I would keep away from IB, their margin requirements fluctuate wildly and I'm seeing worse terms for CFDs, never mind the execution issues. IB's risk department treats traders like sheep.
The margin requirements maybe problematic , but the commission on US stocks (CFD's) is I believe less than half of I know of anywhere else.( the margin is an issue for me , but the execution isn't).
That's fine but when you go with IB, use their API extensively when the margin reqs are stable - then one day they just go insane with it and just effectively screw the traders (0.5 to 1 leverage on some equities!). It's not like you can just switch instantly after you've put years and years of work in. IB knows this and is enjoying the situation. It would be nice if some brokers started adapting the IB API as a possible method of alternative communication, so switching would not require months of work on the code.
You know why CFD's commission are lower? That's cuz the broker is the market maker of the CFD's so when you are trading in those CFD's, you are trading against the broker itself so whenever you lose, they win. They are directly profiting from your positions so this is why they charge you lower commissions. And you can only profit when they lose. Guess what they are going to not let you do?? For me, I wouldn't trade CFD's at all with any brokers.
They offer DMA for stock CFDs. By the way, I just downloaded demo and I don't see 30% limit thingy there. Buying power is less than 10x for blue chips, but certainly not 3.3. They advertise that the demo is the same as real TWS, but I'll call them to be sure about this.
Their risk department is completely clueless and totally out to lunch on what's going on. I suspect they have their ulterior motives in screwing with the margin requirements so much so unnecessarily. They are doing it on purpose to force us to trade more to generate more commissions for them. With the market being so strong, I am not surprised that many people are doing "buy and hold" with their securities and guess what that results into for IB?? That's right, no commission revenue. And that is a no-no for IB because IB always has to make money. So what does IB do? Force traders to trade more of course and what best way to force traders to trade more and put in more money by screwing with the margin policy so the traders are force-liquidated on their existing positions even though they are profitable and then have to put in more money and trade more? "We are in the strongest bull market ever." "Can't you see the market is going to drop 30% tomorrow??!!!" Yes, IB is truly despicable. Glad I am outta there.
Be prepared to wait 30 min. to talk to the right person. You have to ask to talk to the margin department to be sure. All other customer service rep. are clueless, just so you know. And second, they don't have the same information at all the places. Sometimes you see it, in some places you don't but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Yes they are extremely disorganized too. And third, their demo is NOT the same thing as their TWS despite what they claim. IB states that you should not rely on their demo to know everything rather it's just a tool for you to get familiar with using their TWS which has a very steep learning curve as you will find out if you sign up with them.
Long on emotional paranoid rambling, short on facts and data. Can you give even one proof of a trade that you did where the commission fees were different than what is documented on their website? Can you actually name some of these "many, many" other brokers that are superior to IB and quantify the ways in which they are superior? I'm sure that there are literally tens of thousands of people out there who would love to be enlightened on this, myself included. Can you back up your assertion that IB engaged in legally questionable practices?
Have done so in many of my other posts if you care to find out. Just here to help the OP out. So just beat it, troll!! Boy people aren't kidding when they appeal to the mods to clean up the forum here. The trolls here really are annoying and they really are everywhere now, not just in the "Politics" section anymore.
I'm not totally sure either way as regards DMA but I don't seem to slip very much on entry/ exit , but they do screw around with margin reqs and as I say , I've given up trying to fathom it , if I did work out why/how much , it would only change with next stock etc ) so I don't bother ), but as previousley stated cfd wise they are so much cheaper that this outweighs the downside,[/QUOTE]