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Interactive Brokers - experiences and opinions

  • #621
  • Mar 31, 2015 5:31am Mar 31, 2015 5:31am
Quoting fido
I really don't understand your need to trade that many contracts on CL. If you are good you can double a $10K pretty fast trading just 2 contracts - and if you are not good you should stay away from CL All futures trades must be cleared by a clearing firm - ninja trader brokerage is not OTC it is the real thing .. and their intraday margin on emini S&P500 is $500 not $1000.
Well I got confused by those most likely CFD's offered by IG and since they have similiar margin as to other brokers I want to make sure that I am REALLY trading contracts on exchanges and not being filled directly by brokers themselves OTC.

It's NOT to doubt Ninja Trader or any other Futures broker or anything but I just want to make sure for myself.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #622
  • Mar 31, 2015 5:37am Mar 31, 2015 5:37am
I'm 100% sure regarding ninja trader - it is basically just a re-brand of Mirus Futures and I receive my daily statements directly from Dorman not NT.
Another broker to consider would be Global Futures they work with different clearing firms and can accept Canadian clients - their intra day margins are probably the lowest in the industry.

Globalfutures.com
  • #623
  • Mar 31, 2015 6:04am Mar 31, 2015 6:04am
Quoting actalis
{quote} Agreed that their execution is top notch if you're a FX day trader or scalper but if you keep positions overnight then it's a different story. They have the worst rollover interest policy in the industry, up to several times more expensive than FXCM, Dukascopy, IG or any other FX brokers. They don't use FX swap rates and use overnight interest rates with mark-ups/downs. You're better off closing and re-opening your position... But for trading futures or options, they're my broker of choice.
hey there, i'm a serious newb trying to find a broker (i'm in the US). can you explain this rollover rate thing and how big of an effect it would have on me if I went with IB as a client? is the rollover charge only applied if you've held a currency pair trade for longer than 24 hours? having a hard time sorting out the good from the bad with all of these US choices.. if i did plan to hold a trade for 3 days or so, would it be cost effective to close a trade and then reopen it like you mentioned, or was that sarcasm? thanks!
  • #624
  • Mar 31, 2015 6:09am Mar 31, 2015 6:09am
Quoting fido
I'm 100% sure regarding ninja trader - it is basically just a re-brand of Mirus Futures and I receive my daily statements directly from Dorman not NT. Another broker to consider would be Global Futures they work with different clearing firms and can accept Canadian clients - their intra day margins are probably the lowest in the industry. Globalfutures.com
Global futures do take canadians but only from ONE province when in fact all 9 out of 10 provinces in Canada has made exemptions in their regulations to allow foreign brokers to deal in futures products.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #625
  • Mar 31, 2015 6:19am Mar 31, 2015 6:19am
Quoting Forexia
{quote} Global futures do take canadians but only from ONE province when in fact all 9 out of 10 provinces in Canada has made exemptions in their regulations to allow foreign brokers to deal in futures products.
This is from their FAQ:

"Do you open accounts for Canadians?
Global Futures offers trading accounts with multiple clearing firms, several of which do accept Canadian clients. Please make sure to inform your broker of the specific province you reside in PRIOR to starting your application, so they can inform you of your clearing firm and platform options."
  • #626
  • Mar 31, 2015 7:32am Mar 31, 2015 7:32am
Quoting bobbyspider
{quote} hey there, i'm a serious newb trying to find a broker (i'm in the US). can you explain this rollover rate thing
I suggest you start here and read the whole website for your education:

http://www.babypips.com/forexpedia/rollover
http://www.babypips.com/school/under...for_forex.html

Rollovers interest charges or credits only occur when you keep a FX position past the 5PM EST deadline.
  • #627
  • Mar 31, 2015 2:39pm Mar 31, 2015 2:39pm
Quoting fido
{quote} This is from their FAQ: "Do you open accounts for Canadians? Global Futures offers trading accounts with multiple clearing firms, several of which do accept Canadian clients. Please make sure to inform your broker of the specific province you reside in PRIOR to starting your application, so they can inform you of your clearing firm and platform options."
Yeah I talked to them and they told me they only accept Canadian clients from this ONE province. The person that I talked to specifically asked me, just like this FAQ, which province I reside in and unfortunately it's not the one that they accept clients from. Either that person was incredibly stupid or Global Futures' policy is just incredibly stupid.

