# A TWS day trading layout for scalpers: the Mosaic setup

> A TWS day trading setup step by step: Mosaic windows, color-linked groups, 1 and 5-minute charts, time and sales, saving the layout and settings for speed.

Source: https://scalpeltrade.com/blog/tws-day-trading-layout
By Scalpel Team. Published 2026-08-24, last changed 2026-10-15. 8 min read.

**In short:**

A good TWS day trading setup is one Mosaic layout, with every window for the stock you trade linked to one color group: order entry, a Level 2 window (BookTrader or Market Depth), Time & Sales, a 1-minute and a 5-minute chart with VWAP and EMAs, a scanner, and your positions. Unlock the layout to arrange it, lock it again, and save it with File, Layout Settings, Save Settings. Then set your stock order preset to allow outside-RTH fills and turn off the confirmations you no longer need.

TWS can do almost anything, which is why a new IBKR day trader's screen often ends up as a pile of unlinked windows. This post is a precise, menu-by-menu build of a layout for scalping US stocks: what to open, how to link it, which chart and tape settings to use, how to save it, how to spread it over more than one monitor, and which defaults to change for speed. Every path below was checked against IBKR's own documentation. Labels can shift between TWS versions, so if one does not match, search IBKR Guides for the window name.

Scalpel is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Interactive Brokers.

## The TWS day trading setup at a glance

| Window | Open it from | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Order Entry | In the default Mosaic layout | Ticker, size, price and the buy and sell buttons |
| BookTrader | **New Window**, then **BookTrader** | Price ladder with depth: click to place orders at a price |
| Market Depth | **New Window**, then **Market Depth** | Level II table, one row per venue per price |
| Time & Sales | **New Window**, then **Time & Sales** | Every print: time, price, size, venue |
| Chart (x2) | **New Window**, then a chart | 1-minute for entries, 5-minute for context |
| Scanner | **New Window**, then a market scanner | Finding the stocks that are moving |
| Portfolio and Activity | In the default Mosaic layout | Positions, open orders and fills |

You do not need both BookTrader and Market Depth. BookTrader is quicker for clicking orders, and Market Depth is easier to read. Both need a depth subscription. [IBKR Level 2](https://scalpeltrade.com/blog/ibkr-level-2) covers which feeds to buy and the cap on how many books you can stream at once (3 on a new account).

## Build the Mosaic layout

### 1. Unlock the layout

In Mosaic, open the **File** menu and choose **Unlock Layout (Edit Mode)** under **Layout**. While the layout is locked you cannot add, remove or resize the docked windows.

### 2. Clear what you will not use

The default Mosaic has a watchlist, news and other tools you may not want on a trading screen. Close anything you will not look at during a trade. Every extra window is one more place your eyes can go.

### 3. Open the trading windows

Click **New Window** in the top left and open **BookTrader** (or **Market Depth**), **Time & Sales**, two charts and a scanner. They open as their own windows. Drag each one into the Mosaic frame and drop it where you want it docked.

### 4. Place them around the order entry

A layout that works for most scalpers: Level 2 and Time & Sales side by side in the center, the 1-minute chart to their right, order entry under the Level 2, and the 5-minute chart, scanner and positions on the edges. Your eyes should move between book, tape and 1-minute chart without turning your head.

### 5. Link the windows to one color group

Set every window that should follow the traded stock to the same color group (next section).

### 6. Lock and save

Lock the layout again from the **File** menu, then save it with **Save Settings** (below).

## Link windows by color group so one ticker drives all

Linking is what turns a pile of windows into a layout. Click the chain-link icon in the top right of a window's title bar and pick a colored number from the list. Give every window you want in the group the same number. When you change the symbol in one window, every linked window follows ([IBKR Guides: color grouping](https://ibkrguides.com/traderworkstation/color-grouping-linked-panels.htm)).

- **One group for the stock you trade.** Order entry, BookTrader, Market Depth, Time & Sales and both charts in group 1. Type a ticker in any of them and the whole station loads it.
- **The scanner.** If the scanner is in group 1, selecting a row loads that stock everywhere. That is fast, but it also means a stray click changes the stock under your order entry. Many traders leave the scanner unlinked and type the ticker on purpose.
- **A second station.** To watch a second stock, give its own chart, tape and book group 2. Keep in mind each extra symbol in a depth window counts toward your depth cap.

A window belongs to one group at a time. Hover over the group icon to see whether a window sends symbols, receives them, or both.

