One of the other reasons for the notification is to allow for the automation of wires to be immediately placed into accounts. On the US side incoming wires are scanned a number of times throughout the day and accounts are automatically credited. It ends up being faster (and of course more efficient). toadr, i've helped many people on these boards. if you had a problem with funds you could have PM'd me as well if you weren't satisfied with an explanation. Our funds and banking group are very good and have been very responsive to clients needs. The treasury manager also responds to question on the discussion board on the IB web site.
A second thought about your problem. Several thousand dollars not placed in your account for weeks. You need to keep better records. Threat this like a business and keep track of your cash. I reconile my cash every day
Any service is good, but it's like a life partner. The question is how well do they do under fire and during hard times. If you are a small trader, IB is likely your best bet. If you are a large trader, then unanswered questions and long waits to exit trades will never work....... Especially if you trade more than 5 contracts of the e-minis. When I was with them, one time my user name and password did not work and it took over 1 hour until customer service answered the phone. Do to the large loss and ignorant person who answered the phone finally, I was just a hair away from calling my attorney, because I was going to test their no fault clauses. Small traders, they are likely your best bet...
Let' me share with you my revelation on how to deal with this kind of brokers. First, there is absolutely no advantage to have a sizeable account with them. Both risks and costs are against large funding. There is no interest paid. commission structure is good for small/mid size trades. More importantly their security measures and service attitude do not deserve your large amount of equity. Besides they actually do not care how much you have with them but only how much you pay them in commissions. Let' them feel the pain. Either work out some changes or die.
Please name a retail broker that pays a better rate than Libor - 25 BPS? or one that pays CR interest on short stock positions?
QDZ; We've all heard you whine about the PDT rule ad infinitum. Now you say there is no advantage to a sizable account. We don't know what you mean by "sizable" but it seems to me that you are implying that you could solve your distress over this issue if you were so inclined. The PDT rule does not affect me but YES I think it's wrong just the same. My point is either fund the account and stop whining or get another song. We've heard this one enough.
now that's funny... I have a mental image of taodr ranting mindlessly for hours into a CB handset about PDT, IB, and wire transfers with a bunch of truckers riding along listening in their cabs, laughing their asses off....
I have not answered as I left my office for home. Shared with my wife a very nice bottle of bordeaux. Unusually good since it was inexpensive and only from 2000. I must apologize to all since I was very pissed off when I wrote that damnation of IB. I have been with IB for a few years and never had a problem other than an occation liquidation here and there to meet margin which was obviously always my fault. I really wanted to keep the crux of the problem out of here well here goes. IB decided as I was a resident partially of another country and they opened an office in this country, that I should close down in US and open an account in this new setup. As much as I fussed and although was told by certain emails that the problem was resolved eventually I had to open an account in another country. By the way this is a loser place. Great to live but I'm willing to bet IB will close down here cause the population is too conservative to produce many traders. Anyway I had wired a few thousand $ TO IB on the first of November. They have held this money in 'suspense' to force me to open new account. Well I opened new account and their system always reads 'invalid username & password' when trying to transfer between accounts. I received numerous emails admitting their is a problem and they're trying to fix it. But still nothing. What does this mean ? If they don't get it together the money will be held indefinitely ? Why didn't they just deposit in the US account so it could have been used ?