If you are worried about a broker going under, you can quintuple your account insurance by purchasing cash-equivalent ETFs or short-dated government bond ETFs. They count as stock and so your coverage is $500k instead of $100k.
Bullshit. No CUSTOMERS got hammered at all. Perhaps instead of panic mongering what you should do is attempt to determine the facts concerning IBs financial condition, and the rather considerable further insurance backing for brokerage accounts. OldTrader
You are quite obviously taking chances as the bank you are wiring the money to is riskier than IB is. And exactly which investors "got hammered" when Lehman Brothers went under?
My problem with that is I need the "above $100k" amount in margin to successfully implement the strategies I use in daytrading. Could buy the ETF's for overnight protection I suppose, but that seems like alot of churn/commissions. edit: "need" .... read "prefer"
Hey Chicken Little, This thing about IB relationship w/Citi has been discussed before. In fact, 3 days ago: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=145508
Are you always this ignorant? How many banks have gone under in the past year compared to how many brokerages have gone under in the past year ? Which has more bad assets on the books, your average bank or IB? Which has more leverage on real underlying capital, your average bank or IB? Who is begging for a government bailout, your average bank or IB? Who has the riskier business, your average bank or IB?
At least banks qualify for these. IB does not. This you can answer yourself. And were do your funds reside at IB? The tooth fairy? The funds still have to be at a bank, dumbass. That's what this thread is reall about. So not only do you have bank risk, you have doubled up on risk with brokerage risk.