IB's is pleased to announce that IDEALPRO is now available from 19:30 EST to 17:00 EST covering 21.5 hours of the day. Within a 4-6 weeks we expect to bring this close to full 24 hour availability. In addition, we will be reducing the margin for [non-base] currency assets substantially and adding additional liquidity providers to the platform. IB acts as a pure broker in FX. Unlike most brokers, we do not participate as the counterparty in the spread because it is obvious to us that taking the other side of our clients' orders is a conflict of interest, and not in the clients' interests. Our goal for IDEALPRO is to provide the fastest, least compromising FX brokerage service. We hope you agree with us.
Does this mean you think that routing equity SMART orders to Timber Hill or other 'market-making affiliates' is also a conflict of interest? http://www.interactivebrokers.com/download/routing09-30-03.pdf
for the extra hours quoting spot fx even if I usually trade futures it is nice to see spot fx dealing quotes side by side Please consider lowering commissions for small orders in IdealPro FX thanks again setharb
That comparison is comparing apples to oranges. Having Timber Hill in our Smart routing is an advantage to our customers, providing an extra liqudity and a faster execution route "In contrast to some of its competitors, IBG is not making trades based on knowledge of customer order flow...." http://www.interactivebrokers.com/download/sp_rating.pdf or see our policy: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/php/legalDocuments/orderRoutingDisclosure.php
Seth - I haven't heard any discussions regarding this - I presume you mean lowering the minimum to the same as IDEAL?
Interestingly the StandardPoor ratings report stated: "In contrast to some of its competitors, IBG is not making trades based on knowledge of customer order flow, but rather on its pricing model. This leaves IBG vulnerable to shifts in customer knowledge or preferences that other firms may be able to perceive and react to more quickly or accurately." Shucks, I didn't think that was legal - i.e for a broker to use the customer order flow in futures to make trading decisions ? Good thing that IBG, Timber Hill doesn't do that. Is there some information on how, when or what products IBG has market making activities in ? It would be nice with Globex User-IDs some day though ... just to have all the information there and see just who is taking the opposite side - and how they react to that. Some patterns can be discerned when a market maker seemingly reacts to getting hit at bid or ask, or goes after stop-orders. With IDEAL PRO IBG seems like the perfect trading machine for every type of trading customer.
Is IB going to add NZD sooner or later ? www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/exchanges/usIB-pro.php
Awesome. Now as far as margin reduction goes, are we looking at 100:1 for the major pairs like Eur/Usd, USD/JPY, GBP/USD as oppossed to the current 50:1? Assuming one's account is based in USD.
It is now avail for 17:15 to 1:700 (T+1) NZD maybe in 3-4 months but there really isnt a lot of business there and the markets won't be great. We are looking at Norway, Brazil, Ruble, Mexico first.