Guide 2.5
Beginner, 5 min read. Checked with Scalpel 1.12.8 on .
In short
Each loaded desk shows the market session (PRE, RTH, AFTER or CLOSED) and, only when its data is not live, a badge: DELAYED (amber) means IBKR is sending 15-minute delayed quotes, NO DATA means nothing has arrived since the stock loaded, and STALE means no update for 12 seconds. A red HALTED strip under the header means the exchange has stopped trading the stock, with the reason and a timer. Do not trade from a desk showing any of them until you know why.
Scalpel's reads, sizes and stops all work from the live feed. A badge is Scalpel telling you that feed is late, missing or paused, so whatever the desk shows may not be the market right now.
Before you start
The status sits in the desk header, right of the Symbol box. A healthy desk shows just a coloured dot and the session. A badge appears beside it when something is off; only one shows at a time, in the order DELAYED, NO DATA, STALE.
The session is the US market's, in New York time, so every desk shows the same one:
| Tag | Dot | Hours (ET) |
|---|---|---|
| PRE | Amber | Pre-market, 04:00 to 09:30 |
| RTH | Green | Regular trading hours, 09:30 to 16:00 (13:00 on a half day) |
| AFTER | Amber | After-hours, 16:00 to 20:00 (17:00 on a half day) |
| CLOSED | Grey | Overnight, weekends and market holidays |
Scalpel is built first for the pre-market, when the momentum gappers move. Outside regular hours the books are thinner, spreads are wider and prices jump further between trades, so read PRE and AFTER as "size down". With the market CLOSED the order bar is greyed out and entries are blocked (guide 13.13).
| Badge | Colour | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| DELAYED | Amber | IBKR is sending delayed quotes for this stock, usually 15 minutes old, because the account has no real-time subscription for its exchange. | Do not trade it, not even in SIM: the book, tape and fills would be 15 minutes behind. Add the real-time US stock subscriptions in IBKR's Client Portal, and if you use a paper account, share the live account's data with it (guide 13.4). |
| NO DATA | Grey | Nothing at all (no quote, trade or book update) has arrived since the stock loaded. | Wait a couple of seconds after loading. If it stays, check the IBKR pill in the status bar says Connected (guide 13.1), and that the ticker is a US stock your account can get data for. |
| STALE | Grey | No quote, trade or book update for 12 seconds. | On a thin stock in the pre-market or after-hours this can simply mean nobody is trading it. If every desk goes stale at once, the link to TWS or IB Gateway has stalled: check the status bar and TWS. |
When the exchange halts a stock, a red strip opens under the desk's header with the word HALTED, the reason, and a timer counting since Scalpel saw the halt. A red toast says the same, for example PQRS halted: Volatility pause (LULD), with a sound.
The reason is one of two:
While the stock is halted, Scalpel blocks buys on it: the buy buttons on the order bar grey out, and a buy key is refused with a red toast, PQRS is halted: buys are blocked until it resumes. A halted stock reopens with an auction, often far from the last price, so no entry can sit queued for that moment. Sells are not blocked.
When trading resumes, the strip goes away, buys work again and a green toast says PQRS resumed trading.
While a stock is halted, no trades print, so your stop on it cannot fire. When it reopens, the first trade can be far above or below the last one, and an exit then fills at the reopening price, not at your stop. If you hold a halted stock, decide before the reopen what you will do if it opens against you.
Not a badge but a toast: Depth unavailable for the symbol, followed by IBKR's reason. The desk has no Level 2 book, usually because your account has reached its limit of books streaming at once. The quote, tape and chart still work. Clear or hide a desk you do not need, then reload the stock (guide 2.2).