I just got an email from IB saying they are forcing everyone (no more opt out) to use their sketchy app to do 2FA when login in, even if only for automated trading. They claimed this won't be a burden because their trading platform can be set to restart and require login only once a week. However this is not true. Their trading platform has many problems, such as data link lost or crashes in mid day. A manual 2FA is definitely a burden for all of us. I need your help to call/chat with IB and request them to stop this non-sense change. Thanks.
I'm very pissed of seeing this. As a secondary user for trading purpose, we can already control a wide range of permissions, such as disabling money transfer etc. Why does IBKR need to add another unnecessary layer in the first place. If one needs to authenticate log-in every now and then, it's not called automation now is it.
I use IBGateway (100% fully automated), and yes I need to manually re-login each Monday morning. It was like that before 2FA, and it's still like that with 2FA. No big deal for me. Before the 2FA, I had to use their plastic card code thing and input manually the codes corresponding to the numbers shown at login. I prefer their 2FA. It just needs a fingerprint from my cell.
My experience is similar to @rb7. I use IB Gateway, shut it down every Friday night, and restart it every Sunday night. I need to use 2FA at the restart on Sunday night. For the rest of the week IB Gateway restarts automatically at 9:45PM (configured) but does not need 2FA. Only once since February has a problem occurred where I needed to manually restart and reenter 2FA during the middle of the week.
You still have the gold credit card? Mine ran out of battery after I turned on by accident and didn't realize it. And since then IB has refused to replace it for me and instead forced me to receive their SMS text as the extra step for authentification. I thought this is fine. Why does IB still want us to use their freaking app? I don't want to download their stupid app's.
This is so backwards, citing "cyber criminal activity". If your connected device is not secure, no amount of 2FA will help. It's not hard to monitor the device, wait for 2FA auth and then have all the access you want. Except there are many instances where IB connection fails and you get a "please re-login" message middle of the day. Aren't you required to do 2FA then? Imagine you're asleep and have many active positions waiting to be closed. Before it was no issue - IBCAlpha would monitor the connection and login eventually, now you're dead with a lot of exposure. This effectively destroyed reliable fully automated trading with IB.
If this is a problem for us, I am sure this would be a problem for all the institutional clients that run even more automated trading systems with IB. IB is not a retail broker anymore; it has institutional clients as well including hedging funds. I cannot imagine they all trade manually.
IB offers services to many retail clients, so they are a retail broker by definition. Institutions have teams of people working, not comparable to a single investor.