Interactive Broker Trader Workstation (TWS) API Set Up

Interactive Brokers Trader Workstation (TWS) is comprehensive enough for my investment management and research. However, for curiosity sake I decided to try out their API software to see how far it can take me. If you simply want a fuss free method, please check out my post here on Alpha Vantage Excel Add-in. Please not that I did not subscribe to Interactive Brokers market data services hence there will be limitation on the functions available on their API calls. 

Allow me to digress, they do offer FREE Research and News Services on their TWS platform for users to access. However, there is a monthly fee for viewing real time quotes and premium newswires. Hence stated otherwise, the market data you are viewing are delayed quotes. Fees differ according to the stock exchange and type of user (Pro or Non- Pro). For the most of us, if you are reading this, you are most likely a Non-Pro user. 

Source: Interactive Brokers website
"Non-Professional - is any natural person and cannot be a corporation, trust, organization, institution or partnership account."

Alternative to setting up Alpha Vantage API

For those (like myself) who is still facing some 'technical difficulties' setting up the Alpha Vantage API, I have 'discovered' an alternative method which is more straightforward. Another reason has to be so far the tool is working fine, I have not encountered any "0" values for those API calls. This post is in reference to my previous post on Open Source API for Investment Tracking. 

Credits to LelandGrunt for his Excel Add- in tool found on GitHub. 

Linking Open Source API to Google Spreadsheets to Track Investment: GOOGLEFINANCE, IEX and Alpha Vantage

What is API

API stands for Application Programming Interface. According to Google, API is a set of functions and procedures that allow the creation of applications which access the features or data of an operating system, application, or other service. In simple terms, it means a specification of remote calls for a program to interact with another software. API calls are required to retrieve data from the sources, such that you do not have to manually key in the data from the source to update your investment tracker. The data is being refreshed via the feed, freeing up your time for analysis instead of doing data entry. 

In this article, I will share the basics of setting up simple API calls from GoogleFinance, IEX and Alpha Vantage.