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Interactive Brokers - experiences and opinions

  • #141
  • Dec 6, 2007 2:40pm Dec 6, 2007 2:40pm
Quoting UFO Engineer
Hi
About Interactive Brokers, can someone tell me what is the leverage for Forex (or maybe stocks) and the spread for GBP-JPY.
Thank you
IB is peculiar with margin.. Leverage is 50:1 on base currency pairs (if your account is funded in USD, then any USD pair is 50:1). With crosses, each leg of a cross pair is factored separately, so the margin is 25:1.

Also, IB's initial margin = maintenance margin. In other words, you should not use the full margin limit if you want any breathing room.

GPY/JPY spread ranges from 1-4 pips, and you can always trade within the spread (I almost always do).
  • #142
  • Dec 14, 2007 4:03am Dec 14, 2007 4:03am
Beware of IB's customer support! They have the most arrogant and incompetent staff of any investment/trading broker I've dealt with (and that includes Fidelity and E-Trade). I'm giving it a serious thought to disable FX trading in my IB account to not even have the temptation to do so because they have no clue how to explain what's happening to my account balances when I have a complaint.

Yesterday, they were showing my account's net liquidation value at $2368. As soon as I closed my short AUD/USD position for a profit of roughly $60, they have dropped the liquidation value to $2354. Now, how could that be? Their response was: "well, you have cash balances in other currencies in your account, so they must have changed in value". Pardon me, but this is bullshit! I had no other open positions in the account at the time. Either the initial number was wrong, or they simply didn't credit the account for the profit from the trade. Simply ridiculous.
  • #143
  • Edited 11:57pm Dec 14, 2007 11:47pm | Edited 11:57pm
Quoting Subdude
Beware of IB's customer support! They have the most arrogant and incompetent staff of any investment/trading broker I've dealt with
LOL! yeah they are kind of known for their poor customer service. thats why i never suggest that new traders trade with them. they are best for the advanced traders who already know how things work, and who wants cheap commissions, best execution, and universal access to worldwide markets. and when it comes to those three things, nobody beats IB

btw, with your liquidation value issue, i suggest you dont even pay attention to that. track your trades in excel, and make sure your balance matches each week/month. trying to decipher your PL from the IB records is near impossible, i dont even attempt it (and expecting customer service to do it is, well, you get the picture). all i do is reconcile with my own records periodically.
Relax and be happy.
  • #144
  • Edited 7:14am Dec 18, 2007 6:54am | Edited 7:14am
Thank you for your comments.I started to open an account with them but I canceled everything.
The customer service is ...http://forum.clarence.com/images/smilies/alcesso.gifhttp://forum.clarence.com/images/smilies/bleurgh.gif
  • #145
  • Dec 20, 2007 4:58am Dec 20, 2007 4:58am
I had IB account for a long time. Cannot say I was using it intensively but whenever I did I found that low comissions helped.
If you are a beginner and do many unnecessary trades and do not trade more than half lot it does not pay to trade on IB (oanda may be better): of course if your trades are in millions then IB is the way to go but I am not there yet.
  • #146
  • Dec 20, 2007 5:26am Dec 20, 2007 5:26am
I have a dream.

I want to find a bolt on for IB that will let me enter fast moving fx market with limit orders. If you use market order you will get filled at price you do not want.

The trouble with limit orders that you have to constantly adjust them manually as midprice moves up/down and if you know ib platform you agree this is near to impossible.

Is there a bolt-on that adjusts your limits automatically at set distance from midprice?

Thanks,
Nik
  • #147
  • Dec 20, 2007 5:32am Dec 20, 2007 5:32am
Chop: have a look at buttontrader or zeroline trader. I am not entirely sure they are good for FX, but they are excellent IB-frontends for futures.
  • #148
  • Dec 20, 2007 5:49am Dec 20, 2007 5:49am
Quoting chpok
The trouble with limit orders that you have to constantly adjust them manually as midprice moves up/down and if you know ib platform you agree this is near to impossible.
Near to impossible? What is so hard about clicking and dragging?
Attached Image
  • #149
  • Dec 20, 2007 6:32am Dec 20, 2007 6:32am
I am lazy, that is why I want to be a trader
But seriously lets look at fast market right before news.
you want to put limit buy and sell orders 10pips above and 10 pips below midprice. Midprice jumps 10pips up and 10pips down (or more than 10pips) every few seconds.
How are you going to adjust your limit orders manually?
  • #150
  • Dec 20, 2007 6:59am Dec 20, 2007 6:59am
Is there a workaround for using a trailing stop on a buy/sell stop? IB only seems to let me attach trailing stops for limit orders, but I don't see why I can't do that for stop orders? I tried customer service but they didn't help.
  • #151
  • Dec 20, 2007 7:27am Dec 20, 2007 7:27am
Quoting chpok
I have a dream.

