05-25-2021, 11:03 AM
Tips and Tricks
This thread has several tips and tricks that may be useful to you. Some of these are listed elsewhere in the documentation as well.
Please feel free to suggest additions to this list by replying to this thread.
Interactive Brokers
Preload Contract Details
You can specify a list of tickers to preload contract details for at APM startup (connection to IB) so that your orders can be placed more efficiently (since sometimes IB provides contract details very slowly). You can place a file called cd_ticker_list.txt in the account level directory with a list of tickers (comma, new-line, or space separated tickers). Note that you need to specify the country of the ticker in the name using the following rules:
Order Ref Field
Each order that is placed by APM in IB has an Order Ref field which is set as the ID of the strategy placing the order. This allows you to keep track of all your trades in each strategy through IB Flex reports. You need to specify "Include Audit Trail Fields" in your Flex Query configuration in order for the Order Ref field to be included in your reports. This solution was originally posted by a user in the following thread: https://aleratrading.com/forum/showthrea...601#pid601
![[Image: ib_orderref.png]](http://aleratrading.com/forum/images/documentation/ib_orderref.png)
This thread has several tips and tricks that may be useful to you. Some of these are listed elsewhere in the documentation as well.
Please feel free to suggest additions to this list by replying to this thread.
Interactive Brokers
Preload Contract Details
You can specify a list of tickers to preload contract details for at APM startup (connection to IB) so that your orders can be placed more efficiently (since sometimes IB provides contract details very slowly). You can place a file called cd_ticker_list.txt in the account level directory with a list of tickers (comma, new-line, or space separated tickers). Note that you need to specify the country of the ticker in the name using the following rules:
- The format is <ticker>:<country>, for example BHP:AX where AX is the country code for Australia
- Valid country codes are AX (Australia), US (USA), UK (UK), NS (India)
- US tickers do not need a country code. You can use SPY and not SPY:US
- To indicate a CFD, prefix the ticker with @ (e.g. @SPY)
- This does not work for UK tickers that are not in GBP (or GBX) currency. We will add support for other currencies in the future if there is interest
- Note that the formatting rules above correspond exactly to the formatting rules you see used in APM for tickers
Order Ref Field
Each order that is placed by APM in IB has an Order Ref field which is set as the ID of the strategy placing the order. This allows you to keep track of all your trades in each strategy through IB Flex reports. You need to specify "Include Audit Trail Fields" in your Flex Query configuration in order for the Order Ref field to be included in your reports. This solution was originally posted by a user in the following thread: https://aleratrading.com/forum/showthrea...601#pid601