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Technology Provider

Gain Capital

About Gain Capital

GAIN Capital Futures is the wholesale brokerage division of GAIN Capital Group LLC. With a focus on Institutions and Introducing Brokers, we pride ourselves in providing the services and products that allow institutions and brokers to develop and grow their business.

GAIN Capital works with our clients and brokers to find the right solution for their trading needs. With our experience in exchange-traded futures and cash foreign exchange, GAIN Capital is positioned to provide the execution, clearing and customer service that brokers require

As a global trading firm, and publicly traded company as our parent, GAIN Capital must meet the highest standards of corporate governance, financial reporting and disclosure. Our financial transparency provides our customers and partners with confidence that the company is well managed and well capitalized, with ample resources to continue to innovate and lead the industry forward.

For more information on GAIN Capital please visit our website at http://futures.gaincapital.com/

Supported asset classes: Future, Currency

Supported orders:

OCO order connections are supported by this broker ORO order connections are locally simulated IFDone order connections are locally simulated

Order execution AgenaTrader does not execute any orders! Instead, brokers simply inform us of filled orders and execution price. If data received from your data feed provider does not match the quotes on the brokerage platform for an instrument, then the entry and exit price will not be displayed properly on your chart.

Connection

Please follow the instructions in the following video to establish the connection correctly:

Important Note

THE BROKER'S PLATFORM ALWAYS REPRESENTS THE REFERENCE PLATFORM.

This means that the orders and market-related values shown on the BROKER platform are valid. The broker's platform should always be active as a backup to AgenaTrader. This gives you an essential overview of the interaction between AgenaTrader and your broker. Furthermore, you will always know exactly how your orders/positions and ultimately your account balance are displayed.

Interactive Brokers

Brief overview of Interactive Brokers

Interactive Brokers is a well-known company that has provided financial services as a broker and dealer since 1977. Essentially, IB specializes in intraday and institutional trading. The company developed its own trading platform - Trading Work Station (TWS) - and offers traders very advantageous commission and margin.

Supported asset classes: CFD's, Future, Forex, Index, Stock

Supported orders:

OCO order connections are supported by this broker ORO order connections are locally simulated IFDone order connections are locally simulated

Order execution AgenaTrader does not execute any orders! Instead, brokers simply inform us of filled orders and execution price. If data received from your data feed provider does not match the quotes on the brokerage platform for an instrument, then the entry and exit price will not be displayed properly on your chart.

You can open a real or demo account at Interactive Brokers via our website.

Supported Account Types by AgenaTrader

  • Standard Single Account (One Login and one connected main account)

  • Financial Advicer (FA) Accounts (One Login with a main account and several sub-accounts), find more details HERE

  • Family and Friends (F) Accounts (One Login with a main accout and several sub-accounts), find more details HERE

Not supported Account Types by AgenaTrader

  • Duplicated Accounts (One Login and several connected main accounts)

(This Account Type is not supported and can lead to problems with order executions and data synchronization between TWS and AgenaTrader. Please contact your IB Account-Manager to change your Account to one of the above mentioned supported Account Types.)

Connecting

Please follow the instructions in the following video to establish the connection correctly:

How to use IB Gateway and FA accounts

Please download and install IB Gateway through the Download Link

Important! TWS should be installed.

In order to install Gateway please use the following steps:

  • Please run gateway. In open Dialog activate checkbox IB API, enter your IB credentials, select Trading Mode and click the Login button.

  • In the open window please go to Configure-> Settings.

  • In APi->Settings please activate checkbox Read-Only API.

  • After please create a new or edit existing IB connection in AgenaTrader. Please find IB connection guide on page Technology Provider: Interactive Brokers. Please configure your account in AgenaTrader as on picture below. For User name and Password in AgenaTrader please use same credentials as for Gateway login.

Important! First please run and login Ib Gateway and only then try to connect through the AgenaTrader. We have no ability to start Gateway automatically yet.

IB Financial Advisor Accounts

What are IB FA accounts and how can I use these in AgenaTrader?

