Hotkey trading for Interactive Brokers
Scalpel puts Level 2, the tape, a chart and your orders for several stocks on one screen. You buy, sell part of a position or close everything with single keys, and every entry gets a stop. It starts in paper trading, so you can learn it with no money at risk.
Scalpel is a Windows desktop app. Send yourself the link and download it on your trading computer.
Email me the download linkGet ScalpelThe download is free. Scalpel needs a licence key to run: $299 once, with a 7-day refund if it isn't for you. See pricing
Every read was tested on recorded sessions
Above each order book, Scalpel writes one plain line about what buyers and sellers are doing. Before a read made it into the app, it was checked against recorded trading sessions. Reads like "leaning up" did no better than a coin flip, so they were cut.
Three warnings held up, so only those are colored: an ask-heavy book tends to cap price, a bull trap tends to dip in the next minute, and a stock that loses tends to keep falling.
What it does
TWS can trade every market IBKR offers. Scalpel only trades US stocks, long only, and it is built for getting in and out of fast-moving ones with a stop already set.
Hotkeys
Buy at one of four preset sizes, sell all, half or a quarter, move your stop to breakeven or close everything, each on a key you choose. Every fill is spoken out loud, so your eyes stay on the price.
Shift1CtrlZEscLevel 2 you can read
lays out buyers and sellers facing each other around the price. It flags a seller who keeps refilling the same price, and one plain line says what the book and the are doing.
Size by what you can lose
Decide what a trade may cost you, say $50, and Scalpel works out the share count from your stop the instant you press. Or size by shares or by dollars if you prefer.
Stops on the chart
Every entry gets a stop, a wider backup stop and a target at twice your risk (). Drag them on the chart to see what you would make or lose there. Scalpel watches them, not IBKR: if the app closes, they stop.
A scanner on your IBKR connection
IBKR's own scanner finds the stocks moving most right now, pre-market included, and calls out new highs and halts out loud. No third-party feed: it runs on your IBKR market data.
Paper trading first
fills paper orders against the real order book with your IBKR commissions. Switch to LIVE from the header when you are ready: from then on, every key sends a real order.
Four stocks on one screen
Each desk shows one stock's order book, trades, chart and orders. Click a desk and your hotkeys trade that stock. These are the four parts to learn first.
1The order book
Buyers on the left, sellers on the right, the best prices meeting in the middle. A thick stack shows where a move may stall.
2The tape
Every trade as it prints. Green means buyers paying the asking price, red means sellers hitting the bid.
3Your stop on the chart
Entry, stop and target sit on the chart as lines with live profit and loss. Drag a line to move it.
4Flatten all
One key, Esc by default, closes every position at once when the trade turns on you.
Find the stocks that are moving
Scalpel uses IBKR's own scanner on the connection you already have. It runs five scans at once and merges them into one live list, sorted by how much each stock is up.
What it looks for
- The biggest gainers today, pre-market included
- Sudden bursts of volume
- Trading halts, and when they reopen
- The busiest stocks by volume
- Stocks gapping up from yesterday's close
What it says out loud
- A stock breaking to a new high of the day
- Common momentum patterns forming, like a first pullback
- A halted stock reopening
- Click any row to load it on a desk
On every row
- How many shares exist: fewer can move faster
- How much of the stock is sold short
- A 0 to 100 squeeze score: how trapped short sellers look
- Volume today against a normal day
- Company size, the day's average price and the intel chips
Warnings before you buy
Small-cap moves often fail because the company is selling new shares into them, or because the news behind them is thin. Scalpel checks every stock you hold, every stock on a desk and the whole scanner list for those signs, from your IBKR data and news plus free public sources: SEC EDGAR, Nasdaq and FINRA.
Borrow
How hard and how costly it is to short the stock, from IBKR's borrow data, the Reg SHO list and FINRA short volume. When borrow runs out and the fee climbs, short sellers may have to buy.
Dilution
SEC EDGAR's live filings are checked every few seconds for signs the company is selling stock or running out of cash. Warrant and offering prices are drawn on your chart.
News
Headlines from the news on your IBKR account, graded by kind and strength. An offering is never graded as good news.
Entry guard
For 30 minutes after a financing filing or offering headline, your first buy press on that stock is held back with a warning.
Limits you set in advance
Every entry passes these checks before it leaves the app. You set the numbers in Settings, under Risk.
Daily loss limit
When the day's loss passes your limit, new entries are blocked behind a banner. It can close every position too.
Order size cap
Any single order worth more than your limit is refused, so a typo can't send a huge order.
Position size cap
An entry that would push one stock past your limit is blocked.
Buying power
An order you can't afford never goes out.
Long only
A sell is capped to the shares you hold, so Scalpel can never put you short by accident.
Locked desks
A desk holding a position can't switch stock, so a position never disappears from view.
Before you go LIVE
- LIVE sends real orders to your IBKR account. There is no confirm dialog: the mode switch is the gate.
- Stops and targets are watched by Scalpel, not held at IBKR. If the app closes or loses its connection, they stop working until it is back.
- Switch modes only when you are flat. A LIVE position's stops pause while you are in SIM.
Getting started
- 01DownloadDownload the free app on your Windows PC. It is one file, no installer.
- 02ConnectOpen TWS, or IB Gateway (IBKR's lighter, login-only app), and turn on its API. Then start Scalpel and paste your licence key. Setup steps
- 03Start in SIMPractise with paper money against the real order book. When you switch to LIVE, each key sends a real order.
$299 once, no subscription
Every update is included. Bring your own IBKR account: Scalpel runs on your computer and never touches your funds. Its stops are watched by the app, so keep it running while you hold a position.
The full cockpit, scanner and intel, with every future update.
- Two machines per licence
- SIM mode for practice
- Support on Discord
- 7-day refund guarantee