Classic TWS Order Ticket

The Basic tab includes the basic order and time in force information, all based on the financial instrument shown in the Quote Panel. The fields are context-sensitive, which means that only valid selections will be active. For example, if you select TRAIL LIMIT as the order type, the Stop Price, Trailing amount and Limit Offset fields become active. In addition, selections you make on this page affect the composition of the tabset. For example, if you select a stop or trailing order type, the Adjust tab becomes available; if you choose VOL as the order type, the Volatility tab is displayed, etc.

For combo orders, the Basic tab also includes Advanced Combo Routing.

To remove tabs and view all fields on a single large page, select the Comprehensive view.

Using "Day" as the time in force for a Regular Trading Hours ("RTH") Only order specifies that the order will work throughout the trading day during regular trading hours until it is filled, is canceled by the user, or expires at the end of the trading day. (By default, the time in force for orders is set to "Day." Orders for some products are entered with a default restriction of Regular Trading Hours (RTH) Only to prevent orders from being executed during the pre- and post-market sessions).

A day order that is submitted after regular trading hours* with the order attribute of RTH will be held in the system and begin to work at the start of the next trading day. The order will be active during the next trading day until it is filled, is canceled by the user, or expires at the end of the trading day. IMPORTANT NOTE: You can add order attributes to any order or change default settings to specify that orders be activated, triggered, or filled outside of regular trading hours.

You may add order attributes to any order or change default settings to specify that orders be activated, triggered, or filled outside of regular trading hours.

Note: For TWS: Day orders submitted with “RTH ONLY” will be canceled between 4:00-4:05 pm. Day orders submitted after 4:05 pm with “RTH ONLY” will be queued for the next day.

For FIX connections: Day orders submitted with “RTH ONLY” will be canceled between 4:00 – 5:00 pm. Day orders submitted after 5 pm with “RTH ONLY” will be queued for the next day. Contracts with short close-to-open time have a shorter window.

Field	Description	Notes
Action	Choose Buy or Sell.
Quantity
Quantity	Specify the number of units in the order.
Display size	Enter a display size to create an Iceberg order.
Min. Quantity	Enter the minimum quantity that must be available for the order to execute.	For options routed through Smart.
Order Description
Order Type	Select an order type. Valid order types are determined by the underlying, exchange and security type selected.
Limit Price	Enter the limit price if the order type requires it.
Aux. Price	For Stop and Stop limit orders, this is the Stop election price. For Options relative to stock orders, this is the starting price. For trailing stop orders, this is the trailing amount.
Trailing amount	The amount used along with the market price to calculate the initial stop price.
Percent Offset	For Relative orders, sets the offset amount based on a percentage of the bid price for Buy orders or the Ask price for sell orders.
Discretionary Amount	The amount off the limit price at which the order is still eligible to execute.	Enter an amount to create a Discretionary order.
Destination	Specifies the order destination.

 

 

Field	Description	Notes
Time in Force	The time period during which your order will remain active. Choose from the selections presented, including: DAY (day order). See more about DAY orders below the table. GTC (order remains active until it is cancelled) OPG (market or limit at the open order) IOC (immediate or cancel) GTD (order remains working until the date/time specified in the End Time field below.) DTC (day 'till cancelled, is cancelled at the end of day like a day order, but remains on your trading screen deactivated to let you resubmit easily).	Only valid Times in Force are displayed per order, based on the product, order type and destination.
Start Time	Set the start time (and date) for the order.
End Time	Set the end time and date for the order.	Only valid for GTD times in force.
	Trading Hour Attributes The next three settings allow you to specify the hours during which orders are eligible to execute. By default, orders are set to trade during Regular Trading Hours only. Note: Elections to trade outside regular trading hours may not be available for particular products that are not listed on an exchange. Clients are solely responsible for ensuring that these parameter are valid for the product(s) involved.
Allow this order to be filled outside of regular trading hours.	Check this box if you want to allow orders to trigger or fill outside of regular hours.	You can also set this feature from the TIF dropdown on an order line in the trading window. Valid for US stocks listed on major exchanges. Not available for IOC, OPG (MOO and LOO), FOK, MOC or LOC orders.
Allow order to be routed and executed during pre-open session.	Check to allow orders to participate in the pre-open session from 4:00 - 9:30 am.	Can be applied to orders set for Regular Trading Hours only.
Ignore opening auction.	Check to ignore the opening auction which takes place at the open.	Can be applied to orders set for Regular Trading Hours only. This attribute cannot be used if you have configured Smart Routing to participate in Pre-open Re-route.
VWAP Time	Modify the VWAP cut-off time if desired by clicking the Calendar selection tool. Otherwise, the Soonest cut-off time is used.	VWAP orders are automatically routed and accepted immediately after being transmitted. VWAP orders cannot be cancelled.

