I selected IB bundled commission when opened account with IB since all exchange/ECN fees are included with 0.2% cap. All of sudden, I see much higher commission charges in last couple of days. I contact IB online representative and was told now it's capped with 0.2% plus exchange/ECN fees. IB must made this change without notifying its customers in last couple of days. If bundled commission is capped with 0.2% plus exchange/ECN fees, then unbundled commission must be better.
Man, I just noticed this today. Was anyone notified of this commission change before it happened? Did I miss it? http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/fees/commission.php?ib_entity=llc Assuming IB did not notify anyone before they changed their fees, then this is another instance of lack of respect for their customers. Am I supposed to check the comission schedule everyday on their website to make sure it hasn't changed? As for the details, before when I bought 1,000 shares of CNXT @ 2.15 on INET (taking liquidity), the commission from IB used to be: Min( 5, %0.2 of 2.15 x 1000 ) = Min( 5, 0.002 x 2150 = 4.3 ) = $4.30 Now it is: Min( 5, %0.2 of 2.15 x 1000 + ECN fees ) = Min( 5, 0.002 x 2150 + 1000 x 0.003 ) = Min( 5, 4.3 + 3 ) = Min( 5, 7.3 ) = $5.00 So everyone here is your heads up (since IB won't tell you)! This is the second instance of an unannounced change (http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=82002 ; assuming I didn't miss the announcement) in the past month - irritating!
This has greatly affected me too. On the one hand you can understand IB would be charged all these fees and bear the brunt of a system where exchanges/ecns charge by the share. They are going to IPO soon and so they must be absolutely "ship-shape" and not carry these indeterminable costs. On the other hand what is irritating from a customers point of view is that: 1) they gave no notice and 2) They could have said "right you'll pay these fees we have to pay from now on but we'll reduce the maximum cap on our commissions to, say, 0.1% to show that we are not profiteering from the situation". They obviously did not and are therefore trying to increase their own profits at the same time. I am trying unbundled to see how it works but what has become more worrying since this change is that they seem to get this new commission structure VERY WRONG on occasion. And of course you cant get a proper answer out of their customer support. For example I recently traded 12400 @ 0.4 of PRW. On their new structure it should have been a MAXIMUM of (0.2% x (12400 x 0.4) = ) $9.92 + the maximum AMEX fee (see point 9 of IBs fee page) of $15 = $24.92. I was actually charged $62. This is one of several examples that IB refuses so far to explain or justify to me.
Seems like you were overcharged. But I have had discrepancies between my daily statement and my TWS before. I would look at your daily statement for today when it comes out and verify they overcharged because the daily statement is the final word.
its on the daily statement. Low and behold tho I have another answer out of IB tho. It seems there are mysterious Specialist fees for stocks under $2.50 if you remove book liquidity. However their commission schedule says "N/A" in this regard.
On IB and to my knowledge, there is no way of seeing your total commissions broken down by "ib commission", "ECN" and "add/remove liquidity"...until that happens, how can anyone really be sure whether IB is charging them correctly? For those who have seen the Genesis statements/blotters, IB has a long way to go in terms of breaking down the charges as described. I think it's an absolute necessity if you're going to offer unbundled pricing.
Agreed, the way IB shows charges on their statements is a joke. Just a number with no input on how they arrived at it. You can't track sec fees, ecn charges, nuttin'. Dumb.