IB Very bad Market Data

Market data of IB is incorrect for 2 last week. What is happened?
Anybody has the problem like on the attach.
Support does not want to do anything

 

I wasted 2 days for useless talks with support and now my very interesting conversation had an interesting final

 

Finally,

P: Ok, I do apologize for the confusion but according to our records you spoke to my Colleague Karen in Customer Service who confirmed of a known issue, Customer Service typically handles market data related issues.
P: Customer Service had advised you to run our Beta version of TWS

 

and update your java. those are two most common 'solutions' of low level CS

 

Now everything is ok.Just installed new built.

But I am wondered why IB support during 2 days tried to lie and persuade me that I am idiot. They told me that 400 000 - 600 000 lots on BAC best bids/asks are normal and they see the same numbers in Bloomberg,BookTrader and ect ???

They do not want to solve so simple problem just wasted my and their time.

I am shocked.

 

600,000? That's a quote of 6,000? No biggie.

 

It's surprising that the customer service rep named on your screenshot (http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=3503061) has had at least two chats immortalized over the years.

See this post from 2009:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/interactive-brokers-having-really-tough-day-those-locates

 

Ok,

I read it, and the problem was Megan C did not explain it to him correctly.

If you short a stock, you are charged interest to short it, it can be a very small amount.

You have to short stock in margin account not a cash account. So you need to calculate your margins correctly.

For example, if you are 20% margin, your margin account is not maxed out and you would not be liquidated. I believe normal margin for stocks is 50% for max.

So when you are under margin for example, you could take money out of your account which is like a loan against your account. I assume on IB you just have one account not a separate account that has cash in it, and another account that has margin positions in it, but I could be wrong.

Now if you short a stock that pays interest, my understanding is that you have to pay the interest to the original owner of the stock, but I could be wrong.

So the lesson learned is don't go max out your margin. In the past my broker would give me a margin call and let me close out enough positions to get back under margin. It seems like some brokers, just instant close positions these days.

 

It was in each stock. I saw that huge number of lots appearing everywhere.

I see to Market Depth last 2 years every day and can identify false data.