Ordered mine Sunday and it arrived yesterday. So far no problems, there is one inconvenience though. I use Ensign and now the auto IB log on after midnight won't work because of the device code has to be manually entered.
Hello, I am a foreign trader in Europe. I just opened a large account with ib ( 7 figures ) and I was invited to take the security device. I think I will opt out. The same way I opted out with etrade. I read most of this thread and I see a lot of paranoia. I am not downplaying the importance of security, but by most comments it seems that in every truck parked out of my house there is a hacker is hiding inside. I have been 12 years without an antivirus. I use my pc to go to popular sites like yahoo news, emails and banking. No online poker, no porn not much else. Maybe I am crazy but so far I never had a problem. I am the only one using my pc that has a security code before it turns on. I trade only from my desktop with a secure connection. No internet coffee trading here. I used to have xp but now I also got a new pc with windows vista it seems to have some security features built in. I was annoyed by the endless updates and I turned that off, still no antivirus, however my pc is better than ever. So far I used Etrade with no security device and if I can say one good thing about them is that they make your life E-A-S-Y. All I wanna do is to place my trades and move on. Am I missing something ?
some people never use a stop in their trading. some people never take a inoculation shot before going overseas. some people don't wear seatbelts. Life is about freedom, and stupidity.
I just happen to agree with GTS. I also thank ib to not make the security device mandatory. Having everyone wear the very same shoes might work for the majority of costumers but not for all. Some will find the shoes too big and some too tight. And obviously some people in this thread know also what is best for everyone else and are quick at making judgments.
i finally got the secure access card from IB. It's painful, i dont want to match up some tiny number on a credit card sized paper everytime i need to log on, especially for webtrader. Is there any way to disable this? why is this forced on the customer? i understand pc security and promise not to give my password out to strangers....
In 12 years things have changed. And they continue to change. Hackers are getting much better at "breaking and entering". Using IB's secure token system takes me about 15 seconds per logon. 15 seconds for rather good security seems worthwhile. IB provides the device for free. As other threads note - IB does not spend money where they do not consider it worth it - Do you think they started providing these devices to all accounts because they wanted to lower their profit margin? For years their policy was to supply them only to accounts that were worth at least $100K. Something precipitated their policy change. Jack
IMO If you are using your PC for anything other than trading then you should be running antivirus software. Especially if you read email from that same PC. You can get infected from non-executable attachments, PDF, JPG, DOC.