Using "Day" as the time in force for a Regular Trading Hours ("RTH") Only order specifies that the order will work throughout the trading day during regular trading hours until it is filled, is canceled by the user, or expires at the end of the trading day. (By default, the time in force for orders is set to "Day." Orders for some products are entered with a default restriction of Regular Trading Hours (RTH) Only to prevent orders from being executed during the pre- and post-market sessions).

 

A day order that is submitted after regular trading hours* with the order attribute of RTH will be held in the system and begin to work at the start of the next trading day. The order will be active during the next trading day until it is filled, is canceled by the user, or expires at the end of the trading day.

 

Note: You can add order attributes to any order or change default settings to specify that orders be activated, triggered, or filled outside of regular trading hours.

• * For TWS: Day orders submitted with “RTH ONLY” will be canceled between 4:00-4:05 pm. Day orders submitted after 4:05 pm with “RTH ONLY” will be queued for the next day.

• * For FIX connections: Day orders submitted with “RTH ONLY” will be canceled between 4:00 – 5:00 pm. Day orders submitted after 5 pm with “RTH ONLY” will be queued for the next day. Contracts with short close-to-open time, such as Forex and CME futures, have a shorter window.

A conditional order is an order that will automatically be submitted or canceled ONLY IF specified criteria for one or more defined contracts are met. You can use stocks, options, futures or security indexes to trigger a conditional order.

To create a conditional order, please take the steps outlined below.

1. From the Conditional tab on the order ticket click Add on the right hand side.

2. Enter the contract information for the contingent asset in the Conditional Order box.

3. Enter the trigger information for the contingent asset:

   • Select the trigger method.

   • Select whether the price of the contingent asset should be less than or equal to (<=) or greater than or equal to (>=) the trigger price.

   • Enter the trigger price.

4. If you select the double bid/ask trigger method, the greater than or equal to operator (>=) will use the BID price and the less than or equal to operator (<=) will use the ASK price.

5. Click OK. The condition appears in the Current Conditions list.

   

Note: To set multiple conditions, use the Add Condition button and click AND or OR in the Current Conditions area.

Field / Button	Description
Add Condition	Invokes the Conditional Order entry box.
Delete	Deletes the selected condition.
Modify	Opens the Conditional Order entry box for the selected condition to allow you to make changes.
Allow condition to be satisfied...	Lets the selected condition activate the order if it is satisfied outside of regular trading hours.
Action to take...	If selected conditional order is satisfied, you can elect to have the primary order submitted OR cancelled.

To find out more about using Conditional orders, see the Conditional Orders page.

Use the Miscellaneous order fields to apply individual order attributes and set specific rules for OCA groups. All fields are not always visible. Only fields that apply to the current order will be shown.

Note: OCA group names must be unique to ensure proper handling of OCA orders. Once you use a name, you cannot use it again even after the order fills or is canceled.

