I started an account with 5k and less than 2 weeks later I now have 5.5k. As long as you don't try to catch a following knife you should be fine. Technical analysis must be used.
Interest earned from IB is fantastic--none of my other brokers paid interest, or paid more than a tiny amount. Man Financial seemed to invent a new fee per week. They refused to send me a schedule of their fees either. IB is about as open as a broker can be. There are no "hidden fees". $10/mo activity fee is waived if you actually spend more than $10/mo in commissions. If you're sitting on your money and not trading, it will cost you $10/mo. If you're actually trading, this "fee" doesn't exist. And besides, the "hidden" fee is is so well hidden that it's published here: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/fees/minimumDeposits.php?ib_entity=llc#commission The only good argument I've heard here is the Forex catch--they will not pay interest until you have $10k per currency. If you have a $100k account and have that spread amongst 4 pairs, you're losing a huge amount in interest. But again, compared to what? Tradestation pays 1.5%. Man pays 0%. 4.8%-ish from IB is incredible.
"there aren't any FCM (futures commission merchants) that pay interest on any amount of funds." Yes they do if you ask.
Yeah that's true come to think of it. I can think of two. But they have/had a minimum of $100k and $250K respectively. And with the amount they pay, better off buying T-bills.
What I'm not liking sofar about IB is that they don't have any flat fee rates. I sometimes buy shares in lots of 1000 and it seems like my commission will be pretty darn high with them. I argue that some of you may have misquoted IB and said they have lowest rates in industry, I disagree, I think places that have flat fees like scottrade have cheapest rates, if you are doing high volume orders.
As long as you use IB's "bundled" rates for stocks the $.005 ( 1/2 cent per share) is all you will pay including SEC fees. Known as an "all-in" rate. Most firms tack on extras like the SEC fee. If you trade <200 shares you will pay the $1.00 transaction minimum. If you do 10 trades per month you will not pay any fees. If these numbers are too steep you need to go to a retail broker that charges less. Jack
I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Can you please give me an example? Just say I want to buy 2000 shares of a 5 dollar stock. How much would I pay for commish?
TradingBillions- If you use their unbundled pricing and trade only by adding liquidity, the fees can be much lower. They have some examples here
TB ... The IB commish for a 1000 sh is 5$. Commish would be 7$ at Scottrade at IB bundled rate. For 2000 sh trade IB fee would be 10$ and w/ST it would still be 7$. Depends on your trade behavior....doesnt it??? Fills should be superior at IB. ... rj
I only have one issue with IB and that is the customer service. I had an issue wiring some money a few times where it simply took longer then expected. There was another time when I had transfered a brokerage acccount over to IB and it took longer then expected. I did not expect for the wire or the brokerage transfer to happen immediately, but I believe the process took weeks. The wire took especially long and I even found myself emailing Thomas Peterfly as a last resort. Otherwise, everything is great and much better then other brokerages. As a footnote to this post, I would like to add that IB is basically a discount brokerage so its not reasonable for one to expect extraordinary customer service. However, the delayed wire and brokerage transfer was a period of anxiety for myself where I was left wondering where all the money went...you read about wire theft all the time and anxiety peaks when no one can answer you matter of factly of what happened to a wire...