Oh well, not accepting us Canadians, no money for them. Nothing I can do about it. It's lost opportunity for both me, the broker and the Futures industry of USA and the NFA however maybe small.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #628
  • Mar 31, 2015 7:38pm Mar 31, 2015 7:38pm
That's strange ... there must be something with you Canadians
  • #629
  • Mar 31, 2015 8:29pm Mar 31, 2015 8:29pm
Quoting fido
That's strange ... there must be something with you Canadians
Yes we trade well
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #630
  • Apr 2, 2015 2:39pm Apr 2, 2015 2:39pm
For Canadian traders:

Interactive Brokers now allow RRSP and TFSA accounts for Canadians:
"In response to the numerous requests we’ve received to offer tax advantaged accounts to our Canadian clients, Interactive Brokers is pleased to announce the availability of Retirement Savings Plan (RSP) and Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSA). Both accounts offer tax-free accumulation of earnings, with taxes on contributions and earnings deferred until withdrawal in the case of the RSP and no tax on withdrawals of post-tax contributions and earnings from the TFSA. "

Registered accounts allow USD and CAD balances, so this suggests at least some forex trading could take place inside them. Has anybody opened an RRSP account with them yet and checked to what extent forex trading could be done inside of them?

Thanks
  • #631
  • Edited 3:56pm Apr 3, 2015 3:42pm | Edited 3:56pm
hate to ask a newbie question again but here I am: I am choosing between Ducas and IB now as my second broker. Yesterday I spent some time figuring out Ducas platform, it looks like I am ok with it now, at least to the degree that I need.

Now it is IB turn and it confuses the heck out of me. All I need pretty much is one currency pair with its chart and a couple of basic indicators, that's all. When I look at IB platform it looks too busy with lots of options that I don't need to begin with. The help files I found so far are not really helping at all so I am not sure where to start.

I spent the last few years with MT4 so everything Java based does not feel like home any more, and again I just don't need all those bells and whistles. Is there a good manual file, or forum with a basic discussion on how tos with demos like it is for MT4?

Also, I don't really understand their demo intent - there is no login, once you downloaded it your are in? they don't let me look at history more than a week back etc so really it does not make much sense at all. It looks like in order to even have a decent papertrading platform I have to open a real account with them to begin with and deposit money? I am not sure I want to do it at this stage. At least their customer service seems to be the poorest out of all others I tried so far.

I am assuming since you are here you are using IB so someone may have these answers and save me from a headache.
  • #632
  • Apr 3, 2015 4:42pm Apr 3, 2015 4:42pm
Quoting Ian_Lavoie
For Canadian traders: Interactive Brokers now allow RRSP and TFSA accounts for Canadians: "In response to the numerous requests weve received to offer tax advantaged accounts to our Canadian clients, Interactive Brokers is pleased to announce the availability of Retirement Savings Plan (RSP) and Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSA). Both accounts offer tax-free accumulation of earnings, with taxes on contributions and earnings deferred until withdrawal in the case of the RSP and no tax on withdrawals of post-tax contributions and earnings from the TFSA....
Yes you can hold both USD and CAD funds in them because we are now no longer subject to a foreign content limit and can invest in USD-denominated investment like stocks and bonds from US BUT the type of investment that you can do with RRSP and TFSA is still subject to the list of eligible investment allowed in TFSA and RRSP and Forex is not one of them:

http://www.investopedia.com/university/rrsp/rrsp5.asp

Anyway that's my opinion.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #633
  • Edited 6:19pm Apr 3, 2015 5:27pm | Edited 6:19pm
Quoting aa1
hate to ask a newbie question again but here I am: I am choosing between Ducas and IB now as my second broker. Yesterday I spent some time figuring out Ducas platform, it looks like I am ok with it now, at least to the degree that I need. Now it is IB turn and it confuses the heck out of me. All I need pretty much is one currency pair with its chart and a couple of basic indicators, that's all. When I look at IB platform it looks too busy with lots of options that I don't need to begin with. The help files I found so far are not really helping at...
Quoting Forexia
Below is the pro's and con's of this broker: Pros: Fast execution with very little slippage, rarely widening of spread even during news time, fast and reliable deposit AND withdraws, one of the cheapest commission and TRUE ECN

