Hey folks, I'm considering opening up an IB account and transferring some of my capital from my existing TOS account due to IB's competitive commission rates and far more flexible portfolio margin (which I plan to use in the future when I'm more knowledgeable about options trading). After glancing through IB's site it appears as if you have to pay to receive real time data. My question is that I'm satisfied with the real time data TOS provides...what subscriptions should I sign up for in IB (assuming I will not do any international equity/derivatives trading) to get a similar experience I enjoy in TOS? Thanks in advance
IB waives most of their mkt data fees if you make a few trades a month (check their site for details). I often run tos side by side with the IB trader worksta to save on commish. You'll probably need us equities and options. If you don't trade they ding you for like $10/mo. But their rates are so much lower you'll make that up pretty quick. IBs functionality is way behind what tos has, that's why I still primarily run tos for analytics. Good luck!
The American market fees are 10 USD a month if you are under 30 USD in commissions. Though you will need to pay 2 USD for Market Data Express which has the SPX, NDX if I am not mistaken. To take advantage of the IB portfolio margin you will need at least 100K in your account. Below that it is RegT. If you going long options it does not matter which broker you use. On the other hand if you are short options then IB portfolio margin is only useful if you have many uncorrelated positions.