without sites like this superb one, we would have never known about Trade_Cents's problem. For my two cents worth (and you might want to cash it, and give me change) its worth knowing that brokerages have policies like those. Evidently some under 30 year old, was too emotionally connected to the events, and responded in such manner. They are living to regret that response, because on a forum like this, to have that said about them is NOT good. Cheers
1. I am not a "big" player. $10,000/month in commissions is not that much. Only about 1 million shares per month. 2. I only use mental stops. Entered stop orders are not my style as i prefer the specialist not to see where i place my stops. 3. This was not during nonmarket hours
Did not know that. Thanks for the tip. Not it matters seeing I will close account or use them only as my backup.
As I read his post, his essential--and legitimate--beef is not about the outage or not being reimbursed for his loss: it's about not being able to pick up the phone during the outage and act on his positions as needed. Outages are going to happen once in a while: it's a given. Telling him to use stop orders (which some people don't want to use and I'm one of them, having been picked off once too often) or to keep a second account somewhere else is just going on a tangent. He may make 20 times the money you make trading and don't need your advice on how to manage his account or his trades. Elvis
wow elvis, u got a knack for cutting thru bullshit. yes, the point is customer service. IB hasn't got any. When customers complain, they simply look the other way and point at the customer agreement.
Having other accounts is a lot of nonsense. It'll scew you up more. It's hard enough concentrating on the action in one account if of course you'rea real active trader.
So what are the alternatives to IB for trading the Minis? Requirements: 1) More reliable system than IB 2) Very good bandwidth for phone orders 3) Helpful, friendly & knowledgeable Customer Sevice 4) Commission less than $10 a round turn 5) Take financial responsibility for system outages No 5 might be asking too much, but one can dream. For me it's all about risk management. Let's say IB works fine 95% of the time, but the 5% it doesn't work your gains for say only one month are wiped out. Is it worth it? I think I would prefer to pay higher fees, if nothing else for the peace of mind. As traders, we already have too many hurdles to scale and shouldn't have to accept liabilty for somebody else's failure, especially when you pay them to deliver a good service.
I dont think an electronic only brokerage is ever going to have the staff to enter orders manually if there is an outage which effects many traders. Too many people trying to do the same thing at the same time. If you are trading with significant size, you need a backup broker to server as your 'customer service.' Thats the only solution. The more expensive brokers may be marginally better, yet that is no solution as a trader needs low costs. I wonder even if an LFG or a Refco really has the order desk of the size they used to to handle such an outage? The phone order desk has got to be something that is generally being phased out.
I only use mental stops. Entered stop orders are not my style as i prefer the specialist not to see where i place my stops. Well, IB's TWS has display size (reserved order) option so a specialist won't be able to see your total order.