FA Account = Financial Advisor Account

You need to open an account as a financial advisor with IB or an IB white label. You can establish the connection just as with a normal IB account. In AgenaTrader, you can now choose with which account you would like to enter a trade under “Default Trading Accounts”. You have the option to carry out a trade on all sub-accounts or just on selected individual accounts.

If you wish to carry out the trade in all sub-accounts, there are various options for the ratio in which the position size should be distributed amongst the sub-accounts.

Account Groups

When you create an account group, you can assign sub-accounts to it that you want to belong to this group. For this group, you can now select an assignment method. The following options are available:

  • EqualQuantity: trades are distributed evenly amongst all accounts in the group. Example: you buy 400 Apple shares; your account group consists of 4 sub-accounts. In each account, a buy order of 100 Apple shares is now carried out.

  • NetLiq: trades are distributed based on the net liquidation value of each sub-account. Example: Your account group consists of 3 sub-accounts, A, B and C with a net liquidation value of €25,000, €50,000 and €100,000. Based on these values, the system calculates a ratio of 1:2:4. If you now buy 700 Apple shares, then 100 shares are bought on account A, 200 on account B and 400 on account C.

  • AvailableEquity: trades are distributed based on the available equity of the sub-accounts. Example: your account group consists of 3 sub-accounts, A, B and C with an equity of €25,000, €50,000 and €100,000. Based on these values, the system calculates a ratio of 1:2:4. If you now buy 700 Apple shares, then 100 shares are bought on account A, 200 on account B and 400 on account C.

  • PctChange: the order size is calculated purely by the system, you simply enter a percentage by which an existing order in the sub-accounts should be increased or reduced. Example: currently, sub-account A has 100 Apple shares, B has 200 shares and C has 400 shares. You now want to reduce the stock of Apple shares by 50% in each sub-account. To do so, you open a short order and enter the value “50” into the percent field. Since you possess a total of 700 Apple shares, the system now calculates a total size of the short order of 350 shares and now correctly distributes this order amongst the sub-accounts (account A sell 50 shares, B sell 100 shares, C sell 200 shares).

You can find more information about the account groups here.

Assignment Profiles

Via an assignment profile, positions are assigned to all accounts in this profile based on a percentage, a certain ratio or an absolute number that you define. The following options are available:

  • Percentages: the total number of instruments to be bought/sold is assigned to the respective sub-accounts based on the set percentages. Example: you have 5 sub-accounts with a percentage of 20% each. If you now buy 1000 Apple shares, a buy order of 200 Apple shares is now carried out in each sub-account.

  • Ratios: the total number of instruments to be bought/sold is assigned to the respective sub-accounts based on the entered ratios. Example: you have 5 sub-accounts and have set a ratio of 1:2:3:4:5. If you now buy 1500 Apple shares, then 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 shares are bought on the individual accounts respectively.

  • Shares: here you can set an absolute number that is used for each account as the position size. Example: you have 3 sub-accounts and set an absolute number of 10 for each account. If you now place an order in the market, the position size is automatically set to 30, and in each account, an order of 10 units is carried out.

You can find more information about the account groups here.

In AgenaTrader, you can access the account settings for FA accounts using the following button:

When you have established a connection to your IB FA account and have set the master account, you will find the option “Financial Advisor Profile” in the ActionBar in AgenaTrader. Here you can now select the profile that you would like to use for each trade.

Disclaimer:

Exchange transactions are associated with significant risks. Those who trade on the financial and commodity markets must familiarize themselves with these risks. Possible analyses, techniques and methods presented here are not an invitation to trade on the financial and commodity markets. They serve only for illustration, further education, and information purposes, and do not constitute investment advice or personal recommendations in any way. They are intended only to facilitate the customer’s investment decision and do not replace the advice of an investor or specific investment advice. The customer trades completely at his or her own risk.

Essential information

Message "The registration key for 'Trader Workstation' could not be found" This message appears if the API settings have not been set for TWS according to the Connection Guide (see table above). Additional information about brokers can be found on our website.

Also make sure that the file tws.exe is installed in the main directory "Jts". If a sub directory was created than this file with all the other files must be moved to the main directory. Only than AgenaTrader can autostart the TWS.