![A wireframe of a one-ticker layout with Level 2, Time & Sales, a 1-minute chart and order entry in the center, the scanner, positions and a 5-minute chart on the edges, and the windows for the traded stock marked as color group 1](https://scalpeltrade.com/images/blog/tws-day-trading-layout/linked-layout.webp)

*Book, tape and 1-minute chart sit together with order entry under the book. Everything that follows the traded stock is in group 1; the scanner is your choice.*

## Chart settings for 1-minute and 5-minute charts

Open **Edit**, then **Chart Parameters**, at the top of each chart window ([IBKR Guides: chart parameters](https://www.ibkrguides.com/traderworkstation/chart-parameters.htm)).

| Setting | 1-minute chart | 5-minute chart |
|---|---|---|
| Time Period | 1 day, 1-minute bars | 2 to 5 days, 5-minute bars |
| Bar Type | Candlestick | Candlestick |
| Show data outside of regular trading hours | On | On |
| Show data in user time zone | Off if you want New York time | Same |
| Volume | On | On |
| Studies | VWAP, 9 EMA, 20 EMA | VWAP, 9 EMA, 20 EMA |

**Show data outside of regular trading hours** matters most for pre-market traders. Without it, the chart starts at 09:30 ET and hides the pre-market high, the level everyone is watching.

To add studies, open the **Studies** tab in Chart Parameters, expand the group on the left (EMAs are under the moving averages), select the study and click **Add**. For [VWAP](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/glossary#vwap), use the intraday version that resets each session, not a multi-day volume average. The 9 and 20 [EMA](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/glossary#ema) are common choices for short-term trend, not magic numbers. Keep the studies identical on both charts, so a line means the same thing wherever you see it.

## Time and sales settings

Open **New Window**, then **Time & Sales**, and link it to group 1. The default columns are Time, Last, Size, Exchange and Condition ([IBKR Guides: Time & Sales](https://ibkrguides.com/traderworkstation/time-and-sales.htm)).

- **Keep Exchange and Condition.** Exchange tells you whether a print hit a lit venue or printed off-exchange. Condition flags odd lots and out-of-sequence prints. Hover over a size or price to decode a condition.
- **Use the Block filter.** Right-click a column and set a block size so large prints stand out. On a $5 small cap, 5,000 to 10,000 shares is a reasonable starting point. Adjust it to the stock.
- **Columns** live under the Configure wheel in the top right of the window, then **Settings**.
- **Live vs history.** A light gray icon means the tape is streaming. A dark gray icon means you have paged back into history and the window is frozen. Get back to live before you trade from it.

What the tape is telling you, and how to read it alongside the book, is covered in [reading time and sales](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/read-time-and-sales).

## Save and lock the layout

TWS saves your settings when you exit, but do not rely on that alone:

1. **Lock the layout.** Use the **File** menu's layout lock (the same item you used to unlock it), so a stray drag cannot undock a window mid-trade.
2. **Save Settings.** **File**, **Application Settings**, **Layout Settings**, **Save Settings** writes your layout, defaults and menu choices to disk.
3. **Save Settings As.** Save a named copy, for example `day-trading-layout`, somewhere you back up. If TWS ever loads a blank layout, you can restore it.
4. **Layout Settings Recovery.** In the same menu, this restores a layout from a previous day. It is the fix when an update or crash scrambles your windows.

## A multi-monitor TWS layout

TWS windows can live outside the Mosaic frame, and **New Window Group** in the **File** menu creates a second blank frame you can drag to another screen.

| Screen | Two monitors | Three monitors |
|---|---|---|
| Center (straight ahead) | Level 2, Time & Sales, 1-minute chart, order entry | Level 2, Time & Sales, 1-minute chart, order entry |
| Second | 5-minute chart, scanner, positions and activity | 5-minute and daily charts, news |
| Third | (none) | Scanner, positions and activity, account window |

Put the window you act from straight in front of you, and never on the far edge of a screen. Keep everything that follows the traded stock in group 1, whichever monitor it is on.

![Two monitors: the center one holds Level 2, the tape, the 1-minute chart and order entry, the second holds the 5-minute chart, the scanner and positions, with group 1 on both screens](https://scalpeltrade.com/images/blog/tws-day-trading-layout/two-monitors.webp)

*The two-monitor plan from the table. The 5-minute chart is on the second screen but stays in group 1, so it still follows the traded stock.*

## Settings to change for speed

TWS ships with safety prompts aimed at investors. A scalper should change some of them, carefully.

