Which just goes to show that there's more than one fool on this website! The fact that you have a few people who agree with you doesn't change the rules of the OCC, which is what controlled the situation. The OCC says that any option more than $.25 in the money will be exercised unless they are notified prior to expiration NOT to exercise. That's what Dev17 did not do. And therefore they were exercised, thus setting in motion the events that later happened. Whether one guy agrees with you, or 10 guys agree with you, it doesn't change the OCC rules. In fact, all brokers are bound to operate within the OCC rules. It's really that simple. And there is no online broker in the US that is going to spend ANY money telephoning a customer to tell him anything. This is completely irrelevant to the situation as it applies to the OCC, and/or IB, or any other online broker. The actions of Dev17 or lack thereof set in motion all of the events that took place. If that caused an excess contribution to be made to his IRA, then it's an additional matter that he should have considered when he a) bought calls in his IRA b) failed to understand the rules of the OCC and c) failed to notify of his desire not to exercise. Matter of fact, let's say that when Dev lost that $9000, it caused him to not make his car payment which then caused his car to be repoed. Would you like to blame IB for that too? Perhaps they should have considered the financial pain that poor Dev would be involved in if he lost that $9K. LOL. Please! If you're going to trade options then you're supposed to know the rules. In fact, I think if I recall you sign an agreement that says you read the prospectus, which sets forth the OCC rules. So when you ignore the rules you get to experience the problems all by yourself. That's how the law works in the US. OldTrader
Good gracious! I put boost123 on ignore earlier, but don't tell me he's dredged up that Dev17 thread as an example of IB malfeasance?? Sheesh. It was shown conclusively that Dev didn't know the rules and lost because of it, wasn't it? Don't tell me, et me guess. boost123 has said something like this 'Any good broker would have been monitoring Dev's positions for him and phoned him up and told him what was about to happen' or something along those lines. Yes? I wouldn't be surprised. The only shock is that boost123 has yet to name the broker he's shilling for. At least I hope he's shilling for a broker. The alternative explanation is just too ridiculous to consider...
Yeah. Also watch out for his buddy trader123abc. This mofo is able to do a little more than boost123 because he knows how to type the first three letters of the alphabet. I AM SHILL
As far as I know, merril doesnt do futures or forex. There stock commissons are $29.95 Unless something has changed. Citi is most likely the only real alternative that wont kill you...But I dont know the commission structure. I stumbled upon the FX side back in April when checking who citifx was for clearing.
I opened a ticket with IB because it appears their system didn't totally recover after that failure! Anybody else notice the NDX 1975/1950 Jan put spread had a BID/ASK of 2.01/1.90??? Of course I stupidly thought maybe it was a quick move in the NDX so I sold 6 1975/1950 spreads for 2.01 which was the BID price and then several hours later I checked and the stupid ASK price for that spread was 1.90 and when I tried to close out my postion it never filled!! I even tried to take a loss and close it for 2.40 at the end of the day and instead TWS was now showing a b/a of 2.40/1.90....apparantly that ASK was stuck on 1.90 ALL DAY so no not everything was "fixed." Now I'm stuck short 6 1975/1950 spreads in a falling market and sweating bullets. Hopefully IB will help me out we'll see!
Citi CIB 10K min to open futures account, CQG front end offered... PM me and when i get into the office on monday I'll get you a contact.
MER institutional isn't 29.95. Our firm clears thru MER (and a few others).. I think they have a 100k reqmt though If the fee was 29.95 for each trade, our operation on the NYSE floor would be bankrupt!