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Interactive Brokers - experiences and opinions

  • #661
  • Edited 6:23am Jun 22, 2015 6:12am | Edited 6:23am
Quoting Calculus
{quote} You don't have to pay if you don't want to or view Button Trader as not worth the money. Nobody is putting a gun at your head and nobody will. Your decision is the right one for you. But for me, the right decision is to pay and I'm very happy with my investment. Others might agree with me, others might find my comments useful, others won't. But this is a thread about the merits of IB the broker. I'm happily to report, unpaid I can assure you, that IB is a great broker for FX and if you tag on Button Trader everything works even better. If...
Exactly. And this what IS I am saying. From what I see, Button Trader is NOT worth it. I can't believe IB tried to charge traders now even on platforms. Boy they really are desperate for money. That $120 million loss must be more than 2.75 % of their assets as they claim then. LOL

Go ahead and pay and be a good sheep to the greedy corporations like IB if that makes you happy. Nobody have problems with that but it only becomes suspicious when you come up here again and again and again openly advertising and praising how good IB's system are even when this thread went quiet and you had to come back and resurrect it. And checking your history, you only post to TWO threads.

And just so you know, it's every member's duty to report suspected commercial agenda. They are NOT being a sneak.

Goodbye!
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #662
  • Jun 22, 2015 6:20am Jun 22, 2015 6:20am
Now we're getting somewhere FX, there is NO right answer, mine is good for me, yours is good for you.

I also think we might be mis-understanding things here. You are 100% correct, it would be an outrage to pay IB for an extra order entry software package like Button Trader. But it's not developed or sold by them, it's 3rd party, developed by Dutch/German programmers, that's who the payment goes to and IB doesn't take a penny. Perhaps that's were the problem in all of this is. Like I said, if the money went to IB I would agree with your stance.

Anyway, it's always good to have a bit of banter on a message board. Good luck with your trading . Let's finish all this talk now!
Road To Wisdom? To err and err and err again, but less and less and less...
  • #663
  • Jun 22, 2015 8:07am Jun 22, 2015 8:07am
IB is great for futures or intraday FX, but their swap rates are ridiculously expensive. I posted the following example in another thread for someone who didn't think IB was 3x more expensive than other brokers:



I was actually being kind by saying it's only 3x the rates, it's actually often worse than that, basically the difference between getting paid vs. getting charged... I'll indulge you with an example:

Let's assume you hold a long position overnight of GBP100K at 1.5000 GBP/USD

 

  1. FXCM (and most FX brokers) applies an Interest Rate Swap which reflects the difference between interest rates in the 2 currencies. In this case the GBP has a slightly higher rate than the USD (approx 0.5% vs. 0.13%). So the broker will pay you interest for holding that position (minus its own margin)

  1. Interactive Brokers charges an interest rate of roughly benchmark + 1.33% (total of 1.46%) for the USD150K that you borrow and pays you an interest rate ofbenchmark -0.5% (equivalent to 0%) for the GBP100 you hold.


Liek I said, the difference between the 2 is earning interest vs. being charged:

FXCM pays you 1.20 USD for each day you hold that position
IB charges you 6.01 USD for each day you hold that position

Btw it takes 20mns to open demo accounts with both brokers and verify this over a couple of days so don't trust me and do your own due diligence... I hold large positions sometimes over several weeks so that's a topic I've really investigated (sometimes at my own expense).

IB is my broker of choice for futures and sometimes for intraday FX positions, but their overnight financing policy is just plain outrageous...

http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=interest&p=schedule

  • #664
  • Jun 22, 2015 5:35pm Jun 22, 2015 5:35pm
Quoting actalis
IB is great for futures or intraday FX, but their swap rates are ridiculously expensive. I posted the following example in another thread for someone who didn't think IB was 3x more expensive than other brokers: I was actually being kind by saying it's only 3x the rates, it's actually often worse than that, basically the difference between getting paid vs. getting charged... I'll indulge you with an example: Let's assume you hold a long position overnight of GBP100K at 1.5000 GBP/USD FXCM (and most FX brokers) applies an Interest Rate Swap which...
People trade futures with IB because apparently IB is a reputable broker in that area with fast execution and etc. but even for futures, its margin is ridiculously high, even its day margins for E-mini S&P, one of THE most frequently traded futures instrument with one of the highest trading volume is absolutely not competitive comparing to other brokers. Forget about trading any currency futures. The DAY margin for Euro FX futures, again one of the instrument that has the highest trading volume is $4825!!! You can hardly do ANYTHING with $10K starting balance and that's $10K!!!