Field	Description
Allocation	Select an account, model or portfolio strategy to receive allocation.
Order Ref	An identifying number you create to track your order.
Trigger Method	Select a new trigger method for the order.
ISE Midpoint Match	Select from Standard or SOI for an ISE MPM order.
Routing Strategy	Select a SmartRouting strategy.
Req Market Data	Select to request market data for the order.
Block Order	Select to create a block order.
Sweep to Fill	Select to create a sweep-to-fill order.
Hidden	Select to create a hidden order.
Auto-cancel parent	For orders with a parent-child pair, check to have the parent order canceled when the child order is canceled.
All or None	Select to create an All or None order.
Non-Guaranteed	Selecting this box indicates that you will take all the risk for partially-executed smart-routed combination orders. Note: Only smart-routed US stock-option and option-option combinations are guaranteed.
Consider Cost	If checked, IB SmartRouting will consider the total cost of executing the order, including commissions and other fees, when deciding where to route the order. If unchecked, only the exchange price is considered. For smart-routed European stocks.
Preserve Time Priority	Select to keep your order in the queue and prohibit from canceling and resubmitting orders intermittently. This feature is used on exchanges that charge a handling fee for orders that remain on the order book for a specified period of time.
Hide Pennies	When selected, hides the penny pricing of your options order.
Post only	If selected, when there is non-displayed liquidity at the same price point, the order price is adjusted low (for a buy) or higher (for a sell) by one penny to avoid taking that liquidity. If the order comes in at a price higher (for a buy) or lower (for a sell) than an order already sitting on the book, it becomes an IOC (immediate-or-cancel) order at the better price.
Deactivate	Select to deactivate the order, which cancels the order
Seek Price Improvement	If selected, Smart routed orders sweep certain exchanges for hidden liquidity at more favorable prices, then checks the dark pools as usual before routing to an exchange. Note that activating this feature may result in slower executions.
Imbalance only	Submits the order only to take the imbalance from an opening or closing auction.
One-Cancels-All (OCA)
Group Name	If the order is part of a one cancels all order, enter the OCA name in this field. All orders with the same name in the OCA field become part of an OCA order. Once you use a name, you cannot use that name again even after the order executes or is canceled.
Partially filled instructions	Set instructions on how to behave when order is partially filled. Reduced in size: Reduces the quantity of other orders in the group by the partially filled quantity of the order. Please note that using this option without overfill protection may likely result in multiple orders being routed to an exchange. This may result in an overfill, or in a rejection in the case of multiple sell orders where one is tagged as "short sale." Reduced in size (Overfill Protection): Designed to reduce quantity of other orders in the group by the partially-filled quantity of the order, and specifies that only one order at a time will be submitted to an exchange to avoid multiple orders filling (overfill). Canceled: All orders in the group will be canceled. When selected, "overfill protection" is automatically enabled to prevent an overfill.
Overfill Protection	Dictates that only one order in the group will be routed to an exchange at a time. This completely removes the possibility of an overfill.

Scale orders are designed to help prevent larger sized trades from being subject to increasingly deteriorating prices by scaling your order into smaller, incrementally priced components based on user-specified price and size instructions. In addition to scaling your order, you can also define a profit offset amount which instructs the system to automatically submit opposite-side profit taking orders against the individual components of the original order.

1. Click Open ScaleTrader from the Scale tab to set all scale parameters.

   

2. Set time in force parameters for the Scale order. See the Basic page for details.

For details on creating a scale order, please see the ScaleTrader page.

Advanced combo routing (defined from the Basic tab of the Order Ticket) lets you control how each leg of a complex combination order is handled. Define advanced combo routing for both guaranteed and non-guaranteed combination orders routed to Smart. Selections displayed are based on the combo composition and order type.

To use Advanced Combo Routing:

1. Create the Smart combination strategy.

2. From the combo line on the Quote Monitor, click the Bid or Ask price to create a (sell or buy) order.

3. Right-click the order line and select Modify then select Order Ticket.

   

Based on the combo composition and the Order Type, the Advanced Combo Routing selections are displayed. You can monitor the progress of the combo order by holding your mouse over the Status field of the order line.

