Someone else asked, but I'd like to ask as well. What ID theft insurer do you use? What coverage limits? How much does it cost? And does it really cover losses due to unauthorized account access, or just a thief opening new accounts in your name? The policy riders I've seen really only cover the cost of cleaning up your credit and losses relating new accounts open w/your stolen identity, and typically with a cap around 25k per year.
Some more nonsense from the folks at IB: IB changed the way withdrawals are confirmed and does not provide any info on these changes. Had a request pending for days. Thanks for the waste of my time . Geez it's getting more and more painful to deal with them, account management interface is slower and slower and calls are not answered. As for the new account statements they are so long and complicated they make my head spin. When I think of it , I am sure they'll end up getting sued for these statements impossible to decipher by the average investor. I have been trading for years and many statement items confuse me. Obviously the more they make it complicated the less teh average user is able to see exactly how much he is paying and actually making. Thanks to the moderators for changing the thread title. As for Oldtrader, if you are so old what the heck you are still doing hangin on here ? Anyway I remember a discussion on housing costs with you, you are an ahole.
ib making changes without prior notice? get outta here, that can't possibly be true. but you gotta love their security. to log onto their website you have to enter your pw and token, then enter the token again to make a withdrawal, then enter the token again to check your withdrawal status..... all within the same session. i'm happy i switched to another broker this year. i know one day i'd lose a lot of money because of them.
The odds are higher that IB will go out of business and stick you for your money then the odds of someone stealing from your account. John
There is a waiver form you can sign if you choose not to use the key token device. Go call IB to ask for the form.
+1; Why can't I trade without this stupid card and only use it when doing ACH? Exactly! Or may be it's not only about security. May be it is done intentionally in favor of their "CTCI (FIX)".
I am long 10,000 shares of a microcap company, "Microcap Ltd". Last price = $1. I install a keylogger on your machine and get your login and password. I go into your trading software and use all the buying power to buy shares of Microcap Ltd, forcing the price up to $2. I sell my shares of Microcap Ltd at $2. You are the buyer, even though I am the one that pushed the buy button in your trading software.
A thread started by a half wit 2 years ago. And added to be another half wit. God, IB just are too unselective. Don't accept so many fuckwit customers IB - you are guilty of permissiveness!
I get your point But I can even lose my ATM card but I'll still keep it in my wallet. There should be a balance between usability and security. Security card makes automation somewhat harder. People who trade manually can enjoy this extra safety benefit. I JUST HAD A CHAT WITH IB AND I CAN OPT OUT. THEY'LL PUT A LIMIT ON FUND TRANSFER (50K IN A DAY & 100K IN A WEEK). I CAN LIVE WITH THAT ;-) Anyway, I keep latest antivirus on my dedicated trading machine. It gets restored from previously saved clean partition image every 2-3 months. I also use sandboxie to run anything other than TWS and Ninja; Network is NAT firewall-ed. Somewhat educated computer user so I can afford to dump this extra security layer...
Do note, that if you opt out of the security device and get hacked that you are liable for losses in your account. The microcap scam is real and takes place on a much larger scale than you most can possibly imagine.