does interactive brokers monitor profitablle traders?

Discussion in 'Retail Brokers' started by qwert, Aug 19, 2008.

  1. qwert

    qwert

    does interactive brokers monitor the accounts of very profitable traders to see what they re doing and try copying them.
    any info would be nice, not joking

    if u read the market wizards books, a options trader was contacted by his brokerage and they said they had been watching his trading for a while and wanted him to trade for them.'

    yr account should be private and not open to a brokerage to track. any info please or specific brokerages that try to get info from peoples accounts
     
  2. Why do people ask questions like this about IB? How is IB or any broker going to know the difference between a trader that is actually skilled and one that is lucky?

    Look at the clearing firms in Chicago and NY. They watch exchange member accounts very closely and have traders that are very successful. Do you think that anyone at the clearing firms is copying the successful traders?

    Futures firms monitor all accounts on a regular basis for risk management. Special attention is paid to large losers and large winners because either extreme presents the possiblity of high risk and large future losses.
     
  3. They ask these things of IB because they think IB is smart.

    They never ask this about say , Muriel Seibert, or Tradestation.
     
  4. No trader consistently wins, a hot streak is normally followed by below average returns. So trying what you suggest is very difficult. Also the the strat would have to be very scalable and fit IBs risk reward requirements. The chances are very slim.

    A much easier way is to bucket the trades of consistently losing traders and execute all other trades.

    This is the model used by many Spread Betting companies in the UK but not something that direct access brokers can do.

    IB actually want to move away from prop trading eventually and instead make the majority of their revenues by being a broker.
     
  5. eagle

    eagle

    Here you got it. By watching alone, they can't copy. They still need the guy to trade for them. So why worry?