Cons: Horrible trading platform (slow and user-unfriendly AND error-prone), absolutely out of market rollover interest rate, higher required margin at 33% for forex and almost non-existent customer service although Canadian customer service is MUCH better
First to trade Forex and Forex only, ALL you need is just ONE platform called FX Trader in TWS; everything else like Booktrader, optiontrader and etc. is NOT for Forex; they are more for the other investments that IB offers like stocks, bonds, futures so you can ignore them all. You need to download TWS and then choose FX Trader and then you can add the currency pair you need to to trade in the FX Trader and that's it. You can use some of the other platforms for forex trading but from my experience they are not the most optimum. Mind you, it is Java-based designed in-house by their second-rate programmers so be prepared that it is slow and error-prone.

For charting, you will have to use another charting software like MT4 or Ninja Trader or eSignal or whatever. ANYTHING is better than MultiCharts that comes with FX Trader. Many of the useful indicators are either missing or programmed wrong in MultiCharts. Sometimes there is multiple versions of the same indicator and you have to find the right one and there is no way for you to program your own. And setting MultiCharts up for trading is a whole new learning curve on its own.

Second for demo with TWS, you won't be able to use it unless you officially have an account with them you don't have to fund it but you just have to open a real account with them then you can have the demo for as long as you want. The feed in the demo is very crappy because it's NOT real time; it's last week's feed. The demo is NOT designed for you to test your trading strategy in rather it's just a way for you to get familiar with the platform, its functionalities, features, options, configurations and etc., So once you get the demo, play around it as MUCH as possible. Click on as many buttons as you can to find out what it does, open up windows, move them around. Like I said once you open a real account with them, they let you demo for as long as you want BUT don't take too long as they charge you minimum $10 commission fees for each month that your account is open.

Here is a link that I found that shows you a little bit about how to use FX Trader: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/e...y/fxtrader.htm

The majority of the learning though will be done by just playing around and exploring it.

Bottom Line: Their commission is one of the cheapest in the industry BUT you DO get what you pay for.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #634
  • Apr 3, 2015 9:13pm Apr 3, 2015 9:13pm
thank you, you are really helpful.

since their customer service does not exist, i have to torture you, sorry. i actually asked all the questions from their support but nobody answering which makes me really uncomfortable even thinking about trading with them.

i have few conditions that have to be met in order for me to trade. one is a margin as i may have many open trades at the same time. based on their website it looks like their margin on any xxx/CHF pair is 20% so if i enter a trade, say, 0.05 lot, which is 5,000 they will tie 1,000 of my money as a margin. Is it so?

i am not even sure i can trade microlots with them to begin with but let's say i can.

thanks again.
  • #635
  • Edited Apr 4, 2015 12:53am Apr 3, 2015 11:20pm | Edited Apr 4, 2015 12:53am
Quoting aa1
thank you, you are really helpful. since their customer service does not exist, i have to torture you, sorry. i actually asked all the questions from their support but nobody answering which makes me really uncomfortable even thinking about trading with them. i have few conditions that have to be met in order for me to trade. one is a margin as i may have many open trades at the same time. based on their website it looks like their margin on any xxx/CHF pair is 20% so if i enter a trade, say, 0.05 lot, which is 5,000 they will tie 1,000 of my money...
Quoting Forexia
Below is the pro's and con's of this broker: Cons: Horrible trading platform (slow and user-unfriendly AND error-prone), absolutely out of market rollover interest rate, higher required margin at 33% for forex and almost non-existent customer service although Canadian customer service is MUCH better
You need to make sure you talk to Canadian customer service. The US customer service is totally non-existent; aside from copying & pasting answers from their KB's and reading quotes, they are absolutely clueless and useless and would NOT be able to help you in anyway. And they are actually not totally to blame; it has to do with IB's culture in the US, the company provide ZERO empowerment and support including training to their own employees and instead expect employees to do everything on their own using their own resources. I read on this employee feedback website where former and current Interactive Brokers employees left comments and feedback, this one employee had to use his own cellphone to troubleshoot for the mobile trading app. rolled out by Interactive Brokers because the company didn't provide him any tools.

