I was looking forward to IB opening in canada, but then I had the very bad news that I cannot daytrade if anytime my cash balance falls below 25k. (the law they say) Even if you put 25k in (US dollars) if say your account falls to 24.99k, then they woulkd freeze your account. (what the rep said when I called in) This is BS, smalltime daytrader like me are screwd. I have only 10k capital to work with, but with margin it would be more then enough. for my style of trading. Is there another broker that would accept canadiens and allow a 10k capital account? IB has been a huge dissapointment, and I am again looking for a broker that will take canadien and has a commission comparable to IB.
Futures account might be the solution for you. That's what I'm going to do even though I never traded futures before but I don't see a big difference here between day trading stocks and e-minis. BTW, were you with ST before?
torontotrader, all brokers have to follow the 25k rule. I am sure, actually they wished this limit was not there since it does limit their business. indeed you may consider futures, however if you were only starting this will likely kill you very quickly. there is no easy solution to the limited cap trader. maybe in a year or so, the SEC will realize the rule suck and will revert it (but I won't be so sure).. maybe if the markets continue to tank, they won't be able to blame the 'daytraders' ! tntneo
Yes this is the only drawback to using IB if you are Canadian that I can see. As no such rule exists in Canada as of yet.
IB is the *only* brokerage that i know of that has this rule. it is NOT the sec's rule (which simply says that if you have less than 25K and are a PDT, you can only trade in cash - NOT the 4* margin)...IB says you have to wait the period you'll be off the PDT until you can do anything other than close your positions. i talked to IB about this, and finally they said something which was "well, we don't care what everyone else on the street is doing, this is what our president decided". but, since it's their place, they can make any rules they want. and as a whole, i really, really, really like IB...
HAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaa if i purchase stocks and sell them at a lower price IB TAKES THE DIFFERENCE OFF MY ACCOUNT. Nooooooo.... HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN.... this thread can be put together with the mike claire stuff.