Welcome back Tackle Traders, We started down a road last week and that road was the path to using a new platform. We started by introducing the two faces of the IB (Interactive Brokers) platform. There are two versions of the same platform for IB. The overall software is called trader work station of TWS for short. The two versions are mosaic and classic TWS and each has its own strengths and weaknesses. We are not using this blog to debate the merits of the platform but more to share a solution to a common problem and that is getting comfortable enough to be able to use the software effectively for the type of trading that we do here at Tackle.

Last week we got started exploring the platform. We started with the basics, like making a watchlist and trading stock from the classic platform. I explained last week that I personally find TWS classic the easiest to use. The mosaic has some neat features but I find it to be a little more complex than I think it needs to be to trade effectively. That is just my humble opinion. I am not advocating one version or the other but familiarity breeds content.

This week we are going to explore a little more and start doing some basic options trades. The platform is very expansive and we cannot cover everything so I will try to limit these discussions to the easiest way I have found to do the trades that we need to do. I will say there are some tools in TWS that I think might be cool to use and check out but the time it takes to learn to use those tools is more than the time we have in this blog. So when this series ends I would implore you to explore further and I will give you an avenue at the end of this series that can help with that endeavor.

So, let’s get started with this weeks video.

Happy Trading All!

Coach Holmes