I've been a very satisfied customer of IB for over 4 years now. This move creates mixed emotions for traders though. I am assuming that IB is going to mandate some type of RSA SecureID keyfob thingy right? So customers will have to wait to receive one of these by mail in order to login and trade? What happens if a customer loses their keyfob? Will IB expedite shipment of a replacement so that the customer can trade? Will there be a replacement fee if the customer loses their keyfob? I sure hope IB is prepared for a mass exodus of customers as a result of this. Another firm tried this recently and it completely blew up in their faces. Many customers would try to login with the random key only to get rejected for days on end. Not a good experience if your holding loads of contracts that's for sure. Sure hope you guys test this out before going live.
I wonder if they had the same fears when deciding to make cars require unique keys to start. "what if they lose them?".
I have 2 devices and I have never had a problem using them for withdraws and account management purposes... It may add an extra 20 seconds for everytime you log on to the TWS, but that is time well spent, considering if a hacker gets hold of your password, the entire account may get wiped out. I sure hope IB has this feature tested inside out so that customers won't have any problems.... worse case if somebody needs to get flat, there is always a phone.... if the devise fails, it is nothing different from any other kinds of technical failures (like server down, ISP down, etc). not sure if IB is rolling this out as an optional program, or is it mandatory..... I am thinking if you only have an account with a couple grand, the device maybe more a hassle than convenience, otherwise the added security is definitely worth it.
The security may be a good idea. Good to hear it will work on platforms other than Windows. But to login on two different machines will require 2 devices? Will it work on a laptop? Is it USB? Will the device only work with my account/machine? Could someone steal the device and use it on a different machine or for a different account? Is the "deposit" available for margin? If not, then the "deposit" is a lot like an extra fee.