Interactive Brokers (IB) API Example Using IBAPI - Part 2
July 12, 2019
Introduction
Last blog I showed how to set up Interactive Brokers (IB) API (IBAPI) using Python 3.6. My desire was to create stock price graphs for the US market using the SPY ETF. I added momentum indicators to the graphs showing positive or negative periods of momentum.
I will go through the Interactive Brokers Application Programming Interface (IBAPI) code on Windows.
Links
I used the following links to assist with setting up the Interactive Brokers API.
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The API itself can be downloaded and installed from: interactivebrokers.github.io.
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The other required software is the [IB Gateway for Windows] (https://www.interactivebrokers.ca/en/index.php?f=16457 “IB Gateway for Windows”). This software runs continuously on your computer and listens for API calls which it executes on the IB trading system, creating actual trades.
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Python3 [Python3] (https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/ “Python3”).
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I use the free Visual Studio Code IDE because of its built-in debugger [Visual Studio Code IDE] (https://code.visualstudio.com/ “Visual Studio Code IDE”).
Visual Studio Code
Follow the link to download the API code to your local drive interactivebrokers.github.io.
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Select the stable version. 
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Install the .msi file (TWS API Install 972.18.msi), this will create a folder on your C drive C:\TWS API
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Open Visual Studio Code and open the command palette and select the python interpreter, choose Python36.
  
IBAPI Folder and Files
The folder of interest is called ibapi. Within this folder there are key files used in your application.
- ibapi/wrapper.py Provides the core functionality and used in your main application class
- ibapi/client.py Is the ibapi client which is initialized first in your application. The client communicates with the API and contains the connect() function.
I also used two important files in the Testbed folder: ContractSamples.py and OrderSamples.py Both of these files will allow you to create orders using the client placeOneOrder() function
- Find the Testbed folder and place it in your project directory. I put the folder in my project root. You should have ibapi and Testbed folders.
Include Files
Now we will again include the files into our main application Python file. The important includes are as follows
import ibapi.wrapper from ibapi.client import EClient from Testbed.ContractSamples import ContractSamples from Testbed.OrderSamples import OrderSamples
from ibapi.wrapper import EWrapper
import ibapi.decoder
import ibapi.wrapper
from ibapi.common import *
from ibapi.ticktype import TickType, TickTypeEnum
from ibapi.comm import *
from ibapi.message import IN, OUT
from ibapi.client import EClient
from ibapi.connection import Connection
from ibapi.reader import EReader
from ibapi.utils import *
from ibapi.execution import ExecutionFilter
from ibapi.scanner import ScannerSubscription
from ibapi.order_condition import *
from ibapi.contract import *
from ibapi.order import *
from ibapi.order_state import *
from Testbed.ContractSamples import ContractSamples
from Testbed.OrderSamples import OrderSamples
Your imports/includes could end up looking very long. I have the following as my imports for my entire trading algorithm.
import sys
import socket
import struct
import array
import inspect
import time
import argparse
import os.path
import json
import csv
from pprint import pprint
import twitter
from fred import Fred
import smtplib
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from email.mime.image import MIMEImage
from email.mime.application import MIMEApplication
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.header import Header
from email.utils import formataddr
import urllib
#import urllib2
import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup as bs
import shutil
from ibapi.wrapper import EWrapper
import ibapi.decoder
import ibapi.wrapper
from ibapi.common import *
from ibapi.ticktype import TickType, TickTypeEnum
from ibapi.comm import *
from ibapi.message import IN, OUT
from ibapi.client import EClient
from ibapi.connection import Connection
from ibapi.reader import EReader
from ibapi.utils import *
from ibapi.execution import ExecutionFilter
from ibapi.scanner import ScannerSubscription
from ibapi.order_condition import *
from ibapi.contract import *
from ibapi.order import *
from ibapi.order_state import *
from Testbed.ContractSamples import ContractSamples
from Testbed.OrderSamples import OrderSamples
import datetime
import datetime as dt
from datetime import timedelta
import quandl as qdl
# Install https://www.anaconda.com/download/
import pandas_datareader as pdr
import pandas as pd
# Import Matplotlib's `pyplot` module as `plt`
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.dates as mdates
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.dates as mdates
import matplotlib.cbook as cbook
#import statsmodels.api as sm
# Import the `datetools` module from `pandas`
#from pandas.core import datetools
import pandas.tseries as pdts
Program File
Now we are ready to create our program. After the includes, lets create the TestApp class including the Client and Wrapper classes. We will try to place a test order.