Seriously IB's not good for anything. The ONLY good things about them is that they execute your trades fast and with almost no slippages and they process your withdraw requests fast. That's it. Everything else about them is either expensive or crappy.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #665
  • Jun 22, 2015 6:23pm Jun 22, 2015 6:23pm
I suppose they managed to attract $2.6 billion of customer funds because they are all around crappy and expensive. Ridiculous.
  • #666
  • Jun 22, 2015 6:55pm Jun 22, 2015 6:55pm
Quoting shrike
I suppose they managed to attract $2.6 billion of customer funds because they are all around crappy and expensive. Ridiculous.
Taking my comments out of context again. I said:

Quoting Forexia
{quote} Everything else about them is either expensive or crappy.
And it's true, their roll-over swap rates, margins, account inactive fee, withdraw fee are expensive. Did you know IB charges you fees if you withdraw more than once in a month. Yes, that's right you only get to withdraw ONCE in an ENTIRE month.

And their platform is crappy.

I didn't want to get into any of this but since you accuse me of being ridiculous well then I need to elaborate further. LOL
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #667
  • Jun 22, 2015 7:14pm Jun 22, 2015 7:14pm
Quoting Forexia
{quote} People trade futures with IB because apparently IB is a reputable broker in that area with fast execution and etc. but even for futures, its margin is ridiculously high, even its day margins for E-mini S&P, one of THE most frequently traded futures instrument with one of the highest trading volume is absolutely not competitive comparing to other brokers. Forget about trading any currency futures. The DAY margin for Euro FX futures, again one of the instrument that has the highest trading volume is $4825!!! You can hardly do ANYTHING with...
Wrong. Their margin is what I would expect for any respectable brokerage. Also, IB is the only broker offering products pretty much at every major exchange across the globe in stocks, futures, options and ECN style Forex. It is obvious you like to trade with a small account and trade high risk per trade. If that's your style and enjoy blowing accounts then yes, use a different broker. $4825 margin with a $12.5/tick contract from a 10k account is plenty of rope to hang yourself with...plenty.

As an aside, I also use Button Trader for all my futures trading.

IB is a broker is a good brokerage offering more global products than anyone else at a competitive. I agree their swaps could be better on Forex.
  • #668
  • Jun 22, 2015 7:18pm Jun 22, 2015 7:18pm
Quoting Forexia
{quote} Taking my comments out of context again. I said: {quote} And it's true, their roll-over swap rates, margins, account inactive fee, withdraw fee are expensive. Did you know IB charges you fees if you withdraw more than once in a month. Yes, that's right you only get to withdraw ONCE in an ENTIRE month. And their platform is crappy. I didn't want to get into any of this but since you accuse me of being ridiculous well then I need to elaborate further. LOL
Once a month withdraw is fine - why would you need more?

Why would I get an account inactivity fee? I'm a trader making my living from trading so I put on trades.

Their margins are reasonable and what I would expect from any good brokerage.

Their platform is non-standard and crappy - that is something I'll agree on. I only use it for my forex trades (swing trades). Other than that I use Button Trader for order entry on futures and the web interface for my account statements and account management facility.
  • #669
  • Jun 22, 2015 8:54pm Jun 22, 2015 8:54pm
Quoting MidKnight
{quote} Once a month withdraw is fine - why would you need more? Why would I get an account inactivity fee? I'm a trader making my living from trading so I put on trades. Their margins are reasonable and what I would expect from any good brokerage. Their platform is non-standard and crappy - that is something I'll agree on. I only use it for my forex trades (swing trades). Other than that I use Button Trader for order entry on futures and the web interface for my account statements and account management facility.
Why would I need to withdraw more? Because I want to and/or I need to? That should be good enough reason, no? And plus WHY should I PAY to get my OWN money out?