But the Canadian customer service is MUCH better; they are much more knowledgeable, helpful, courteous and better trained. So every time when you call or chat or open a ticket, unless it's just a very routine support issue, you ALWAYS ask to speak to a Canadian customer service representative. Since they hired more US representative than Canadian representatives and due to their call spillovers, US representatives will pick up calls for the Canadian service line even when you dialed the designated phone number for Canadian customer service so you have to verify if they are US or Canadian reps, usually you can tell just by their accent but if they are US and you have an issue that you need a bit more help, then you ask for a Canadian representative and you will be put on hold and your call will eventually be put through to the Canadian customer service.

Margin is another thing with Interactive Brokers like what I said before about IB. IIROC has specific policies regarding maximum leverage on derivative contracts and forex is considered a derivative and since IIROC always follows US and US has set the maximum leverage cap on forex to 50:1 it's the same in Canada but Interactive Brokers sets it even lower to 33% and given the SNB situation, I guess they might have adjusted to even lower now I don't know. I don't trade with them anymore. When I was trading with them it was 33% and I usually trade the majors not usually involving CHF's.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #636
  • Apr 3, 2015 11:38pm Apr 3, 2015 11:38pm
ok, thanks again. i was under the impression that you trade with them now.

i will phone and talk to them on monday then following your advice to ask for canadians. the way it looks now i am 90% for dukas as they satisfy all my requirements. still will give ib the last chance.
  • #637
  • Apr 4, 2015 12:51am Apr 4, 2015 12:51am
Quoting aa1
ok, thanks again. i was under the impression that you trade with them now. i will phone and talk to them on monday then following your advice to ask for canadians. the way it looks now i am 90% for dukas as they satisfy all my requirements. still will give ib the last chance.
Call them on Tuesday. Monday is a holiday in Canada but give them a try they might be open. Oh and btw, the minimum starting capital with Interactive Brokers is $10K USD or CAD equivalent. And you can't trade microlots with Interactive Brokers, the min. trade size is $25K since you will be trading on interbank. Interactive Brokers is one of the REAL ECN broker so you can't trade too small of trade size.

Good luck!
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #638
  • Apr 13, 2015 7:27am Apr 13, 2015 7:27am
Did anyone see this new article about how IB posted an incorrect date on a futures contract and a client of theirs (very large "day trader", lost over 20 million because of their error, when in fact he would have made 2.5 million profit if they hadn't made the error?) They really need to improve their software / whoever is posting dates.

From the NY Post

http://nypost.com/2015/04/12/incorre...n-liabilities/

A trading regulator found discount brokerage Interactive Broker liable for posting an incorrect date and awarded a New Jersey man a record $2.4 million in damages.
But thats only a fraction of the $22.7 million he lost on a botched trade because of the bad information.

The pyrrhic victory for day trader Frank M. Cerisano Jr. by the Financial Industry Regulation Authority is three times the next-largest award against IB, according to Cerisanos lawyer, Sam Lieberman of Sadis & Goldberg.

Cerisano plies his trade in the backwaters of day trading derivatives and the esoteric future contracts, where millions can be bet with little upfront.
This special breed of people manage to get to sleep at night with huge positions hanging fire as Asian markets can take out a wager in a flicker of the screen.
The last thing a futures trader needs is to have his trading platform also go against him. This is what Cerisano and his lawyer alleged.
In June 2013, Cerisano was taking a huge position in VIX Futures that climbed as high as $200 million with leverage.
The Chicago Board Options Exchanges Volatility Index (VIX) was on the move then. In the six weeks prior to the position, the VIX spiked nearly 42 percent on central banks sending markets mixed messages of future easing.

