The FIX API is different. It's just an order entry / RTD API. i.e. it's just used to send orders, and mainly targeted to companies which already use FIX e.g. because they already have other brokers.
You cannot do things like retrieve your previous orders, positions, contract information, historical market data, historical funding, etc. Everything that you basically need to manage your portfolio.
> You talk a lot about the "heavy graphical client", seemingly ignoring the Gateway, which is the canonical way to access the API.
The IB gateway _is_ a graphical client too, that's part of the problem. Even though they stripped most of the windows from it, you still have to run a X server, automate the filling of input boxes for logging/password, etc, etc.
The FIX API is different. It's just an order entry / RTD API. i.e. it's just used to send orders, and mainly targeted to companies which already use FIX e.g. because they already have other brokers. You cannot do things like retrieve your previous orders, positions, contract information, historical market data, historical funding, etc. Everything that you basically need to manage your portfolio.
> You talk a lot about the "heavy graphical client", seemingly ignoring the Gateway, which is the canonical way to access the API.
The IB gateway _is_ a graphical client too, that's part of the problem. Even though they stripped most of the windows from it, you still have to run a X server, automate the filling of input boxes for logging/password, etc, etc.