I remember IB being down a whole day because their globex link went down towards the end of last year. I lost 40k because i was in an nq trade and couldn't get out til the eod. (and all they said was sorry) That was back when i had all my eggs in one basket. :eek: not saying they are worse than other brokers... just saying they have their share of problems. i still like IB and they are still my main broker as the pluses still outweigh the minuses for me... but since then i've made sure I have alternatives and i keep my eggs in different baskets, ie stocks, futures, options currencies, gold, cash, bonds, realestate.
Lundy, As a newbie, I must ask this question even though I almost sure of the answer. If you would have had a stop in place, would you have lost money when the system went down.? ie, would the stop have been lost when the system went down? unlikely, as your trade wasnt lost when the sys went down, i dont know why the stop would have been.... LF
IB keeps my stop on IB's servers... IB's link to Globex went down. That means IB could not execute my stop, they couldn't even manually do anything. and that of course is in the fine print of any futures broker, not just IB edit: and theres a difference between being in a position and having an order in that will close or open a position. You cannot lose a position, but you can lose an order to open or close a position.
I hear ya lundy...I think anyone who has been with IB long enough has their own horror story...40k is a big hit, that is a true horror story... I think IB is ok when u are doing smaller size, bigger swings and can absorb some down time if it happens, but the reliability issue really comes into play the larger the size you do and the shorter the time frame... Finding decent brokers with good commission structures is the most painstaking process imaginable...
You are exactly right, momentum. It is best to use a firm that places stop limits with Globex and not on their servers. Craig
A factor that has not been mentioned in this thread that needs to be adressed is a firms requirements. If a firm is only entertaining certaing types of traders than you will recieve the service that you are looking for. Boutique firms tend to take on only larger clients with bigger volume and larger account opening qualifications and yes smaller people do not qualify but if you are a player you can get upscale brokerage. Unfortunately they only take on bigger clients and tend to shy away from 5k 10k 25k accounts. They tend to only focus on a certain type of trader but that will reduce the amount of traders that they will need to provide service for. Cheers, Comp
Oh man. . . if the odds are really something like a million to one, then I one of the luckiest or rather unluckiest bastards around. . just happened to me! first freak'n trade of the day and my connection goes down the instant I place the trade and the order was confirmed filled! The trading gods are against me! I know it.....