**Default order preset.** Open **Global Configuration** (from the **File** menu, or the wrench icon on most windows), then **Presets**, then **Stock** ([IBKR Guides: order presets](https://ibkrguides.com/traderworkstation/define-order-preset-value.htm)):

- In the timing section, tick **Allow order to be activated, triggered, or filled outside of regular trading hours**. Without it, a pre-market order rests until 09:30 ET. Set **Time in Force** to DAY.
- Set the default size to the share count you actually trade, so order entry and BookTrader start there.

**Precautionary Settings.** In the same preset are **Size Limit**, **Total Value Limit**, **Percentage** and **Number of Ticks**. If they are below your normal size, every order stops for a warning. Raise them to just above your largest normal order instead of setting them to zero. That way they still catch a fat-fingered extra zero.

**Confirmations.** Most order dialogs have a **Don't display this message again** box. You can re-enable any of them later in **Global Configuration**, then **Messages**. In BookTrader, you can turn off the confirmation on the first order so clicks transmit immediately. Only do this after you have practiced in a paper account, because a misclick then becomes a live order.

**Hotkeys.** Keyboard entries are faster than any click. [TWS hotkeys for day trading](https://scalpeltrade.com/blog/tws-hotkeys-day-trading) has a tested setup.

**This can cost you money: Outside RTH changes how stops behave.**

Outside regular hours, exchanges accept limit orders only. Ticking outside RTH in the preset does not make a resting stop protect you in the pre-market. [Why your stop did not trigger in the pre-market](https://scalpeltrade.com/blog/premarket-stop-loss-ibkr) explains what happens and what to do instead.

## The one-window alternative: Scalpel's desks

Everything above can be done in TWS, and TWS is the better choice if you also trade options or futures, or want free-floating windows across several monitors. The cost is the linking, saving and checking you just did.

Scalpel takes the opposite approach: one window, built for long-only scalping of US stocks, where each stock gets a desk. A desk is a whole station for one stock: a DAS-style Level 2 montage with the tape beside it, a chart with the order bar, and orders and positions. Nothing to link, because each desk is one stock. You can run up to six desks side by side. Scanner rows carry a small square in each desk's color, and clicking one loads that stock onto that desk.

*Screenshot: The cockpit in SIM: the header (1), a desk header (2), Level 2 and the tape (3), the chart (4), the order bar (5), orders and positions (6), the + rail for more desks (7), and the status bar (8). Demo data.*

Panels inside a desk are rearranged by dragging their title bars, and **Apply to all** copies one desk's layout to the rest ([arranging desks](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/arrange-desks)). The layout saves itself. On several screens, either keep Scalpel on the main screen and TWS on a side one, or stretch the window over two ([multi-monitor setup](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/multi-monitor-setup)). TWS or IB Gateway still has to run in the background, because Scalpel trades through your own IBKR account. The [cockpit tour](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/cockpit-tour) names every part of the screen. For the full IBKR setup, from account to data to hotkeys, start with [day trading on Interactive Brokers](https://scalpeltrade.com/blog/day-trading-interactive-brokers).

*Trading carries a significant risk of loss. Nothing here is financial advice.*

## Questions

**What is the best TWS layout for day trading?**

One Mosaic layout with order entry, BookTrader or Market Depth, Time & Sales, a 1-minute and a 5-minute chart, a scanner and positions, with every window for the traded stock in the same color group. Keep the book, tape and 1-minute chart close together in front of you.

**How do I link windows in TWS Mosaic?**

Click the chain-link icon in the top right of each window's title bar and pick the same colored number for every window you want linked. Changing the symbol in one then changes it in all of them.

**How do I save my TWS layout?**

Open the File menu, then Application Settings, Layout Settings and Save Settings. Use Save Settings As to keep a named backup, and Layout Settings Recovery to restore a previous day's layout.

**How do I show pre-market data on TWS charts?**

In the chart window open Edit, then Chart Parameters, and tick Show data outside of regular trading hours. Without it the chart starts at the regular open.

**How do I make TWS orders fill in the pre-market by default?**

In Global Configuration open Presets, then Stock, and in the timing section tick Allow order to be activated, triggered, or filled outside of regular trading hours. Use limit orders, because exchanges accept only limit orders outside regular hours.