Interactive Brokers introduces Trader’s Journal on TWS platform
Responding to requests in the Interactive Brokers Features Poll webpage, the broker adds a simple and useful solution to TWS – Trader’s Journal.
Simplicity in trading is often underestimated – so are the simple solutions that a trader might need. Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IBKR) has just unveiled a new addition to its TWS platform – a Trader’s Journal. What can be more elementary than that?
Traders can use the new note-taking feature to record and save their trading ideas for any product in TWS. The Trader’s Journal can be opened by navigating to the New Window drop down menu, then going through the Information System section and selecting Traders Journal.
If traders want to keep the journal on top of the rest of the applications, they can use the push pin.
Trader’s Journal enables traders to add notes – all one has to do is select an instrument in a TWS Watchlist or other tool, and in the Trader’s Journal click New Note. Notes are stored by symbol.
Notes are saved, so that they are available to traders the next time they log into TWS.
Why would an electronic trading giant like Interactive Brokers bother to add such an elementary feature to a rather sophisticated platform like TWS? For at least two reasons.
The first is that the clients of the company requested this in the Interactive Brokers Features Poll – this webspace encourages customers to voice their ideas about enhancements to the company’s products and services. The second reason is that a simple Trader’s Journal is something that is missing from many platforms. There are a number of applications that enable traders to do analysis of their trading, export their trades as PDF/Excel files, etc. Those are usually sold separately and then the purchase involves spending money and facing compatibility issues (how will a certain app work on a given platform). It is also crucial to know what a trader really needs – if a trader needs a feature that is embedded in the platform and is as simple as a notebook, then the trader deserves to get that.
The latest Beta version of TWS offers a number of other improvements, including new scanners and columns from AltaVista Research and Recognia.