Field Name	Description
Order Type	Choose from the basic order types as well as: Relative + Market, Limit + Market, Trailing Relative + Market and Trailing Limit + Market.
Select leg to fill first	For orders that are being legged-in, the chance exists that only the first leg of the combo will fill and you will be left with one unexecuted leg. Use this field to specify which leg is submitted and potentially filled first. Use the dropdown list to pick.
Maximum leg-in combo size:	The order is submitted in pieces, or segments. This is the maximum size of each segment.
Do not start next leg-in if previous leg-in did not finish:	Specify whether or not the system should attempt to fill the next segment before the current segment fills.
Convert second leg order to market order if...	These settings allow you to specify when (if ever) the second leg should be changed to a market order to fill right away, in cases where the first leg fills and the second leg does not and ends up sitting as a non-marketable limit order at the exchange,
...or if the price backs off by...	Provides a way to specify a stop-loss to fill the unexecuted leg of a combo by changing the leg to a market order if the price backs off by the specified amount.
Discretionary Amt	In cases where one leg fills and the other doesn't, the discretionary amount indicates how much you are willing to pay to fill the combo.

Use the Adjust tab to define a one-time adjustment to a stop, stop limit, trailing stop or trailing stop limit order. This tab will only become active if one of those orders types is selected.

To find out more about Adjustable Stop orders, see the Order Types page.

Field	Description	Example
Adjust to Order Type	When you select an adjusted order type, the stop order you're adjusting will not trigger when the stop price is hit. Instead, it will be changed to this order type, and use the other parameters below. Select one of the stop order types. When your current stop price is penetrated, it will change to this order type and use the instructions you set in the following fields.	The following example continues to unfold for each field. You buy 100 shares of XYZ for $31.00/share, and submit a sell stop order with a trigger price of $30.00. This means that if the price hits $30.00, TWS will send a sell market order to the exchange. Now let's modify this scenario. In addition to the above Stop order, you decide to create an adjustable Stop Limit order to help lock in a profit if the stock price begins to rise. Now imagine the price starts going up. When it hits the trigger price (see next field below) TWS will cancel the Stop order and create a new Stop Limit order with the characteristics you set in the following fields.
Trigger Price	This price will trigger the adjusted order you defined in the Adjusted Order Type.	Set the adjustable trigger price to $34.00
Adjusted Stop Price	When the trigger price is hit, the adjusted stop price is implemented for the new order.	Set the adjusted Stop Price to $33.50. When the stock rises above the $34.00 trigger price you set above, you original Stop order is cancelled and replaced with a Stop Limit order with a stop trigger price of $33.50.
Adjusted Stop Limit Price	Used for Stop Limit and Trailing Stop Limit orders. This value will be the limit price of the order if it is triggered and submitted.	Set the Stop Limit to $33.00 to ensure your order will not execute below this price.
Adjusted Trailing Amount	Used for Trailing Stop and Trailing Stop Limit orders. This value will replace the original trailing amount if the adjusted order is triggered.	If you had a trailing stop order with a trailing amount of $1.00, you could set the adjusted trailing amount to $.50. If the adjustment trigger is hit, the trailing amount is modified.

Select from the available fields to create an order. The fields are context-sensitive, which means that only valid selections will be active. For example, if you are creating any kind of order other than a Pegged to Stock options order routed through BOX, this page will be inactive.

Field	Description	Notes
Stock Ref Price	Enter a stock price.	If you do not enter a value, the midpoint of the NBBO at the time of the order is used.
Underlying Range (Lower)	Define the lower portion of the stock range outside of which your order will be cancelled.
Underlying Range (Higher)	Define the higher portion of the stock range outside of which your order will be cancelled.
Delta	Enter a value (which will be used as a percent, ie. ".5" equal 50%) that will be multiplied by the change in the underlying stock price. The product is added to the starting price to determine the option price.