TWS Release Notes


These release notes document the major enhancements and bug fixes distributed in the current TWS version 942.

Probability LabSM (Patent Pending) - Understand Options Without the Complicated Mathematics

We are very pleased to announce the Probability Lab, the second in our set of workspace tools designed to optimize the analysis and management of option strategies. The Probability Lab offers a practical way to think about options without the complicated mathematics. Use the Probability Lab to analyze and adjust the market's probability distribution, which tells us what the chances are that certain outcomes will occur.

To open the Probability Lab, use the New Window dropdown in Mosaic or the Trading Tools menu in TWS. Specify the underlying, and the top panel displays a live Probability Distribution graph that changes as the underlying and its option's bid and offer change at the exchange. Grab a horizontal in any interval and move it up or down to indicate that you think the price ending up in the interval has a higher or lower probability than the consensus guess as expressed by the market. As all probabilities must add up to 1.00, all of the other bars will adjust to accommodate your changes. Click Build Strategy to see a list of combinations likely to have a favorable outcome under your Probability Distribution. Select a strategy to include it in the Order Entry panel, make any order adjustments and click Submit to send the trade.

To find out more, visit https://www.interactivebrokers.com/probabilities.

Mosaic Portfolio Tab Cleanup; Average Price Precision

We have recently implemented some changes designed to make the Portfolio window in the Mosaic cleaner and easier to use. Some changes include:

  • The ability to configure the precision and how it's displayed for the Average Price and Mark Price fields. Note that the display will show the Average Price to one decimal, with the decimal precision in superscript to save space. To modify either the decimal precision or how it is displayed, right-click the field and select Configure Precision. This feature is available product-wide anywhere the Average Price and Mark Price fields are used.
  • Clean up of labels and spacing to use the window real estate more effectively.
  • The ability to increase the height of the actual row without changing the font size through the use of cell padding. To make this change, from Global Configuration select Watchlist from the list of Trading Tools, then select Windows. Increase the value in the Cell Padding field.

News Feed Subscriptions in API

We have introduced several new News Feed subscriptions including Benzinga Pro and Midnight Trader Live Briefs Pro. In addition, we have made several of our feeds available through the TWS API. These include The Fly on the Wall, Briefing Trader and Midnight Trader Live Briefs Pro.

To find out more and to subscribe, visit the IBIS News and Fundamentals section of the Research and News page. See the API Beta Release notes for details.

Restore Features to Time and Sales

We have restored some of the original features to the Time and Sales window. Some of the features that have been added back include:

  • The Volume and VWAP columns.
  • More flexibility to add, hide and rearrange all columns, including splitting the "NBBO" column into two, the "Bid" and "Ask" columns.

API: Receive Primary Exchange in Exchange Field

Because some third-party software doesn't support a separate field for sending the primary exchange, TWS will now support receiving the primary exchange in the exchange field. The syntax is: [exchange][separator][primary_exchange] where [separator] can be a colon (":") or a slash ("/"). For example, to request market data for MSFT, you could send the following in the exchange field: SMART/ISLAND. Note that TWS still supports receiving the primary exchange in the separate designated field.

Fixes

This release currently includes miscellaneous back end bug fixes. Check back soon for feature updates.