I guess my main reason for considering IB was the fact that they are SIPC-insured and that would go far in helping me gain potential customers' trust -- what with all these scams going on...since I wouldn't be touching their money with a place like IB - I think at that point it would only be a matter of how well I can trade in order to make them money... Also the fact that I can trade stocks, ETFs, currency and futures also made IB my top choice... Don't get me wrong...I still have many years ahead before I get this business going since I need a fabulous audited trading track record in order to lure investors...but I want to map out my path to the next 2-3 years,,,,, THX!!!!!
One of the great things about IB is the choice of products you can trade plus under their friends and family/advisor accounts, you can allocate proportions of trades to the different clients as opposed to having separate LPOA and entering 15 different orders.
Also, with Interactive Brokers, all my clients accounts' funds would be SIPC protected, right? SIPC and variety of trading products is the main reason I would like to do business with them....as well as the master account trading capability... Thx for all the awesome responses...!
SIPC, at any broker, never protects funds used to margin futures or foreign currency trades. SIPC, at IB, protects only those funds and securities held within the securities subaccount of your IB account. Any free cash, not needed to margin futures or foreign currency positions, are swept nightly into your securities subaccount, so as to maximize SIPC protection.