ib.qualifyContracts() leads to error in placing orders

[siteng98]

After running ib.qualifyContracts() on COIL contracts, it will pop an error when placing orders instead of going through. For some reason it seems to be specific to this contract, tried it on CL and it works fine.

Sample Script:

from ib_async import *

ib = IB()
ib.connect("127.0.0.1", port=7497, clientId=5)

contract_1 = Future(symbol="COIL", lastTradeDateOrContractMonth="202505", exchange="IPE")
ib.qualifyContracts(contract_1)
order_1 = LimitOrder(action="BUY", totalQuantity=1, lmtPrice=70)
ib.placeOrder(contract_1, order_1)

try:
    ib.run()
except KeyboardInterrupt:
    ib.disconnect()

Output:

Error 10330, reqId 26: The expiry date/time format is invalid. The correct format is yyyyMM, yyyyMMdd HH:mm:ss (operator or instrument time zone) or yyyyMMdd-HH:mm:ss (UTC time zone).
Canceled order: Trade(contract=Future(conId=340216162, symbol='COIL', lastTradeDateOrContractMonth='20250331 19:30:00 GB', multiplier='1000', exchange='IPE', currency='USD', localSymbol='COILK5', tradingClass='COIL'), order=LimitOrder(orderId=26, clientId=5, action='BUY', totalQuantity=1, lmtPrice=70), orderStatus=OrderStatus(orderId=26, status='Cancelled', filled=0.0, remaining=0.0, avgFillPrice=0.0, permId=0, parentId=0, lastFillPrice=0.0, clientId=0, whyHeld='', mktCapPrice=0.0), fills=[], log=[TradeLogEntry(time=datetime.datetime(2025, 2, 25, 7, 42, 8, 200539, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), status='PendingSubmit', message='', errorCode=0), TradeLogEntry(time=datetime.datetime(2025, 2, 25, 7, 42, 8, 201539, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), status='Cancelled', message='Error 10330, reqId 26: The expiry date/time format is invalid. The correct format is yyyyMM, yyyyMMdd HH:mm:ss (operator or instrument time zone) or yyyyMMdd-HH:mm:ss (UTC time zone).', errorCode=10330)], advancedError='')

[mattsta]

It may just require a longer last trade date specification (don't trust the error message, it doesn't know everything and is clearly just a generic response used for any non-matching data their API doesn't like).

The contract spec at the IBKR contract library shows COIL expires on the first day of the month (May 1) but the last trading day is the last day of the previous month, so maybe IBKR requires a full 20250430 as the last trade date to avoid confusion?

You could also try qualifying more details like symbol="COIL" and localSymbol="COILM5" and tradingClass="COIL" — every contract at IBKR has a unique localSymbol value so usually that one is enough to fully qualify a contract without extra details (along with providing the exchange too).