@tonymcbride4064]

Thanks for this. Earned a subscriber

[@VerrilloTrading]

You are most welcome!

[@myselfiemirror]

Did IB lower their margin requirements for ES and MES? Seems lower now than what is shown in the video. Thanks for the upload!

[@VerrilloTrading]

It is possible that they did, glad it helped!

[@rhyme-illy6746]

yes for the CME ES its for the intraday about 8800 and the maintainance 8000 Dollar.

[@yutube5167]

question- we cannot trade futures if we use cash account in interactive brokers?

[@yutube5167]

you answered this but it really doesnt work?

[@VerrilloTrading]

@yutube5167 Futures require a margin account because they are leveraged.

[@captainprice2025]

tradingview for those who dont really scalp just general view without tick per tick basis

[@captainprice2025]

ibkr is also leaning toward more investment bigger account guys

[@Berghiker]

Why does it say "Invalid Trigger Price" on my OCO order?

[@christianratcliffe9584]

Amazing video. Thank you!

[@VerrilloTrading]

Glad it helps! 😎👍

[@blocktronex7342]

The Anon voice was awesome

[@VerrilloTrading]

Thanks!

[@captainprice2025]

tradingview is a good start actually for begginers

[@74967412369]

We are talking about simulated trading only right ?

[@VerrilloTrading]

Not necessarily.

[@captainprice2025]

put that coffee down, coffee is for coders only

[@VerrilloTrading]

☕coffee boyz know what's up.

[@captainprice2025]

what i think ibkr comes in useful is api linking to another execution platform, stock trading, option trading

[@zo9fg]

The api sucks. You can't sell appl options at mid when es futures hit 4000 for example. I have been trying to find a way to easily set conditions and automate trades but it's just so hard to find a good broker. Sierra sucks for option trader

[@VerrilloTrading]

The condition you described there seems simple enough that it would be easy to accomplish. The API itself might be very annoying to work with, but the logic you are trying to achieve is not complicated. In ACSIL with sierra for example, the interface is very easy to work with for someone with very little experience in programming. TWS API is more annoying especially for a non programmer and on a windows system.

[@captainprice2025]

holiday boyz

[@zo9fg]

Do u stream or have discord chat? I wanna hear ur views on market while trading

[@mosesmcmorris4098]

good video. 🙂 i´m a IB customer more than 15 years and TWS is a good platform. But not for scalping the futures, cause IB does not use tick-by-tick data feed. They work with snapshot data feed and in one second you´ll not get all the ticks. Cause of this sometimes there is slipping of some ticks, and this is bad for scalping. For swing trading this has no big importance. The margin of IB is very serious, all the other brokers with for example 400 or 500 US-Dollar margin for the ES only want much commission for many contracts and many traders are oversized with a small account. To much dangerous.

[@zo9fg]

Which broker are u referring to that has 400$ margin and do u use ib to trade futures given it's high margin?

[@VerrilloTrading]

Thank you. We need to clarify to viewers that the market data has nothing to do with the trade execution. It is two completely separate things, even if it is being provided by the same parent company or service. TWS lacking tick by tick data will not affect the quality of trade execution or slippage on orders. The only way to truly test slippage would be to submit a stop order at the same price on two different trade services and compare the exact timestamp of order execution in milliseconds. Repeat that test as many times as necessary. IBKRs trade service has advantages to it like everything being fully server side and the ability to access their API or use third party software to send orders.

[@zo9fg]

@@VerrilloTrading Isnt ibkr api quite limited? I can't find an API way to sell aapl option at the ask when spy hits x. TOS has this feature easily

[@VerrilloTrading]

@@zo9fg you need to code this logic one line at a time. Obviously I can’t help over a yt comment but this is something we could do in acsil without much trouble.

[@zo9fg]

@@VerrilloTrading it's possible? I contacted a developer and he pointed me to ibkr api and said this can't be done with ibkr api as the function is not provided. No idea what acsil is, will look it up

[@pumpk26]

Hi Chris am trading futures from Asia so unfortunately IBKR is the only way to go from my country, so thank you so much for all your IBKR videos! Anyway since IBKR TWS charts have been so laggy, I've been able to connect w trading view and it's been so much better. Just wanted to ask about futures stop losses outside of (New York) RTH (which I know trade 23/6), whenever I try to put one outside of NY RTH it always asks me to specify "outside RTH" (if I don't it will say that the trade will be placed only during NY RTH), moreover when I try to drag my stop loss I'll need to specify again "outside RTH" or else the price will go straight through. Is this a worldwide thing, an IBKR thing, or a specific setting that I have to configure in IBKR? Thanks in advance

[@VerrilloTrading]

This is definitely a known IBKR thing. Is this message also appearing for you every time on TradingView? The best would be to contact them directly regarding this because it is in their control. In IBKR there is a way to specify orders to use Outside RTH by default in the Order Presets. When you set this, the orders should behave normally outside RTH. If this is happening for you on TradingView, it is possible that they did not work this out yet on TradingView.

[@raion9692]

i cant find a way to have set an hotkey for the futures on mes/MNQ to buy with the order type midprize oder IBALGO without any extre mouseclicks to do.

[@VerrilloTrading]

Glad it helps. I don't think you can set a default trade size based on notional value. The only option I know about related to notional value is the setting that warns you if your trade exceeds that amount.

[@aB-of1nz]

Amazing tutorial sir. My respects and admiration to You

[@VerrilloTrading]

Kind words and glad it helps. 🙏👍