Margin, I am sorry IS expensive. I can understand if they want to impose higher margin on less liquid but volatile futures instrument. But $4825 on Euro FX is not reasonable no matter how you say it.

Account inactive fee. Again, I do trade for a living BUT for one month or two, I would like to take vacation. I would like to take a break especially when the instrument that I am trading is seasonal and I really don't want to trade on slow months when there is lower volume so I end up making losses? Again, I shouldn't be penalized for my trading habits just because a multi-billion $ brokerage is not extracting money from me. Other brokers don't and they are 1/1000 of size of IB.

Just saying.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #670
  • Jun 22, 2015 8:59pm Jun 22, 2015 8:59pm
Quoting Forexia
{quote} Why would I need to withdraw more? Because I want to and/or I need to? That should be good enough reason, no? And plus WHY should I PAY to get my OWN money out?
Tell that to your bank next time you want to send a wire overseas and good luck getting even a single free bank wire from your bank. They will utterly and completely laugh you out of the building.
  • #671
  • Jun 22, 2015 9:24pm Jun 22, 2015 9:24pm
Quoting MidKnight
{quote} Tell that to your bank next time you want to send a wire overseas and good luck getting even a single free bank wire from your bank. They will utterly and completely laugh you out of the building.
IB charges me withdraw fee on ETF withdraws NOT just by wire. I don't usually withdraw by wire because I am located in the same country where IB has an office. And YES I do get FREE oversea bank wires from my bank just so you know.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #672
  • Jun 25, 2015 2:05am Jun 25, 2015 2:05am
Just to balance my IB review out, 2 things I really don't like about them -

1). They re-boot their servers at 5pm NY time, in effect turning off their trading for 20 mins. Not always of course, but maybe once a month that can lead to a 10-20 tick gap in something like Euro or Cable, and sometimes sods law states that gap will be at a big level, ie your stop or entry. Why they do it at such a time I do not know, surely 8pm/9pm NY time would be better?

2) They auto logoff everyone from their software at 10pm (London time) so in the morning (or whenever) you have to go through the logging on process - username, password and secret code. Takes about 1 min but it's a pain.

Point one is the more serious, if it might effect your trading then chances are it will and so IB is probably not for you. Whatever the case, testing them out is the best way, as with any broker.
Road To Wisdom? To err and err and err again, but less and less and less...
  • #673
  • Edited 4:44am Jun 25, 2015 4:34am | Edited 4:44am
Quoting Calculus
Just to balance my IB review out, 2 things I really don't like about them - 1). They re-boot their servers at 5pm NY time, in effect turning off their trading for 20 mins. Not always of course, but maybe once a month that can lead to a 10-20 tick gap in something like Euro or Cable, and sometimes sods law states that gap will be at a big level, ie your stop or entry. Why they do it at such a time I do not know, surely 8pm/9pm NY time would be better? 2) They auto logoff everyone from their software at 10pm (London time) so in the morning (or whenever)...
Well the 5:00 PM EST shut-off is 1) for maintenance and 2) is to be in sync with both the Futures trading AND the London cut-off for Forex (for roll-over and etc.). The off duration is 15 minutes actually never 20 minutes. If it's 20 minutes then there is something wrong with your Button Trader. That 15-minute shut-off is really more to be in sync with the futures market more than anything else. Why? I do not know as NO other brokers in the forex industry does this. Their servers all go off at 5:00 EST but NEVER for 15 minutes.

The 10 PM London time (5:00 PM EST) log-off and the server reboot is the same thing. Because their servers are being rebooted for maintenance and to be in sync with the futures and forex cut-off, so of course everybody's disconnected and logged off.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #674
  • Jun 25, 2015 1:19pm Jun 25, 2015 1:19pm
Quoting Calculus
2) They auto logoff everyone from their software at 10pm (London time) so in the morning (or whenever) you have to go through the logging on process - username, password and secret code. Takes about 1 min but it's a pain. Point one is the more serious, if it might effect your trading then chances are it will and so IB is probably not for you. Whatever the case, testing them out is the best way, as with any broker.
If auto logging off at a fixed hour each day is a problem, see the IBController project which supports staying logged in 24 hours a day.