If the trade had been executed on the expiration date Cerisano found on IBs Web site, he would have netted roughly $2.5 million in profit.
But IB maintained the expiration date was the following day, which created a huge loss as the VIX moved dramatically away from Cerisanos position.
The botched futures trade appears to be human back-office error at IB, which used the correct expiration date internally, but then inexplicably displayed it as a day earlier on its Web site, which Cerisano used to price his gains.
Interactive was not accused of fraud. But Cerisano certainly felt misled.
At the IB internal expiration date, the broker dealer settled the trade and took $25.3M out of Cerisanos account, according to his lawyer.

Cerisano is said to be one of Interactives largest derivative traders.
When Cerisano figured out what actually happened, he lodged his complaint. Instead of sympathy and recompense, he got the cold shoulder, according to his attorney. My client has had to pay tens of millions of dollars in commission to Interactive Brokers over the years, so he was surprised that that was the approach, even when they were caught red-handed, Lieberman told The Post.
Some trading experts were surprised at how the events played out.
Someone sophisticated enough to manage a $100 million VIX Futures portfolio also has the resources to verify something as simple as the expiration date of a product, particularly if that expiration poses significant risk to their portfolio said Mark Longo, a former trader at the Chicago Board Options Exchange and CEO of industry news outlet The Options Insider.

Still, it may not have been that simple. The back office at Interactive Brokers may have been thrown into confusion, too, Lieberman said. The industry had changed the expiration date of the relatively new VIX Futures on several occasions since 2011.
Others say the fiasco illustrated some disturbing aspects of modern electronic trading. Many of the back-office systems are so antiquated in the options and futures markets, said Chris Nagy, a market structure expert and CEO at the KOR Group. Humans do make mistakes, and computers dont know enough to understand those mistakes.

Lieberman said there a lot of other investors who potentially incurred losses on VIX Futures through Interactive. They just havent looked at their account statement to see the difference, he added.
Interactive Brokers, based in Greenwich, Conn., had no comment for this story.
Its not the first time Interactive has run into trouble with its online system and the regulators.
Last month, for example, a reported $667,000 was awarded by a separate Finra arbitration panel in another Interactive case. The discount broker was ordered to pay that amount to a hedge fund that suffered losses when Interactives system was found to have malfunctioned.
  • #639
  • Apr 13, 2015 1:15pm Apr 13, 2015 1:15pm
Quoting teddybomber
Did anyone see this new article about how IB posted an incorrect date on a futures contract and a client of theirs (very large "day trader", lost over 20 million because of their error, when in fact he would have made 2.5 million profit if they hadn't made the error?) They really need to improve their software / whoever is posting dates. From the NY Post http://nypost.com/2015/04/12/incorre...n-liabilities/ A trading regulator found discount brokerage Interactive Broker liable for posting an incorrect date...
This IS disturbing indeed. Interactive Broker's trading platform for Forex is equally "antiquated" as this article has put it and that's the best adjective that you can use to describe its platform. I don't know if its platform works better for other instruments like stocks and options and etc. Their commission is certainly cheap but I guess you get what you pay for.

Just out of curiosity, can't you use a 3rd-party software like Ninja Trader or MultiCharts to trade futures with Interactive Brokers? I certainly would NEVER trust Interactive Brokers' platform with several million $'s worth of positions.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #640
  • Apr 14, 2015 7:20am Apr 14, 2015 7:20am
It sounds like the error wasn't the platform itself, but instead a date that they post to their actual interactivebrokers.com website calendar.

Whoever put the date up, typed in the wrong date apparently. I highly doubt someone with that much money is not using a high end software program to trade through, rather than the interactive brokers free software.

It is odd that he would only look at one place on their website for the date, instead of checking somewhere else for the same date to be sure when you have that much on the line. But their website does appear to be very professional and you would not really assume they would make this kind of error, until now at least..

Maybe this kick in the nuts will convince them it is time to make some updates. We can only hope.
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