Yet another IB bashing thread, which amounts to little or nothing. Wish I had a buck for every one of these I've seen over the years. I'd guess 99% of the time IB is being/has been reasonable, concerning whatever the complaint was. Is IB perfect? Nope. (Some of the complaints concerning the CS department do have some legitamacy.) But, all things considered, would any of you complainers like to provide the name of an all around better brokerage?
Cheques are kind of quaint if you ask me. I suppose that for publicity it would be hard to beat an oversized cheque. I think this is what I like about IB. They don't have time to deal with people like you because their product is so good that they only have to deal with people who are living in the 21st century. I mean if you don't grasp the concept of a wire transfer do you really think you should be trading? Also why would you let the CU scalp you for 400 pips in you convert CAD/USD when with IB the most you would give up is 10pips By the way I just wired money from a Canadian Credit Union to IB and it took less than a day costing $25.
Szeven is a solid guy, and 21 business days is a VERY long hold on "certified" funds. I agree that it's too long. Hold a check for 365 days and your bad debts will go down even further. I also agree with IB on this- in a digital age, clearing funds in a digital manner reduces fraud and decreases manpower and clearing issues. That said, I'm afraid that IB is pulling back or becoming more hostile,due to the rough environment at ET, & the help, time & guidance they are giving at ET is diminishing....please ET'rs don't piss in your own pool if you use them. They're here to help, and I'd rather not lose that help.
"the hold period reduces fraud" I did not know CU cheques are more fraudulent than bank cheques, that seems like a reasonable reason if true. "why do i let my CU scalp me for 400 pips" I dont, thats why i opened the IB account. I also dont let my CU scalp me for 25 bucks if i dont have to. "You are bashing IB your worthless peice of shit" No im not, i just think if you take bank cheques with no hold you should take CU cheques because they are exactly the same. "you dont do wires so you shouldnt trade and cant trade and are a retard/worthless peice of shit" Again, no that is not true. My cheque for one is not oversized, if you think that how do you make a living? "spend less time posting and more time figuring out EFT" Right on your site it says that EFT requests take 4 business days. A cheque takes 5 business days normally and costs 0. I figured one day was not worth the effort if you would not double standard my institutions cheques. However, after looking at the site it would appear that EFT's require almost no effort aside from getting a void cheque with proper encoding so i can enter it online. From now on i will probably do that. Thanks for everyones support, i love you all.
I appreciate your post and understanding. I do admit BSAM has a point as these thread titles are out of control. They aren't encouraging those of us at IB to assist what are often valid discussion points. A touch of politeness goes a long way. Sorry if my frustration shows with the tone of my response to you (and it looks like a few others realize this) but as mentioned above, it's getting tiring. Please understand we don't put these prohibitions in place lightly. Our aim is to provide the best access for active traders with the lowest cost. To do this we must be efficient and put in protective measures other firms can easily compensate with higher commissions and charges for every external transaction. It's a small price to pay for the long term gains.
I think it would be a mistake for IB to allow unfair and irresponsible attacks, against IB, to cause IB to pull back from its participation on EliteTrader. I think that IB fares very well in the various debates about it. I think that myself and other IB customers do a good job of helping defend IB against unfair criticism. I think that the sort of people who would be deceived by unfair thread titles, and who would not to follow the debates to see that the titles were unfair, are the sort of customers who would not be appropriate for IB anyway, because they would lack the necessary sophistication and ability to function within the IB framework. I think that sometimes fair and valid criticisms are made against IB on EliteTrader, and that those criticisms have become part of an extremely valuable and productive process which continually improves and strengthens the quality and value of IB's offerings. I think that the attacks and debates, regarding IB, are often embarassing to IB, but that in the end, they do far more to improve IB's quality and its reputation, than they do to harm it. I think the benefits to IB are far greater than the detriments, even though the detriments usually seem more obvious and more immediate. I think that IB should increase, rather than decrease its participation on EliteTrader, and that IB's increased participation would be a win-win for everybody concerned: ET, IB, and all their employees and customers. I agree that many of the thread titles, unfairly attacking IB, are outrageously unfair, but I think that censorship of them would jeopardize the quality of debate on ET. I would suggest that somebody who starts a thread should be routinely permitted to edit the thread title, if he becomes persuaded that the title was unfair. Perhaps also a thread title should be edited somewhat by moderators, where there is clear proof that the title was deceptive. I think that great care should be exercised in the area of trying to address this problem, so that the quality of debate will not be harmed. I would also like to emphasize my belief that the painful task of publicly defending itself against accusations, most of them unfair, but some of them fair, has become part of a process which forces IB to improve itself continually, and makes IB generally superior to its competitors.
Good post Jim. Can't agree more. I wonder if the thread starter asked the mods to change the title would do so, assuming thread title change is possible.
IB is actually very good at posting their policies, procedures and fees. I admire that and wish all brokers were as open about these things. If you dont like their setup, why not find someone else instead of complaining here?