Port settings

Port settings in TWS and AgenaTrader must be synchronized if connection issues are experienced. That means, ports need to have the same number

Please use following ports: 7497 - Demo account 7496 - Live account

For details please download IB Host and Ports Documentation file.

Automated Reconnection

AgenaTrader has an implemented logic which automatically reconnects if the connection was lost without means. If you use a VPS server and the Windows Remote Desktop software this logic can have problems because when the Windows Remote Desktop was closed all the Windows function for starting programs are locked and the reconnection process cannot be established. Please use other Remote Software tools like Teamviewer or Anydesk.

Client ID

In some cases user can get notification:

It means ClientID in AT and TWS differs. ClientID must be synchronous between AT and TWS, as otherwise information is not transmitted correctly to the AT. To avoid this User should synchronize the ClientIDs because of the two attachments, or set them to 0 in AT and delete them in the TWS.

How to change TWS version from Latest to Stable

In order to switch to the stable version of the TWS, please follow these steps:

  • Go to your TWS install location and run TWS.exe. The default installation path is: C:\Jts (for Captrader: C:\Jts\generic)

  • A login dialog window will appear. Select "More Options" there

  • You can now adjust some additional settings. Change the version from Latest to Stable there.

  • Apply made changes by clicking on the "Apply & Restart" button

After the installation process is finished, you will be using the stable version of the TWS instead of the latest one.

IB as a data feed

Historical Request Overflow

The maximum number of simultaneous open historical data requests from the API is 50. So you should take care that you have a much smaller number of requests pending at a time.

Pacing Violations for Small Bars (30 secs or less) A Pacing Violation occurs whenever you do not observe one or more of the following restriction: -> Making identical historical data requests within 15 seconds. -> Making six or more historical data requests for the same Contract, Exchange and Tick Type within two seconds. -> Making more than 60 requests within any ten minute period.

However, be careful when requesting large amounts of historical data or sending historical data requests as "soft limit' is still implemented. If you request too much of historical data you will get disconnected from API client. You can find further information about the pacing violations for small bars in this IB article. Please note:

1 instrument in 3 timeframes = 3 histories 1 Analyzer Column column = 1 history Watch lists, backtest lists, indicators and alerts also require histories.

For each Trade/Order running in TWS will require corresponding L1 + Option subscriptions and could cause 'overload.

Limitation

For each bar size AgenaTrader provide historical data for the limited period of time.

Please see table below:

Bar Size

Time Period

1 - 4 sec bars

30 min back

5 - 9 sec bars

1 h back

10 -29 sec bars

4 h back

30 - 59 sec

8 h back

1 min

1 day back

2 min

2 days back

3 - 29 min

1 week back

30 m - 1439 min

1 month back

1-23 h

1 month back

EoD (1 Day)

1 year back

Futures Contracts

The IB API does not support Continuous Contracts. This means that AgenaTrader can only show one Contract e.g. FrontMonth. In order to compare the data in TWS with AgenaTrader please do not use Continuous Contracts.

Supported Time Zones

Time Zone

Description

GMT

Greenwich Mean Time

EST

Eastern Standard Time

MST

Mountain Standard Time

PST

Pacific Standard Time

AST

Atlantic Standard Time

JST

Japan Standard Time

AET

Australian Standard Time

Please download API Reference Guide.pdf file. Time zones section in Chapter 9, page 571

Delayed data

A market data subscription is required to receive historical data from the IB-API. This means that if delayed data is delivered to you, AgenaTrader will not be able to display charts.

Differently displayed charts in AgenaTrader and the TWS

We do not receive tick date through the current IB-API. As a result, some ticks may be assigned to the previous or the subsequent bar. This applies especially to computers with an incorrect system time. AgenaTrader attempts to solve this problem via system time synchronization.

Multi Accounts

Multi accounts are not supported by AT. During connection user would get warning message in log: "Your account type: Multi Accounts is not supported. The connection is possible but we noticed minor problems."

Can I connect to an additional data feed, when using IB as broker?

You can use data provided by Interactive Brokers, yet there are some restrictions regarding the historical requests. Learn more about historical requests overflow as well as further relevant details in the section Essential information about IB.

