or until I stop trading ... IB is the BEST ... period ... for small size active traders. Here are Weiss Rating's top 10 highest rated brokerages in terms of financial stability: Interactive Brokers LLC, H&R Block Financial Advisors, A.G. Edwards, Janney Montgomery Scott, Banc One Securities, National Discount Brokers, Morgan Keegan, Edward D. Jones, Brown & Co. and Legg Mason Wood Walker.
qdz/hii, STOP THE BULLSHIT!!!! IB is in GREAT financial Health. IB's financial reports are on it's web site. We are making money. Our prop side is having another good year. The Group has over 1,000,000,000 USD in capital - with NO - I repeat NO debt. We have an investment grade rating from S&P and our brokerage capital is posted on regulators web sites. 1. Tell me of ONE other Direct access broker that is taking accounts under 2K? Sorry to say but our target clients are active traders and institutions. 2. The options exchanges ALL charge cancel/modify fees of $1 per contract. IB should have passed this fee on long ago. Should we charge $15 bucks per trade minimum, we wouldn't have to pass this fee along. However we don't. In fact, if you use SMART there is no charge. I'm sorry that you can't scratch up 2K to start a career and that you don't like the recent policy changes. However, put to rest speculation about our financial health - the numbers don't lie.
I did have the impression from posts on the IB board that the reason direct-routed orders were $1.95 instead of $1.00 was to cover the cancellation fees. This cancellation fee is no big deal since I rarely direct-route an order (why pay $1.95 instead of $1.00) and when I do it's usually to get an immediate fill at a unique price, and even when I cancel I usually place another order that does get filled, so my $1.20 would get refunded anyhow. The inability to "daytrade" however is crippling to the options trader. And it also cuts way down the amount of profits IB can expect to get from the commissions unrestricted trading would generate. It's good that IB has a billion dollars. Some of that billion came from us.
qdz and def both need to cool off, that's all If we can work together for our common interests we would get past pettiness toward each other on here.
I did see a broker that will accept $500 to open a cash account, listed on this site in the ratings section. It was one of the ones that no one had reviewed. I'll have to go through them again to see which one it was.
Def, I don't like the PDT margin rules (on stock options). IB, say something about it! I know IB made fortune from stock options since 1980s. You are professionals and know that the PDT rules on stock options are outrageous. How can I day trade stock options? Can you make it go away? Can you make the change that any number of daytrades are allowed if the margin that I used for the day is less than my cash balance. Hii is a much nicer than I am. Thank you.