I want to find a bolt on for IB that will let me enter fast moving fx market with limit orders. If you use market order you will get filled at price you do not want.

The trouble with limit orders that you have to constantly adjust them manually as midprice moves up/down and if you know ib platform you agree this is near to impossible.

Is there a bolt-on that adjusts your limits automatically at set distance from midprice?

Thanks,
Nik
u can use Booktrader feature for limit order.just click the price u want on the ladder
  • #152
  • Dec 20, 2007 3:24pm Dec 20, 2007 3:24pm
Thank you guys for your responses. I will keep looking. Button trader is going to be my next stop. The trouble with IB's book is although you can select it to centralise mid price on the book it still jumps around a lot.
Anybody worked with J-trader as an IB's bolt-on?
  • #153
  • Dec 28, 2007 11:10am Dec 28, 2007 11:10am
Quoting libertao
Is there a workaround for using a trailing stop on a buy/sell stop? IB only seems to let me attach trailing stops for limit orders, but I don't see why I can't do that for stop orders? I tried customer service but they didn't help.
Hi Libertao,
you cant do it, they only allow trails on limit orders.

I have to agree about the customer service its soooooo bad. But, you know a few times, I have been as close to stops as .0025 and price has reversed, taking me with it, that is amazing! (In fact it happened today for the second time, eur dropped back to 1.466425, and my stop was at 1.466400) I wonder if anyone else can claim that about their broker... take care, Raz
Never say never.
  • #154
  • Dec 28, 2007 1:41pm Dec 28, 2007 1:41pm
trailing stops are allowed on stop-limit orders, which is very close to stop order
  • #155
  • Dec 28, 2007 6:59pm Dec 28, 2007 6:59pm
Quoting Galileo258
trailing stops are allowed on stop-limit orders, which is very close to stop order
I had the impression there is a danger of those not getting filled, but looking at it again, the price has to have a significant gap in order to not be filled, correct?

Thanks Galileo
  • #156
  • Dec 30, 2007 9:56pm Dec 30, 2007 9:56pm
Anyone knows how to save a page from the IB platform? I'd like to save a page for each currency - GBP, EUR, CAD, AUD, CHF, JPY...

Right now, I can save a page with charts (1m, 15m & 1H) for a currency (e.g. GBP) as default. But if I want to trade another currency, say CAD, I have to re-set all charts and other layout for CAD from the GBP page. What a pain!

Any suggestions appreciated.

PM
  • #157
  • Jan 2, 2008 1:13am Jan 2, 2008 1:13am
Quoting Galileo258
trailing stops are allowed on stop-limit orders, which is very close to stop order
Hi Daniel,
could you explain the stop-limit order please? I was trying to have another go at a conversation with the people at IB, and I wish I had saved it! What a laugh...I dont know if anyone has ever heard the joke about the German coastguard and the sinking ship...it goes ...the ship captain is calling mayday mayday we are sinking...and the german coastguard replies... what are you sinking.. about? LOL, very much reminded me of my chat with IB...(could it be that english isnt their first language or are they just not at all interested in answering questions of any kind) thankyou for any help, Raz
Never say never.
  • #158
  • May 5, 2008 3:36am May 5, 2008 3:36am
Quoting narafa
Well, almost 2 weeks and they never returned my email back...!!! I don't know what's wrong with these guys...I get an email reply 2 weeks later from TradeStation with weird policies, and no reply from IB....Looks like I will stick with my Ameritrade account....


Thanks,

Nader
seems strange that u say they don't answer emails. I am not a customer of IB and don't have an account with them inspite of it I recieved a comprehansive reply in a two days. and also I used their quiry form on their site, and recieved the response the next day after I submited my quiry. As for their answers I would say it is very short. they answer your questions in several phrases but they managed to explain what I needed in that few phrases.
  • #159
  • May 27, 2008 5:28am May 27, 2008 5:28am
I recently sent money to Hotspot to open an account, but I would really like to hear from someone who has an active account with IB that could tell me some of their prices that I might compare it to the live feed I have with Hotspot, by chatting on msn messenger or something like that. Anyone who has a live account with IB, please send me a private message so that we can compare quotes in real time.

Thanks to everyone willing to help and hopefully the results will be worth sharing on this thread for others to compare the two.
By the way, for those only interested in seeing their live quotes for major pairs, they have a live feed on their site, but I am looking to compare the crosses.
Thanks again!
  • #160
  • May 27, 2008 8:02am May 27, 2008 8:02am
why you choose them?
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