US stocks. Between 2 and 300 stocks in the portfolio at any given time, 50% long, 50% short. Margins are up to the stratosphere on almost everything, even the bluest blue chips.
I think I'm heading in that direction too. However if IB's system was better (not hard to do), they could at least give more margin to customers who are properly hedged, etc. This is not exactly rocket science.
I sincerely hope that one of those brokers creates (or funds someone) an open source tool to convert IB API code to their own. There's a lot of unhappiness and lots of money to be made by someone who does this. I'm amazed how few in the sector see value in good APIs and are focused on visual platform features which are irrelevant to many many traders. I trade US stocks (mostly not smallcaps) similarly to @cruisecontrol with relatively tight stops and short holding times -- margins are equal to the trashiest dollar stocks with no liquidity. Logic abandoned, from a customer's perspective.
I must be slow because I don't follow the logic. Why would IB's equity cover the blowups? Unless you mean blowing up and losing more than their deposits?
Execution, data, the whole thing. It's a mistake on my part but I'm not alone in this, I hope someone does see this opportunity to grab a large share of the market.
It is never as bad as it looks. My main issue issue would be if my new chosen platform didn't support the same order types i am used to using on IB. The API calling bits of my ATS can always be re written. I could even keep my IB data feed bits, and still get my data from IB, initially anyway. I would first re-route my order placing logic, so it doesn't go to IB but the new platform. Then i would move over the execution reporting calls, so i get back fill reports. I think the main bit of work would be any new logic needed to compensate for missing order types.
There are startups like Alpaca, but may be going about this a wrong way, focusing on free/zero commissions and selling the order flow, instead of focusing on smart routing, advanced order types, margin, etc. But it may be worth watching or even trying for some strategies.
We had gold trades today. I could not believe my eyes, Initial margin on 1 gold futures contract was almost $24,000. We were testing higher margin level of our account size during night and early morning. We wired more money today, just in case for next week. I am like 24K - WTF.