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The TWS API is a simple yet powerful interface through which IB clients can automate their trading strategies, request market data and monitor your account balance and portfolio in real time.
Our TWS API components are aimed at experienced professional developers willing to enhance the current TWS functionality. Regrettably, Interactive Brokers cannot offer any programming consulting. Before contacting our API support, please always refer to our available documentation, sample applications and Recorded Webinars
This guide reflects the very latest version of the TWS API -9.72 and higher- and constantly references the Java, VB, C#, C++ and Python Testbed sample projects to demonstrate the TWS API functionality. All code snippets are extracted from these projects and we suggest all those users new to the TWS API to get familiar with them in order to quickly understand the fundamentals of our programming interface. The Testbed sample projects can be found within the samples folder of the TWS API's installation directory.
Our programming interface is designed to automate some of the operations a user normally performs manually within the TWS Software such as placing orders, monitoring your account balance and positions, viewing an instrument's live data... etc. There is no logic within the API other than to ensure the integrity of the exchanged messages. Most validations and checks occur in the backend of TWS and our servers. Because of this it is highly convenient to familiarize with the TWS itself, in order to gain a better understanding on how our platform works. Before spending precious development time troubleshooting on the API side, it is recommended to first experiment with the TWS directly.
Remember: If a certain feature or operation is not available in the TWS, it will not be available on the API side either!
The TWS is designed to accept up to fifty messages per second coming from the client side. Anything coming from the client application to the TWS counts as a message (i.e. requesting data, placing orders, requesting your portfolio... etc.). This limitation is applied to all connected clients in the sense were all connected client applications to the same instance of TWS combined cannot exceed this number. On the other hand, there are no limits on the amount of messages the TWS can send to the client application.
If your regular trading account has been approved and funded, you can use your Account Management page to open a Paper Trading Account which lets you use the full range of trading facilities in a simulated environment using real market conditions. Using a Paper Trading Account will allow you not only to get familiar with the TWS API but also to test your trading strategies without risking your capital. Note the paper trading environment has inherent limitations.
