Cluseau, I have invited you via Pm to work through the allocation problem you posted with me as I am not able to reporduce it as described and if it exists we would like to correct it ASAP. Dave
Thanks Dave. I answered your PM and am posting here in case you don't recieve it. I'm not interested in wasting my time fixing IB's TWS. You can however work on correcting account balances and fixing PnLs--they are always wrong. The other stuff i mentioned makes no difference to me as i am with a new broker now and will use IB as a questionable backup--that is, until account balances and all account information is correct for at least two days in a row. Good Luck to you and IB.
Can you elaborate on the last sentence--about LLC sub-accounts not paying professional data fees. Are you saying that with an FA account you don't pay professional data fees, even though you have an LLC?
If you are not a professional and you open an Advisor Account the Advisor account is responsible for the data fees. If you, as defined in the various NYSE, ASE, and NASDAQ data agreements, are not a professional, you pay only $20 per month or the non-professional fees for other data beyond the standard package. If a sub-account you advise is an LLC which would normally have to pay professional data fees the LLC does not have to pay them. Data is being supplied to you, the Advisor, not the LLC. None of your sub-accounts pay a data fee, only you, the Advisor do. If you use the standard data package and the sub-accounts generate an overall $30 in commissions then the advisor account is not billed as the fee is waived. Consult your attorney or IB, I've been told that the exchanges can bill retroactively if you misstate your qualifications. Read the agreements carefully. Jack
Yup, he's definitely correct about this, I'm doing it. If your only sub-account was the LLC then I'd be more worried. If you have other non-pro sub-accounts I wouldn't think it would be a problem (then again I'm not a lawyer, accountant, or person who has a clue ) It also would make a difference if you're a registered advisor or not. If you're only trading your own accounts and family and friends I think you'd be OK.
Hi All I recently opened a FFA account. I have a few accounts I would like to control through the Master account. One thing that bothers me is that I have to do paperwork for accounts already open with IB !! The paperwork was done before now I have to do it again. Is there any way around this? It seems ridiculous to do something that I have already done before. Why can't we just transfer the original accounts .... what's the point of creating new accounts to only transfer already existing accounts into these new accounts. This approach is mind boggling if you ask me.
I think you'll find you are stuck. One thing to consider before you move all your accounts under the FFA umbrella - If you are one of those guys who trades but does not generate thousands in commissions for IB and you monitor close to 100 different issues and indexes - With each separate account you get 100 items for the $10 fee (less than $30 in commissions). Under the FFA there is no way to get more than 100 until you exceed $800 in monthly commissions and then you get one item per $8 above the $800. IB is not a data seller, they are a broker. So, if you need or foresee a need for more than 100 items and you trade at a minimal level keep at least one account outside of the FFA. Conversely, if you are currently getting hit for many $10 monthly fees go the FFA route as long as the commissions produced equals or exceeds the number of accounts times $10. I'm not getting into the advantages of being able to trade all accounts simultaneously, a different issue altogether. Jack
Unfortunately you will need to do the paperwork again....although you might try calling, there's a small chance they'd let you re-use some of it. Jack is right about the commissions. But note that if you switch to unbundled futures commissions and trade a lot you can get discounts on commissions as well since all accounts have their trade quantities summed together for figuring the discount. SSB
Thanks for the replies, they clear up some answers. I guess I'll have to fill out all the forms and mail them again. Thanks again