I used to trade futures with Refco till early 2004 when my firm put in a personal trading policy and I had to stop trading. Recently, my firm allowed Index based products with a 30 day holding periods and I was reconsidering to start personal trading. I plan to trade (i) ETFs (ii) Index Options with a holding period of 30+ days. I was wondering is IB really that bad - or is it occasionally bad ? Some of the issues that I read on the net seems to (a) Very poor customer services (b) Errors with Tax forms (can be a real big headache for me - as I already have a complicated Tax situation) (c) Crashing/Poor performance of trading application (d) Also, in my case my firm's firewall is unlikely to allow their application - which means I will have to use their Web based platform or Mobile platform (e) Another major concern is errors in execution? MY BASIC QUESTION is: IS THE PROBLEM REALLY SERIOUS ? I have also finalized four brokers based on my comparitive study - IB, TradeStation, TradeKing and Just2Trade ... (i) Just2Trade is the least written about broker - can anyone give any clue? (ii) TradeStation's platform is definitely more appealing than IB's. Having used Metastock for ages, I could inclined to use TradeStation's platform only for the EasyLanguage (iii) TradeKing like Just2Trade is again another cheaper broker than IB (iv) I am also very keen to have Options & ETFs/Stocks in one account - and it seems like IB has some errors regarding that Any suggestions ?
I can't comment on ETFs, but I like TOS the best for options. From what others have said, if you are trading size then you can negotiate commission. Also, there software will install on a thumb drive, so you can just run it from the thumb drive while at work. Just my two cents..
I use IB hours and hours every day and don't generally have problems. occasionally there have been exchange related issues here and there, but not enough to interfer with my trading.
The question should be "Is IB really that good?" Yes. It is by far the best broker for most retail customers.
Although if your question is really hard or you are really stupid you won't enjoy the customer service all that much. Most people never have to call customer service of course (it probably all on the web).
I find IB's customer service very helpful. I've only ever used the online chat and any problem has been sorted within minutes. If you look at the sort of people who complain about IB's customer service they appear to lack manners and have difficulty communicating clearly.
Only real problem I had was their tax form cockups. Otherwise, I've found them pretty good. Best regards, MK
if u hold long term positions Ib is one of the worse choices because of the huge undisclosed rip offs in interests rate. u get to pay substantial rates even if u have enough money in your acct to cover the full purchase value, i.e non-marginable positions. if u daytrade on the other hand ib is amongst the best retail outlets if not the best, for speed of execution, range of products and commissions.
you are charged interets rates on non-marginable positions. i haven't made the calculations to determine the exact rates but they are there. i have a couple of small positons on a two diff stocks that amount to around 400 shares: i have more than enough money in my acct to cover the full purchase costs so there are no margins expenses involved yet i am charged insane rates.