Therefore AgenaTrader offers you the possibility to connect to an additional professional data feed (Taipan, Barchart, IQFeed). You will have to open an account with one of them.

In Main -> Connections you can add a new data feed account right away by clicking "Add New Account":

Choose your data feed provider, ascribe an account name (to simplify matters, we recommend to use the name of the datafeed provider as account name) and enter the credentials, you have received from your data feed provider, in the context menu.

Please note! It is crucial that you now define in account connection settings, which data you want to get from the data feed and which ones from IB. This is relevant, as IB Indices CFDs cannot be requested from an external data feed but only from IB directly.

Example: Taipan as data feed provider

In Account Connections -> "Connections"-tab, you now have to activate IB as broker and data feed, Taipan as datafeed only:

Now the instrument types have to be selected in "Datafeeds"-tab. Here it is important to not choose the same instrument types, as this would lead to an error message, once you connect AgenaTrader with IB and Taipan. Therefore please select CFDs only for IB and all those instrument types exept CFDs, you have subscribed for with Taipan:

Which settings do I have to consider when trading futures with IB?

The IB API does not support Continuous Contracts. This means that AgenaTrader can only show one Contract e.g. FrontMonth. In order to compare the data in TWS with AgenaTrader please do not use Continuous Contracts.

Yet you can use an additinal data feed to display e.g. Continuous Contracts.

Therefore you need to

  • either choose for IB "Broker" in Connections-tab of Account Connection Setup and "Datafeed" for your datafeed provider

  • or you choose IB as data feed as well, yet in this case you need to choose different instrument types in "Datafeed"-tab for both IB and your datafeed provider: e.g. stocks and CFDs for IB but Futures, Currencies and Indices for your data feed provider.

In InstrumentEditor you need to select the wanted contract in the mappping settings of your data feed. Please note that the expiry is relevant for order transmission, while the contract settings in mapping settings of your data feed are to be considered for the display of the contracts:

Fees included in the price

Interactive Brokers includes fees in the price of an entry order, which is displayed on the chart as follows: entry price = order price + commission. Displayed within short time frames and small positions, this entry price may be confusing. However, AgenaTrader is unable to separate commissions from the order price, since we receive pre-assembled data via the API.

We plan to fix this problem by allowing traders to manually enter the exact numbers from your broker in the Profit & Loss, Commissions, and other columns. This functionality will be implemented in one of the upcoming AgenaTrader versions.

Please refer to your broker if you wish to know the exact sum of the profits, losses or commissions.

Profit & Loss: differences between AgenaTrader and TWS

AgenaTrader and TWS calculate PL in different ways. So results may be differ: Please see the currency conversions section for more information.

If the user would have quotes in pennies or USD cents in AT it would be shown in GBP or USD (100x more).

Instruments with such quotes:

CT Cotton GF Feeder Cattle Futures HE Lean Hog Futures LE Live Cattle ZL Soybean Oil Futures ZO Oat Futures ZR Rough Rice Futures ZS Soybean Futures ZW Wheat Futures XK MINI SIZED SOYBEAN FUTURES CT.I Cotton No. 2 DPW.L DP WORLD LIMITED ORD USD2 (DI) ZC Corn Futures

Error messages from Interactive Brokers

Please contact the IB support team to clarify. Note: The error messages received from Interactive Brokers are not errors in the ordinary sense, but simply IB internal codes that serve informational purposes only. You can find an interpretation of all Interactive Brokers codes here.

110 - The price does not conform to the minimum price variation for this contract. AgenaTrader solution: adjust tick size to tick size set in TWS

200 - No security definition has been found for the request. AgenaTrader solution: import of mappings or manually adding the correct mapping in Instrument Editor.

