Hello, I find IB's interface to be terrible. So I avoid this company. But the fees are very low, so I am interested maybe opening a small account for small trades. For example, if I write a far out of the money put, it might only be .14 per share premium. So you don't want $6 out of $14 going to the broker. But I think IB has recurring data fees, which I do not want to pay at all. Basically, if my money sits in an account, I don't want the broker siphoning money out of my cash. Is there a way to set up an IB account so you only pay variable costs? Meaning, you only pay the trading fees if you actually make a trade. I also don't want "minimum activity levels" where I have to place a certain amount of trades per month. If I'm not seeing something in the market, I want to sit tight, not do anything, and not get charged for being patient. I have another brokerage account, so I don't need "data" or "charts" or "news stories" or "analysis". Maybe IB is the wrong animal for me. I get the feeling they will want to extract money out of me in ways I don't want to. But I could be wrong. Thank you.
Even if you don't subscribe to data, they still have a minimum $10/mo in commissions. So if you make a couple trades and your commissions total $7, they'll tack on an extra $3 for that month. That said, consider how much in commissions you'd pay to your current broker and if you can save at least $10/mo in commissions, then it's worth it.
If you play around with the interface, I bet you'll find it more more powerful than you realize. They have a paper account for that. I use the classic but mosaic is easier for basics. I also find the mobile apps quite good. If you really want to avoid the TWS, there are a bunch of other front ends out there that people like. Can't help you there as I don't use them. One caveat, if your strategy is to write cheap puts, you'll get killed on the exposure fees if you don't have cash to cover the stock purchase.
I don't get all the whining about TWS/Mosaic inferface. It's powerful, displays much more information than most competitors and is stable. Certain versions have problems but that's what happens when you have a complicated product offering. If you think other brokers have perfect platforms then go for it but the fact is that any complex software will have issues from time to time.
Thanks... "exposure fees"... these are exactly the details I need to know about. I think IB pays a decent "sitting around" rate of return. So I could collect interest in the IB account with cash, and then also use that to avoid "exposure fees"... kind of like "Tell Jabba I have his money".
Thank you, excellent detail. I really appreciate all of this. It's hard to piece it all together by clicking around on their website. These comments are drawing out the details I need.
How do I get this "sitting around" interest ? I have been inactive for a while and I don't find any interest added, except for the $10.00 fee charged per month.