mccoyml, I jumped in the water today with IB; must say that I'm impressed. I called them on the phone before funding my account; my call was answered promptly; got a service person that was very nice; answered all my questions; and my deposit was posted to my account by the time I got back from wiring it at my bank. I have two other broker accounts, and neither one of them was this easy to set up. I can't comment on trading yet, but I figure it's worth the try. My commissions have really eat into my profits since we went to decimals, and the market has gotten so crazy. Hope this helps.
Geez, this is not your error. This is the error of the guy who designed the user interface. how about some English words instead of pretty colors? Like "sold" "executed" "cancelled" "pending" etc... You should not have to rely on colors alone. What "green" means to one person could be associated with the opposite action by another.
Stockerup, Thanks for your note. I look forward to hearing how it goes. I got an e-mail from IB saying that my account application had been approved but I am a little nervious about funding it right now.
Let me preface this with the following: I trade the eminis and ACE bonds and notes; all futures no stocks. Well I have listened to the complaints for a couple of months but opted to try IB anyway. Only been going a week and am wondering why I took so long to move over to them. All the problems others have pointed out I have yet to have. Fills have been wonderful and almost instantaneous. One person kept pointing out the commission savings and I can save 12 to 15,000 a year. Thus far I am quite pleased to know that I can get out of a trade with one tick move and still be profitable!
mccoyml, I know what you mean. I have shied away for over a year now. Every time I started to open an account with IB, I came to ET and read a bad post about IB. I even opened an account and let it expire without funding it because of the posts I read here. Pure economics has pushed me over the edge.
Keep in mind that you are mostly getting the negative side of things here as it's human nature to cite what's wrong many fold over what's right. We have an expectation that things should move along smoothly. The real story about IB is that even though we complain, so many of us are still customers even though we are free to move our money anywhere we like. IMO, that speaks loudest about the merits of IB.
I agree, it's usually the ones with problems that complain - I being one of them. Search back, and you'll also see that I also said they were great, with fast fills and such. But be forewarned - when IB goes down on you (notice I said when, and not if) things won't be all that rosy for you, and then try to get them on the phone to close your position. At that point, you'll join the ranks of those who were bitten by IB. Just my 2 cents - I'm not bitter with IB (although I was a few days ago) - just keep this information in your shirt pocket. fwiw - you ever see anyone complain about Terranova?
I've been with IB for over 18 months. I trade every day, and I've had only one lost connection incident that affected my trading, where I had to get out using the telephone helpdesk. In all honesty I've made more errors myself while entering orders (hit BUY instead of SELL hotkey while talking on the phone, etc.) than problems with IB. I only trade futures (Globex and ACE) and have been VERY, VERY pleased. As I think others have also mentioned, I highly recommend them for electronic futures execution. I intend to remain an IB customer for a very long time. (fyi, when I ran the ET spellchecker on this post, it couldn't find 'hotkey', and suggested that I change it to 'hokey'. !! LOL) IB's hotkey's are great, and are anything BUT hokey!