Order size exceeds leveraged FX-Position. AgenaTrader solution: decrease order size or increase account size

Importat! If user trades instrument which can be executed on the different exchanges, he will get the specific message in log. For example, if user places order BMW.FF (Frankfurt exchange)and this order is executed on BMW.DE (Xetra exchange) user will get following message in log:

"Your orders to BMW.FF are resolved to primary exchange which is located on different instrument - BMW.DE"

Adjusting the tick size for CFDs according to the current price

Please note that Interactive Brokers uses different tick size parameters according to the particular price range. When trading some European CFDs, it may occur that users receive the following error messages: 1. "The price does not conform to the minimum price variation for the contract". 2. "Instrument Tick-Size is not zet calculated or delivered". In order to continue the trade it is necessary to adjust the tick size for the instrument manually.

Please enter a ticker name in the search field on IB's website and check the price parameters for the selected instrument.

Then enter the tick size in the Instruments window according the the current price, and check the checkbox Pin Tick Size as shown in the figure below:

Gateway

Please find a connection-guide for IB-Gateway HERE

Financial adviser account from Intercative Brokers

Please find a connection-guide for IB-FA Accounts HERE

Assigning instruments and orders with Interactive Brokers

"Resolve position instrument" popup or "Resolve instruments for orders" popup

From time to time it may occur that an order with Interactive Brokers cannot be assigned to the appropriate AgenaTrader instrument. The reason for this is that Interactive Brokers uses the same symbol name for different instruments. For example, the stock with the Interactive Brokers symbol „AAPL“ is listed on the NASDAQ as well as on the XETRA exchange. AgenaTrader uses the name "AAPL" for the NASDAQ instrument and the name "AAPL.DE" for the XETRA instrument.

Depending upon which exchange you are trading with, it may become necessary to manually assign an order to the correct AgenaTrader instrument. Although AgenaTrader has integrated a process that assures that symbols are correctly accounted for, it does not work if an order is entered directly in the TWS.

Should this happen, the "Resolve position instrument" popup will appear, instructing you to assign the correct instrument in AgenaTrader for the Interactive Brokers order.

Using the example of the AAPL stock:

  • shares traded with NASDAQ are assigned to the AgenaTrader instrument "AAPL", and

  • shares traded with XETRA are assigned to the AgenaTrader instrument "APC.DE".

Symbol entry in the TWS (example: AAPL)

AgenaTrader is able to auto-resolve the instrument selection by either applying the most popular or the recently selected instrument. In order to enable auto-resolving, please select for how long AgenaTrader is supposed to wait for your reaction until automatically resolving your positions:

Example:

  • 0 seconds means that AgenaTrader will never auto-resolve your positions

  • 5 seconds means that if you leave the window untouched for 5 seconds, AgenaTrader will auto-resolve

This setting is useful if you are not sitting in front of your PC during the scheduled reconnect.

AgenaTrader++ (plusplus) Resolve Setup

This is one of the essential tools in AT++.

AgenaTrader++ (plusplus) resolve setup works in the following manner:

  • If you have submitted and confirmed orders, AgenaTrader++ strategies will continue to run even when the trading platform is closed.

  • These strategies will be saved within the system.

  • When you start AgenaTrader up again, the strategies will be adjusted to the current market conditions.

If you plan to keep an intraday trade with the AT++ setup overnight, we recommend that you do not turn off AgenaTrader since this can lead to unexpected order behavior. For example, order groups managed by AgenaTrader, such as IfDone and OCO, are often not linked to your broker due to the fact that the majority of brokers do not support these special types of orders. Only having AT opened ensures that all setups and functionalities will remain unchangeable.

If something happens during the time in which AgenaTrader is closed (e.g. filled or cancelled orders, closed trades etc.), stops will be recalculated and positions/setups will be adjusted etc. Obviously, this can be dangerous.

Should this occur, you will receive a recovery popup (see image below) displaying the trades which require your intervention and supervision:

Functions of the buttons in the recovery popup:

  • The Entry Escort button allows you to enter the strategy. NOTE: the Trades tab will display the entry reason.

  • The button Session allows user to select analyzer session

  • The Confirm button applies the suggested actions.

  • Chart area provides you access to all chart function. Details on section Chart Toolbar

If you close the popup without confirmation, you will have to clear the trades manually.

Important!

For some Symbols TWS don't allow to place limit order outside trading hours

Important Note

THE BROKER'S PLATFORM ALWAYS REPRESENTS THE REFERENCE PLATFORM.

