Any Brokers besides IB that don't require the 3 day settlement before buying power appears? IB is the only one I know of.
If it is a regulation to wait for 3 days, then how can IB let you have buying power immediately and repeatedly available for stock trading in an IRA? Is IB allowing something illegal? Or, are other brokers just lazy enough not to update their sytems for the same-day-substitution IRA options amd lose many customers to IB?
I've been really frustrated with the common 3 day wait so I looked it up in the SEC regs. (you know, it's all online now) What I found out was that its up to broker discretion wheather they require settlement. The SEC says the broker may extend the buying power prior to settlement if "it is reasonable to assume they will be repaid". Because they control just about everything, it seems certain to me that they will receive the funds on settlement. Up until several years ago, it was common for the brokers not to require settlement on cash accounts before replentishing buying power, but then there was another Mob cry out against people daytrading their IRA accounts, and they all tucked their tails and required settlement. I admire IB for showing some spine and ending the settlement requiremt. I'm sure fear of the SEC is not the driving force, but some broker self interest like making cash accounts so unattractive that any normal account would want to be a margin account where the brokerage actually owns the stock (subject to their pledge to you) and loan it out and make interest on the margin whenever possible. As such, almost all of the direct access brokerages are not very interested in IRA (cash) accounts.
I think that the reason most people (including myself) are reluctant to go with IB is due to the trading minimums fees and other gotcha IB policies. I don't blame IB, it's their puppy, their business model, but it's not something I want to make a commitment to in an account that can sometimes be dormant of activity for some time.