How should this work? - German TWS - don't work with history?

[JustAName123A]

Hello,

this software could be nice. It's not working as it should (i guess so) for me.
The connection is working, but there are no historical datas (tested on live and paper trading).
I tested it in german TWS and i changed to english TWS - connection is working.

How it is supposed to work? I don't find a manual but i guess it should be self explained.
This is the API setting in a german TWS. Connection is working, but i have no history data.

I also tried the setting "API English transfer" in ASCII 7 and "OS-Codepage C++) (API-Mitteilungen auf Englisch übermitteln).

Thanks in advance
Name

[PaulSquires]

Hi Name,

Your connection looks correct for paper trading account.

Connection is working, but i have no history data.

"history data" is the issue here. The program does NOT download your existing trades. (it doesn't download the data because there is no api that allows you to do that!).

Let me explain.

For example, if you have a lot of existing trades in TWS and then start the program for the first time, you will NOT see all of those existing trades. The trade first needs to exist in both the program AND in TWS.

You need to create the trade within the program first. Once the trade exists within the program, then the program interacts with TWS to track the trade from that point forward. Still, even after creating the trade within the program, you will NOT get all of the history of the trade from TWS (there is no api that does this). So, for example, you would not be able to retrieve all of the Option's rolls, etc. You need to create those types of transactions locally within the program.

Currently, there is no import existing trades from TWS type of feature. That would be a good feature and would probably involve having the user create some type of custom report from the Interactive Broker's web portal. I think web programs like "Wingman" does this but it is extremely cumbersome and unintuitive.

[JustAName123A]

Hello Paul,

thanks for your answer. I now understand. i don't want to advertise another software, but i want to give you an idea of how to implement a history data import from IB with flex queries.

Your software was the motivation for registrate to github and i have no clue how to behave here.
I hope it's okay to post a link to another software, which includes a historical data import:
tradinglogbook dot de (you can also google it, if you don't want to follow this "link". This software is working for me but as you said, it is uncomfortable to set up (but the pictured manual is okay).

I will check your software in a few months. Maybe you implement something like that :)

Thanks for your work

[PaulSquires]

Thank you very much for the link. I really appreciate it and I will investigate how that program imports the historical data from IB. Hopefully I can implement a similar import for my program. 👍

[PaulSquires]

I am re-opening this discussion. I am able to download all the existing positions. I do this already because of the "Reconcile" functionality within TradeTracker. Therefore, I have all of the existing "OPEN" positions, however I do not have any financial history for those positions.

My plan is to design logic so that if the trade database is empty on startup, the program will prompt the user if they wish to import existing data. If yes, then the program will attempt to connect to IBKR and download the data.

I will create a visual editor where the user can take the downloaded trade data and organize them into the correct groupings.

This is not perfect, but it certainly will gives the user a great head start on using existing data. They could always edit the transactions to change things like transaction date, etc.

[PaulSquires]

Here is a first look at the Import Trades dialog in action.

[PaulSquires]

Initial working code to import existing IBKR / TWS positions. If your local database is empty, then you will get a notification question asking if you wish to import existing online data. If yes, a dialog will appear where you can manipulate the incoming trades into logical trade groups.
https://github.com/PaulSquires/TradeTracker/releases/tag/4.0.0-testing-latest

[PaulSquires]

This is implemented and is in Version 4.