This means that the orders and market-related values shown on the BROKER platform are valid. The broker's platform should always be active as a backup to AgenaTrader. This gives you an essential overview of the interaction between AgenaTrader and your broker. Furthermore, you will always know exactly how your orders/positions and ultimately your account balance are displayed.

Historical requests overflow at IB

It can happen that AgenaTrader issues a warning via a popup:

Or that charts are depicted partially incorrectly and contain erroneous data. As a result histories are missing and charts do not tick.

What does this mean?

You should take care that you have a much smaller number of requests pending at a time.

Pacing Violations for Small Bars (30 secs or less) A Pacing Violation occurs whenever you do not observe one or more of the following restriction: -> Making identical historical data requests within 15 seconds. -> Making six or more historical data requests for the same Contract, Exchange and Tick Type within two seconds. -> Making more than 60 requests within any ten minute period.

However, be careful when requesting large amounts of historical data or sending historical data requests as "soft limit' is still implemented. If you request too much of historical data you will get disconnected from API client. You can find further information about the pacing violations for small bars in this IB article.

Please note:

1 instrument in 3 timeframes = 3 histories 1 Analyzer Column column = 1 history Watch lists, backtest lists, indicators and alerts also require histories.

Possible solutions

Reduce your instruments and historical requests with the Interactive Brokers server. In doing so, pay attention to the green connection bar at the bottom left of your AgenaTrader:

After the initial connection, further histories can be requested every 10 minutes. However, please note: reloading data would then lead to a renewed histories overflow once again.

Alternatively, an external data feed - in most cases, however, this is subject to a charge - is also recommended.

This takes you to the data feed overview.

This also applies to CapTrader, Banx, Lynx and other brokers that connect to the API interfaces of the TWS.

Rithmic

About Rithmic

Rithmic puts your trades first. Whether you are part of a prop shop or are a professional trader, Rithmic’s trade execution software delivers to you the low latency and high throughput performance formerly seen only by the very large trading houses and boutique hedge funds.

Supported asset classes: Future, Stock

Supported orders: OCO order connections are supported by this broker ORO order connections are locally simulated IFDone order connections are locally simulated

Order execution AgenaTrader does not execute any orders! Instead, brokers simply inform us of filled orders and execution price. If data received from your data feed provider does not match the quotes on the brokerage platform for an instrument, then the entry and exit price will not be displayed properly on your chart.

Follow this link here to our webpage.

Connection

Please follow the instructions in the following video to establish the connection correctly:

Essential information

If you have some OCO order-connections while trading with Rithmic, the automatic cancellation of one order due to the OCO connection can lead to the following PopUp: "You cannot cancel a cancelled order". This happens when AgenaTrader sends the cancellation after Rithmic already cancelled this order, so you can just ignore this Message - your order has already been cancelled.

Up on each day, Rithmic is doing the settlement on their positions. Here you can see example of position on 6B, where long entry is made on 21th October. Up on each evening (22:25) Rithmic is closing old position with settlement price and opening new position, with settlement price as new position price. This would lead to the difference in R Trader and AT in two main areas: -Position Price -Open PnL

Important! Rithmic does not provide commission automatically however you can set it manually by adding this info in the InstrumentEditor in the Mapping Area with the "C" Button. Details: Instrument Editor: Creating and editing instruments.

In order to establish the right connection please ask your broker which "system type or server" your account must be connected with. A wrong system type (server) can lead to problems like "missing account details" or others.

Important! Rithmic doesn't provide Ask Bid data for the previous day, so you may load OrderSteam only for present day. In another case you will get a message in the log: "Requested time (24 hours) of AskBid history is not available, please reduce amount of hours for OrderStream"

Important Note

THE BROKER'S PLATFORM ALWAYS REPRESENTS THE REFERENCE PLATFORM.

This means that the orders and market-related values shown on the BROKER platform are valid. The broker's platform should always be active as a backup to AgenaTrader. This gives you an essential overview of the interaction between AgenaTrader and your broker. Furthermore, you will always know exactly how your orders/positions and ultimately your account balance are displayed.

Please note: R Trader Pro is required.

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