Yea, I don't bother contacting MB support about problems like strange messages or being unable to connect because its either frustrating or pointless - unless they have cost me money (like charging me for quote data packages that I didn't sign up for) I don't bother. MB is getting less and less of my trading business and my IB account is benefiting from it. The only reason I'm keeping MB is that I need to have a second futures trading account and I have invested quite a bit of time in coding software that works with their API. Penson closed at 0.47, all time low is 0.46...woo hoo!
Hi all, Can i ask you as i was going to open an account with mb whatdo they need improvement on? I hear they have great customer service (forex side read on a forum But the option for platforms dont allow much tweaking. Also on their futures side do you know if their 24hrs or only able to contact during US session. Thanks in advance
I have been with MB for four years but I don't trade full time (100-200 trades per year). Had I not been grandfathered into MB's old commission plan, I would honestly change to IB or some other firm. Biggest complaint I have is their inconsistency (I trade stocks and options). If you have read this thread you can see that many people have had server disconnection problems; these and other types of error messages are of frequent occurrence and something I have learned to deal with. MB Desktop Pro has sub-par options technology. Also, their web and mobile based platforms are generally worthless. I must say however that MB's customer service is terrific. I have always been able to speak to someone relatively quickly when I call cs. Phone orders are also excellent. Four years ago, when I was in high school, I was forced to call in to the order desk to execute many of my trades since web and mobile platforms where not yet available. I probably called the order desk roughly 50 times and was connected to a broker immediately every time. I never had an order placed incorrectly and the whole process was very smooth. In addition to their telephone services, online chat representatives are very helpful though it may take a few minutes to speak with one. I believe they recently added Skype as well.. Concerning rates for commission plans, I don't know how IB or other competitors currently compare to MB. If competitorâs rates are competitive, a different firm may be the way to go, in my opinion. Hopefully this helped, I know you would like the opinion of someone with a little more experience but I figured one response would be better than none. Sorry no comment concerning forex trading.
IB pros - 1) no money markets, no sweep accounts, therefore eliminated T+3, so if you have $XX in your account (IRA cash acct or brokerage margin) you can trade all of it on Monday AM. sell Monday PM, and you dont have to wait till Thursday (trade date + 3 days to settle) 2) Pricing varies, since I trade mainly in 100-200 blocks @ $4 -$8K price is .005 no less than $1, so ie: 200 stock trade will be $1.00. 3) Minimum is $30 per month whether you trade or not, so if $26 in trades than you pay $4 more at the end of the month. 4) I dont recall price for futures mini, but very competitive, I sometimes will trade e-mini's. 5) Used to trade TSX, still do at times, note keep Canadian dollars the same as money market for TSX or Venture. Honestly, they have so many good points, the only reason I keep MB, is I like the Watchlist Layout (although limited to 100 symbols) and easier to open chart. Most of my charting used to be Ensign with IB Data Feed. Also MB tends to be cheaper if you speculate on $1.50 stocks at 3000 shares, than IB gets to be pricey. Note: also IB, downloads directly to Turbo Tax without going via Quicken, easier to maintain , 10 pages of trades. IB cons - 1) you need to know what you are doing, no hand holding, service is not beneficial for newbie. 2) charts arent the best, quite honestly trading with them for 12 years, never used their charts. 3) Filtering for movers, low cost stocks, etc.. is so so.4) platform is a bit complex, takes getting used to, especially since everything can be adjusted, unlike MB which is much simpler.
This seemed to be a little more than what I recalled as IB's activity minimums. I went back and read IB's activity minimums and this is the way I understood the minimum activity cost per month: If a trader generates less than $10 per month in trade commissions in a month, a fee will be added so the fee plus the commissions equals $10.00. Also, if a client is signed up for the USA market data bundle, there is a additional $10.00 monthly fee which is waived whenever the monthly commissions generated in the account reach 30.00 USD. The way I interpret this is the minimum monthly charge for no activity is $10.00 if the client is not signed up for the USA market data bundle. If the client is signed up for the USA market data bundle, the total monthly fee for no trading activity is $20.00.
Monday morning. Numerous perm server disconnects starting around 1:30 am EST. MBT, this is no way to start the week.
MBTrading Mobile has been showing no positions, zero account balance since futures opened Sunday night (still the case now). MBT Desktop app looks fine to me right now (account normal) Watchlists on the same mobile app (Android) has been screwed for 2 weeks...get some sort of error that says 'try again later'.
Closed my account after only 1 month with them. Customer service never responds, website/mobileapp so buggy and agree with the no positions in the mornings, etc. Plus they use Penson financial as agent and atlas ratings puts them down close to PFG on the list so that's not good. ( http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2012/07/20120709_FCM5_0.png )
Tuesday morning. Numerous disconnects AGAIN ("Trading temporarily unavailable", "invalid username", "internal database error") starting around 3:00 am EST.
MBT sent out a letter about a month ago informing its futures clients that Knight Execution & Clearing Services (now part of Knight Capital) has taken over futures clearing operations from Penson Futures Division. As fate would have it, Knight Capital is on the front page of every major newspaper with today's headline indicating that they took a $440 million loss as a result of yesterday's "trading glitch". In light of this development, any reason to be concerned about the safety of funds held in MBT Futures accounts?