I am curious...why shouldn't one lie on their application? I happen to work outside of the US and want to open up an account to trade forex, although I do not want to list the nature of my work or where I live etc, so I can put down that I am a full time trader, show them proof of my address in the US which I maintain...and everything is fine... it is one measly trading account amongst many... how would they ever know? Genuinely curious here...
they check your IP. If your IP is in Hongkong and your domicile is in US, maby they will have some questions...
IB! can you fix this nonsense menu on your front page? on your front webpage-every time you go from either browser bookmarks or address bar(or whatever-from the top of the browser) to login-you have to pass f* foreign language translations.then-this long menu with all those languages rolls down and cover or overlap (if you will)login button. and then this foreign language thing just stays there. you have to click on something else away from it like accounts or software buttons to get rig if it. what kind of moron design this? put that shit at the bottom of the page,where it's not overlap anything.
today i notice this few times already-when you place an order to buy\sell stocks as a smart-sometimes it takes 5-10 seconds for order to because submitted(color from light blue to green) is anyone else having these issues? Thank you!
Lie on the application, and one fine day something goes wrong with your account login. You contact support, please send us proof of identification, umm the birthday's don't match. I'm sure you will eventually get your money back, but what a headache in the mean time.
Who the fuck would go with a broker that asks for your identification when your trying to contact technical support for help as a paying customer? Just trying to understand the logic in that.
So all I have to do is call your broker and say "Hi my name is Lethn. I can't log in online. Please liquidate my positions and transfer the balance to account number xxxxxx..."?
My IB account had been open for several years. Then my SecureCard broke and I needed a new one. This required sending IB a copy of my ID which they did not have on file. Answering your specific question - IB's security is top notch and lots of us are willing to accept the hassle to sleep a bit better at night.
Before I retired I spent 25 years in the financial industry. Today it is a nightmare compared to 10 years ago. Donât blame IB - blame congress. Right after 911 congress passed the PATRIOT Act and the Homeland Security Act that ---- up brokerages, banks and our ârightsâ. The U.S. government is petrified money will flow into these institutions using âmoney launderingâ or offshore money movement practices from terrorists. Money that can be wired to and from a local branch of bank steps away from a persons home (no matter where home is say Algeria); money that a terrorist may use to harm U.S. citizens. If you opened a brokerage account 10 years ago, then as long as they got the money and tax laws were met no one cared. Today you need to provide picture ids or passports and proof that you live at that residence with invoices. Then they do full credit checks to determine if all the other data matches. IB does not care about the credit check. This is for the U.S. Government so that they can confirm who you say are. If you are not in a credit agency database you cannot open an account. All because of the PATROIT act needs to track every person on U.S. soil as a suspected terrorist â that means you and I! Million $$ accounts are worse. Now it makes brokers sweat.They are scared that you may be a terrorist and the feds are going to jump in on them and do surveillance on this account for terrorist connections. Some brokers report every nickel that flows from these big accounts to U.S government agencies. When I recently opened an IB account I did all the things above. Then I called and asked to talk to a supervisor about the paper work. I was surprised. The supervisor and I had an hour talk about this. He knew me from my days at First Chicago Bank. He confirmed everything I wrote above. Call IB and they will explain, maybe not as frank as I heard, but their hands are tied by the U.S. Government.