depends... if u trade under a 1000 shares, have +25k and do not expect to ever need any kind of help or customer service then IB is fine. I trade listed and all IB is is low commissions. I do not even use their software or feeds, its kind of the you get what you pay for deal.
Thanks to the those who have posted on this board, I switched over to IB 2 months ago. Best move I've made.
Has anyone found this to be a problem ? I found that when I install the SUN Java VM then I cannot run J-Trader. Perhaps there is a workaround that I am unaware of ?
yes, I had that problem. Darn I wish I could remember how to fix it. It is real easy, even I could do it. You have to click something. Something maybe to do with default browser, java enable. Don't bother asking IB, I kid you not, the reply I got was, "Sun java is what we use. If you can't run sun java then you can't trade with us. Have a nice day." And I aint lying. Anyway, after you click whatever it is you need to click you won't have any problems anymore, and I think you may even find your java prgrams run better.
For EMini daytraders, how often do you experience outages with IB? What backup do they have in place (e.g Phone) & how responsive is the backup? Comments on other threads suggest that system outages happen quite frequently & that it is difficult to get through to Customer Service? Is this true? I am considering moving to IB, & this is the only concern I have! Many thanks.
I'll post but clients are better off responding than me since I work for the Group. The system has been very reliable and downtime has been grossly exagerated on this forum. The firm does route to over 30 or 40 markets around the world and IB broadcasts to clients whenever any of those links go down. However, if the link to globex goes down, the help desk will be overwhelmed and it might be difficult to call in. Since stops are now native on globex this should be less of a concern. In addition, we are now encouraging the use of WAP phones as a backup source to an internet connection. Last month UUNet had severe problems which congested the entire US internet backbone. Use of a WAP phone would have been one way around this problem.
SProbability, IB doesn't have as many outages as it once did.(Mar. 2002 comes to mind). There are sometimes still outages, though. About 3 weeks back, it was a wcom uunet, breakdown. That was on or near October 3rd. IMO, support sux. When outages do occur, if you don't allready have a stop entered, then OH WELL. Good Luck. With that said, I like the commissions. I like the tws (trader-workstation) platform. If I am willing to hit the bid/ask, the fill times are fast. I do see that 'Def' works hard to give the best support that he can, on this website. So that aspect of ib's support is the best that I have seen of support that ib has. If I was trading large size, then I would consider using a broker that has better phone support, that could take me flat if need be. QUICKLY However, I don't trade large size, and I nearly always place my stops losses when I place my orders, so the risk for me, does not out-weigh the fast execution and the good rates on commissions. Best regards and good trading, plumlazy