one guy started a huge whining and complaining thread here on ET about IB. He threatened them with everything he could think of and it went on for a few days.... it was so funny, IB closed his account and returned his money! He was on here wondering if they could do that and people were cheering IB for not wasting time and money on a problematical guy like him!! I've tried dealing with their customer no-service, it's largely a waste of time, they gave me form-letter answers that weren't on the topic for what I asked about... so there you go, it's take it or leave it. People that write third party software to interface with brokerages are saying, publicly, that the TWS API is retarded compared to the competition, it's known that their customer service is bad, so what is the upside I'm wondering? People say the fills are good, the commission rates are low, if that is enough to offset the downside then it's a good way to go... I couldn't trade large blocks of stock with them for sure, better to go with a flat price, assuming the fills are not so bad... the thing in my thinking is that if something goes wrong their customer-no-service could be a disaster for my account, I try to mitigate risk of ruin every way I can but there isn't much that can be done about a broker-induced disaster of some kind and I don't like that feeling... I'd have to be holding some deep out of the money options to offset a broker induced worst case scenario problem and that can get to be costly so I'm really at a toss-up about using IB.. I'm going to use some other brokers for awhile and see how things go... the option insurance is sort of necessary anyhow, it may be that IB is after all the best choice...
Upside is excellent market-coverage from a single account (at somewhat competitive rates) ? That makes them pretty unique. Even with institutional platforms like Knight Direct you have to use multiple accounts for multi-asset trading. If you only want access to a particular market you can probably find better..
i never experienced any problems with their trading desk.(8 years with Ib) "all other problems dept"(option 5 )-yes,there is some funny folks in that dept,but not at trading desk.
It would be good if anyone complaining about the customer service at IB (or any other online broker) would make clear (1) account balance and (2) level of activity. Readers of the thread could then make a reasonable decision as to what the broker <i>should</i> be doing to service/ support such an account. If privacy is a concern, a broad range would be fine, for instance account balance, <$100k, $100 to $500k, $500k to $2.5m, etc.
Absolutely correct. IB obviously looks at your equity/commissions before making a decision as to how to handle you. They simply don't care about a $25K account that trades 15 times a week. And why should they? That's not where they make their money.
Amen, brother. Some of these threads amount to "I opened an account with the minimum balance -- why doesn't IB (or whatever broker) give me premium customer service?!?"