It's arguable. If you build a big hotel in which you are going to rent out cheap rooms, you don't skimp on a fire alarm and sprinklers systems because they are expensive and the rooms are going to be rented cheap. If there is a large fire and many of your guests get killed, you'll be ruined. So if your bread and butter is selling electronic executions, you make contingency plans for the worst case scenarios, be it capacity-wise, or fail-safe system wise. I find IB order-entry system to be up most of the time and very reliable. However, even if IB one day turned out to be a cover for Belzeebub himself, you can be sure that someone would still come out and say "Stop saying bad things about IB. Yes it's run by Belzeebub but they have good commissions and executions" And yes, I do like both the executions and the commissions. It's not unreasonable for a customer at IB or anywhere else to expect some kind of backup order entry system to be in place, with the capacity needed to handle Murphy's Law in a timely manner. As far as quotes go, it's the responsibility of the customer to have a backup system, but only the broker can supply the execution part. A "you're on your own, pal" note doesn't quite cut it. Scottrade and Brown used to (maybe still have?) an auto phone entry and quote system. A phone keypad is rather slow for order entry, but it's better than a busy signal. My 2 cents. Elvis
I remember a discussion a while back that the point of pride of Ib was that the stops are native to the exchange's server- the CME I think. So they are not held in IB servers which is good I guess if IB goes down. Unless there are different rules as to where they are held-i.e. for cme -native , for NYSE at IB's server,etc.
Depends. On many days, nothing at all. Put it this way- by the time my commission nut hits 10K per month, I'll have at least a million under management.
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/html/retailAccount/products.html According to this webpage, CME orders are simulated stops still. I've heard that IB was working on native stops for Globex - maybe this webpage just needs updating? Carl
The best part of managing traders is being able to remind them that they could have to get a real job ...