IBController
  • #675
  • Jun 26, 2015 2:37am Jun 26, 2015 2:37am
The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) has told Interactive Brokers Group, Inc, the U.S based provider of trade execution and clearing services for individuals, advisors, prop trading groups, brokers and hedge funds that it will have to wind down it’s OTC FX trading services to Aussie clients. Moreover, ASIC is also assessing whether the U.S. firm has breached the Corporations Act, Miriam Phillips, a Sydney-based ASIC media spokeswoman said by e-mail to Bloomberg. Caitlin Duffy, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based spokeswoman for Interactive Brokers, declined comment.
people leave, but this thread will go on for ever
  • #676
  • Jun 26, 2015 10:09am Jun 26, 2015 10:09am
You're right, it is 15m not 20m.

15m is still a big annoyance though.

5pm NY is 9am in New Zealand so I suppose on the 24 clock that NY time is the best slot available.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FXEZ - Thanks for the tip, I'll give it a go.
Road To Wisdom? To err and err and err again, but less and less and less...
  • #677
  • Jun 26, 2015 10:16am Jun 26, 2015 10:16am
Quoting Calculus
You're right, it is 15m not 20m. 15m is still a big annoyance though. 5pm NY is 9am in New Zealand so I suppose on the 24 clock that NY time is the best slot available. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FXEZ - Thanks for the tip, I'll give it a go.
Yes I agree. That 15 minutes is really unnecessary as no other forex brokers in the industry has the down time this long after 5:00 PM. The only explanation that I can offer is that they want to sync forex trading somehow with the futures rollover period. In Futures trading, all exchanges pretty much go off for 15 min. after 5:00 PM EST.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #678
  • Jul 3, 2015 8:23pm Jul 3, 2015 8:23pm
ASIC issues Interactive Brokers an Enforceable Undertaking.

http://asic.gov.au/about-asic/media-...ctive-brokers/

This is just the start Im guessing and a warning to those other who operate in Australia without a license
  • #679
  • Jul 19, 2015 9:20am Jul 19, 2015 9:20am
Hi traders,

after a long and painful research to find my next broker, I thing I'm going to choose IB but one thing caught my attention on their website. Call me paranoid but they describe their offer as "ECN like"...I've always thought they were ECN and assumed that this is how they would advertise themselves but now I am wondering if they are an ECN, a market maker or maybe use a hybrid model

If anyone could shed some light on this, would be much appreciated

Thank you
  • #680
  • Edited 11:58pm Jul 20, 2015 6:42pm | Edited 11:58pm
Quoting ochosama82
Hi traders, after a long and painful research to find my next broker, I thing I'm going to choose IB but one thing caught my attention on their website. Call me paranoid but they describe their offer as "ECN like"...I've always thought they were ECN and assumed that this is how they would advertise themselves but now I am wondering if they are an ECN, a market maker or maybe use a hybrid model If anyone could shed some light on this, would be much appreciated Thank you
When I was trading with them, they operated like an ECN to me. They do have some transactions that I don't believe are conducted on an ECN like FX conversion of your trading profit/losses from the currency that your profit/loss was in to the currency that you funded your account with. That FX conversion also used to be over an ECN until they changed it several years ago for reasons unknown (most likely to net more profit for their liquidity providers who were really on the other side of the transaction) now; that transaction is handled like in market-making model. So the "ECN like" might be referring to that UNLESS they changed the whole model to be like that of the IC Markets, then I wouldn't know.

Like I have posted before, a quick and easy test to see if they are still operating as a true ECN is to place a limit order in between the bid/ask spread and to see if your limit order 1) actually shows up on the quote screen and 2) actually reduces the bid/ask spread. If it does BOTH of them, then IB is still a true ECN if not then it's gone to the dark side and is only an "ECN like".

Good luck!
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
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