I don't want to change the "spirt" of your paragraph and/or post. Frankly though, I don't think I did. Rather, we simply disagree. Read on. It may be true that an account holder will benefit from a liquidation. However, that is different than saying that the policy is "for the account holders benefit". So you see, we completely disagree. I feel confident that when IB discusses their liquidation policy in a board meeting or management meeting, there concern is to maintain accounts in a manner that reduces risk to IB. Period. Further, perhaps you are privy to some type of order of liquidation. I'm not. I have carefully read the documents made available to me, and see absolutely nothing regarding an "order". Now, I'm not saying there isn't one. But if there is, what I'm saying is that they have not publicly disclosed it as far as I know. If you can provide a link to this "order of liquidation", I'd like to see it. So the point is that if IB has not disclosed this order, then when you come along and claim they didn't adhere to an order, I think you're mistaken. Again, provide a link to this order and it will clear up this aspect of our disagreement. My belief, for the moment at least, is that IB simply starts selling. I think it is done automatically, with no attention paid to other instructions like "do not sell", etc etc. Always possible I'm mistaken. But if I am, it's because I have not seen these policies in writing, not intentional. I don't think it's the traders "fault" if IB's server goes down, TWS goes pink, can't long in, etc etc etc. However, I do think it's the traders responsibility. That is established by all the paperwork that I signed. Now, you are an introducing broker evidently, and I don't what you signed. So again, I only respond based on what IB has on their website, and in their paperwork for individual traders. And there, the policy is clear. Further, they clearly suggest making alternative arrangements to cope with technical difficulties that could come up. I have done this in a variety of ways. Perhaps as an introducing broker you don't mitigate some of these types of risks. But certainly a trader should. That's a simple reality. There's nothing in there paperwork that I'm aware of that makes a liquidation a requirement. Provide a link to it if it exists. This I agree with. I haven't had many issues, but certainly some. And some of those were costly. Globex went down for instance. A server went down once. Each of these taught me something about controlling my risk. It's well worth the thought and planning to put into place some type of system to handle various contingencies that could come up. I've tried to do this, but certainly it is one of the risks involving electronic trading. For that matter, back in the old days I had my phone go out a couple of times, and couldn't make a trade. In those days I had nothing to protect me. I think the electronic trading has been easier to protect against problems. Hopefully I've discussed the points you've made without changing their "meaning". If anything is changed it was unintentional. OldTrader
lightspeed (small learing curve) although I admit I use Ib but I'm gonna switch to lightspeed (or infinity since i trade futures only)
Just a note on one point raised by n. He claimed that IB don't care about you. In some sense that is correct. If you are an anonymous user of any large "efficiency orientated" (vs consultancy/handholding/superservice orientated organizations) then they don't really 'care' about any one individual. But in any such situation the individual can form relationships with one or two people in the other organization and thus get the caring they need. Same as in real life. I took the trouble to do that and have seen real improvements to things that caused me and others problems as a result. I also have a channel that gets techie problems in the HK server farm fixed when the average CS person couldn't come close to understanding me. So, with a little effort its possible to get amazing customer service from IB too. FYI.
I might be wrong on this one, but I don't think Lightspeed is a multi-asset multi-currency broker that lets you trade stocks, FOREX, stock index & commodity futures, options, future options etc. in one account.
Yes I am new (6 months), but i already had my problem with ib. I posted it on the brokers rating but let me get your opinions. I was short es i think it was 3-4 contracts around 901 (couple of months ago). I put stop limit order for 1 of the contracts and it got hit. I changed the stop limit order-and this is what I was bitching about- to 903.25. prices never touches it never even came above 902.75 and i get my stopped out. I spoke with them a few times to get a clear answer (btw it tanked over 20 points after I got stopped out). They told me that I had to cancel my order and then submit a new order. Since I didn't cancel my order but changed it, my buy stop limit order turned into a limit order and got filled immediately. So what the hell does changing an order mean!! IT MEANS I WANT A NEW ORDER Learned it the hard way. That whole situation messed me up for a week.
So you can never successfully modify a stop-limit order? You always have to cancel and replace? I am skeptical - are you sure that's right?
You should be able to change orders, but I always cancel and resubmit. That's what happens anyway. I always cancel and wait until the order turns red and goes away, then resubmit. Seems safer to me... Good trading to all.
to Old Trader some of the information I referred to is on IB's web page under strength and security re automatic liquidation etc. I would also like to apoligize for my agression towards your post. No excuse, just don't have the patience I use to have hahahha. and latey it seems everyone mportant around me is either in the hospital or has died. Life is too short and you are entitled to your oppinion whether I agree or not. hope your trades go well. w
Positive, once the stop limit has been touched and you change it to a higher stop limit, its no longer a stop limit. The guy on the phone explained to me that it is a current working limit order so if you change it even though you submit stop limit, it's still a limit order. If anyone can prove me otherwise or if this is illegal please tell me, I would love to retrieve my losses.
Investwthme, I am curious about your assertion that we can't move stop limit orders because I do it almost every day (and I change the limit position within the stop limit). It seems to happen within TWS (although I usually submit with SierraChart). I do this for the Aussie SPI (SNFE), the HSI (HKFE) and the taiwanese STW (SGX) with no problems. So I wonder that if there is a real issue then it isn't with IB but with particular exchanges. Given my assertion of excellent customer service I have pm'd one of the IB team (hope he's on line and logged into ET ) Actually he might not be awake yet so it would be unfair to expect an instant reply.