- Create a placeOneOrder function
- Use OrderSamples to create a BUY order for 100 shares
- Select the account, in this case account DU9000000 Remember: do not connect to your live account, but instead use your paper account.
- call the Client function placeOrder with a sample USStock. The ContractSamples.USStock() returns a test stock.
- That’s it! you created a Market Order for a stock!
# Script only works with python 3.6 (view > command palette > python: Select Interpreter > select 3.6)
class TestApp(EClient, EWrapper):
def __init__(self):
EClient.__init__(self, self)
self.nextValidOrderId = 10
@iswrapper
def nextValidId(self, orderId:int):
super().nextValidId(orderId)
logging.debug("setting nextValidOrderId: %d", orderId)
self.nextValidOrderId = orderId
def placeOneOrder(self):
#self.simplePlaceOid = self.nextOrderId()
faOrderOneAccount = OrderSamples.MarketOrder("BUY", 100)
faOrderOneAccount.account = "DU9000000"
self.placeOrder(self.nextOrderId(), ContractSamples.USStock(), faOrderOneAccount)
def main():
#put your calls in here
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
We can continue adding a few more wrapper functions to get order information such as order status. Add some more variables in the init function.
# Script only works with python 3.6 (view > command palette > python: Select Interpreter > select 3.6)
class TestApp(EClient, EWrapper):
def __init__(self):
EClient.__init__(self, self)
self.nextValidOrderId = 10
self.simplePlaceOid = None
self.permId2ord = {}
self.hData = {}
self.hDataColumns = ['Date','Open','High','Low','Close','Volume','BarCount','Average']
self.hDataIndex = []
self.hDataRecords = []
self.lineCount = 0
self.hDataCurrent = False
self.hDataMonthly = False
self.cDataPrice = 0
self.currentSymbol = "SPY"
@iswrapper
def nextValidId(self, orderId:int):
super().nextValidId(orderId)
logging.debug("setting nextValidOrderId: %d", orderId)
self.nextValidOrderId = orderId
def placeOneOrder(self):
#self.simplePlaceOid = self.nextOrderId()
faOrderOneAccount = OrderSamples.MarketOrder("BUY", 100)
faOrderOneAccount.account = "DU9000000"
self.placeOrder(self.nextOrderId(), ContractSamples.USStock(), faOrderOneAccount)
def getWebFile(self, URL, fileName):
headers = {'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_11_5) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/50.0.2661.102 Safari/537.36'}
local_filename = fileName
pdf_request = requests.get(URL + local_filename, headers=headers, stream=True)
with open('data/' + local_filename, 'wb') as f:
shutil.copyfileobj(pdf_request.raw, f)
@iswrapper
def error(self, *args):
super().error(*args)
print(current_fn_name(), vars())
@iswrapper
def winError(self, *args):
super().error(*args)
print(current_fn_name(), vars())
@iswrapper
def openOrder(self, orderId:OrderId, contract:Contract, order:Order,
orderState:OrderState):
super().openOrder(orderId, contract, order, orderState)
print(current_fn_name(), vars())
order.contract = contract
self.permId2ord[order.permId] = order
@iswrapper
def openOrderEnd(self, *args):
super().openOrderEnd()
logging.debug("Received %d openOrders", len(self.permId2ord))
@iswrapper
def orderStatus(self, orderId:OrderId , status:str, filled:float,
remaining:float, avgFillPrice:float, permId:int,
parentId:int, lastFillPrice:float, clientId:int,
whyHeld:str):
super().orderStatus(orderId, status, filled, remaining,
avgFillPrice, permId, parentId, lastFillPrice, clientId, whyHeld)
@iswrapper
def tickPrice(self, tickerId: TickerId , tickType: TickType, price: float, attrib):
super().tickPrice(tickerId, tickType, price, attrib)
print(current_fn_name(), tickerId, TickTypeEnum.to_str(tickType), price, attrib, file=sys.stderr)
#tickPrice 1001 LAST 264.42 0,0
if(TickTypeEnum.to_str(tickType) == 'LAST'):
self.cDataPrice = price
@iswrapper
