thinking about doing commodities trading with Interactive Brokers. I am remembering from reading threads quite sometime ago that Interactive Brokers wouldn't allow stops on pit traded commodities. ("It's because we care about you.." was the stated rationale, or some such.) wondering if that is still the case...more importantly, how does IB perform in pit trading? i love their rates and general reputation. I traded options and stocks with them for a few years a couple of years ago. I am now ready to do commodities and am looking for a broker. I'd like to go with the familiar IB, but need more info about IB in the pits. thanks in advance ps any other commodity broker recs or advice welcome. I have been papertrading commodities for two years. I will trade a $25k account. I never risk more than 5%of my bankroll. i have one trade on at a time -- max two, rarely. I understand options. I am a longer-term position trader. I am not a day trader. i have a real problem with not being able to put a stop in place, so that is misgiving with IB.
I trade longer term also. I use IB for electronic futures but use xpresstrade/optionsxpress for pit stuff. I didn't want to pay for pit subscriptions since I trade the entire futures spectrum. Higher commissions but since I am a LT trader...I don't really need streaming quotes. I'm old school like that Don't know about pit stops with IB but I use them in the pits with xpresstrade with no problems.
Why not just go with a market thats either all electronic or side-by-side? There are plenty out there. Corn, Oil, Oats, etc. I would really consider if you want to trade the actual pit contract. There are post around here that some people would get screwed hardcore trading pit contracts. Just my .02
some electronic markets, such as the meats, have very little volume. Hopefully, that will change soon And does anyone remember anhydrous ammonia and tiger shrimp? Seems they used to trade like 0-4 contracts a day
yeah, correct. if there is any question about liquidity or whether the pit is on the up and up, i should take no chance. Deeply liquid electonic trading i suppose should be the default mode for rme, unless i have a darn good argument to deviate from that, especially since I am a one-lot trader for the most part. i heard somewhare that you can trade cocoons
Currently, SPX is the only open outcry pit where IB supports voice brokerage. We provide pre-trade quotes as well as executions to customers who trade in order sizes of 100 contracts or greater.
That explains why my stops on IB were always gapped-over... but they have low commisions! With XPRESSTRADE its currently not a problem with their fairly reliable system... but they are just about ready to shift their system to OptionsXpress (that's apparently a Windows-based shop).
even though IB does not support stops for pit contracts, I guess you can put in a conditional order with IB to simulate stop order, correct?