def tickSize(self, tickerId: TickerId, tickType: TickType, size: int):
super().tickSize(tickerId, tickType, size)
print(current_fn_name(), tickerId, TickTypeEnum.to_str(tickType), size, file=sys.stderr)
@iswrapper
def tickSnapshotEnd(self, reqId: int):
super().tickSnapshotEnd(reqId)
print("TickSnapshotEnd:", reqId)
if(self.isConnected()):
self.disconnect()
@iswrapper
def realtimeBar(self, reqId:TickerId, time:int, open:float, high:float, low:float, close:float, volume:int, wap:float, count:int):
super().realtimeBar(reqId, time, open, high, low, close, volume, wap, count)
print("RealTimeBars. ", reqId, ": time ", time, ", open: ",open, ", high: ", high, ", low: ", low, ", close: ", close, ", volume: ", volume,", wap: ", wap, ", count: ", count)
@iswrapper
def scannerParameters(self, xml:str):
open('scanner.xml', 'w').write(xml)
@iswrapper
def position(self, account: str, contract: ibapi.contract.Contract, position: float, avgCost: float):
print('Position: {} {} @ {}'.format(position, contract.symbol, avgCost))
@iswrapper
def positionEnd(self):
pass
def fundamentalData(self, reqId: TickerId, data: str):
print("FundamentalData. ", reqId, data)
def newsProviders(self, newsProviders: ListOfNewsProviders):
print("newsProviders: ")
for provider in newsProviders:
print(provider)
def historicalData(self, reqId:int, bar: BarData):
row = []
row.append(str(bar.date))
row.append(bar.open)
row.append(bar.high)
row.append(bar.low)
row.append(bar.close)
row.append(bar.volume)
row.append(bar.barCount)
row.append(bar.average)
self.hDataRecords.append(row)
self.hDataIndex.append(self.lineCount)
self.lineCount += 1
print("HistoricalData. ", reqId, " ,Date:", bar.date, ",Open:", bar.open,",High:", bar.high, ",Low:", bar.low, ",Close:", bar.close, ",Volume:", bar.volume,",Count:", bar.barCount, ",WAP:", bar.average)
def historicalDataEnd(self, reqId: int, start: str, end: str):
super().historicalDataEnd(reqId, start, end)
self.hData["columns"] = self.hDataColumns
self.hData["index"] = self.hDataIndex
self.hData["data"] = self.hDataRecords
#Format:
#jsonOut = {"columns":["Date","Open","High"],
#"index":[0, 1],
#"data": [["2017-12-18", 268.08, 268.67], ["2017-12-19", 268.48, 268.53]]}
if(self.currentSymbol == 'SPY'):
current_file = 'data/spy_current.json'
month_file = 'data/spy_month.json'
all_file = 'data/spy.json'
all_file_csv = 'data/spy.csv'
elif(self.currentSymbol == 'IWM'):
current_file = 'data/iwm_current.json'
month_file = 'data/iwm_month.json'
all_file = 'data/iwm.json'
all_file_csv = 'data/iwm.csv'
jsonDump = json.dumps(self.hData)
if(self.hDataCurrent):
#write the current file
with open(current_file, 'w') as f:
f.write(jsonDump)
self.hDataCurrent = False
elif(self.hDataMonthly):
with open(month_file, 'w') as f:
f.write(jsonDump)
self.hDataMonthly = False
else:
with open(all_file, 'w') as f:
#writer = csv.writer(f, delimiter=',', lineterminator='\r\n', quotechar="'")
f.write(jsonDump)
w = csv.writer(open(all_file_csv, "wt", newline=''), quoting=csv.QUOTE_NONE, escapechar=' ', quotechar='')
#w = csv.writer(fw, delimiter=',', lineterminator='\r\n', quotechar="'")
for item in self.hData.items():
w.writerow([item[1]])
#clear hData
self.hData.clear()
self.hDataRecords.clear()
self.hDataIndex.clear()
self.lineCount = 0
print("HistoricalDataEnd ", reqId, "from", start, "to", end)
if(self.isConnected()):
self.disconnect()
def historicalDataUpdate(self, reqId: int, bar: BarData):
print("HistoricalDataUpdate. ", reqId, " Date:", bar.date, "Open:", bar.open,"High:", bar.high, "Low:", bar.low, "Close:", bar.close, "Volume:", bar.volume,"Count:", bar.barCount, "WAP:", bar.average)
def main():
#put your calls in here
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
Further Steps
Now we need to create some charts. Follow the example for momentum described in my previous blog post.