I used to be a fan. Not anymore. Firstly, the slippage on entry and exits has been too great. I have had a stoploss on wheat get slipped over 10 whole points which was an additional USD$500+; I have had one whole point on Coffee which was $375 and a silver trade which was slipped $427. My entries have been slipped too. I wanted to short Gold .. I still made good profit, but it put me in $6 lower than where I wanted to get in. So that is $600 less than what I wanted. Same with Copper.. it put me in 2 points or $500 higher than where I wanted to.. so I got $500 less profit in the end. I knew people who took the same trade on a different broker, and they had almost no slippage on those trades. I have tried using TWS, I have also tried using ZeroLineTrader to control my trading. When I asked IB about it they just said that where I got slipped to at the time was a valid quote. IB is probably good if you can use Limit orders 100% of the time.. but if you can't.. it just costs you money to use it. Either adds to your loss.. or can subtract from your gain. I have another gripe with their customer service which we all know is below par. They have made it very difficult to close the account.. I followed their steps to the letter.. but apparently something else needed doing. Did they contact me and say 'by the way we would like you to do this so we can finalise it..' No. They just left the account as normal until I had to contact them to say 'Hey where is my money?' Then I get an email saying I need to call IB to confirm I am wanting to close the account. I call the closest IB location which is open (and pay per minute to call them) and wait patiently for 30mins on hold and then the phone just went engaged. What kind of operation are you running IB? I then did a customer service chat and explained I was on the phone and it went engaged after 30mins and I was not happy. The response was totally unacceptable and sometimes I feel that they are not even listening to what I am saying.. or cannot even comprehend basic English. They just kept telling me I need to call the IB office I was just calling. I kept saying I have called them and I waited 30mins. Argh. I told them I did not want to speak to them anymore.. to get someone more senior. After this, they said someone will call me. Someone from Hong Kong (I was calling Sydney previously) then called 5mins later and confirmed some of the wire details and I am glad to say I am almost rid of this horrible company. I have now closed my account and am looking to go somewhere else.. perhaps Alaron.
Could you use stop-limit orders? If you are placing orders at break highs or lows....the market may run on you. Look at the dom , find out what is happening
You would have to show actual examples with entry time and t&s in order for anyone here to take pity on you.
Hmm.. I don't think I want to risk not having a stop loss filled on Wheat and some other commods.. trading the currencies it wouldn't phase me.
Hi, Not after pitty. Just sharing my experience. I don't mind if a rep wants to look into it (again).
Hi Kiwi.. I bet you trade Currency futures predominantly, don't you? By the way, no need for such hostility my friend. Try and be civil.. you will get further in life and be happier.
Here is another opinion ---> http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=127269&perpage=6&pagenumber=3
my fills with IB have always been good. of course i rarely trade thin contracts like this guy is doing. When trading ES, I may get a tic or two slippage, but often get a better price than i expect as well, and never have slippage on entries cause i use limit orders. Get the price or miss the trade. never have slippage in ZB. I had 10 tics of slippage on the energy report last week, but deserved it. The market gapped over my price. I ended up with about as good a fill as possible. I've used IB for several years, and have used many other brokers as well, from Lind in the 80's to Open E Cry about 5 years ago. IB is about the same as any of the other electronic platforms I have used. In pit orders, I've had such massive slippage with Lind, that I will never, ever complain about fills again! (try 50 tics on the yen during a trade report which was the biggy back then). My partner once had an OJ trade that took 15 mins to get filled on a market order, and Lind wouldn't give him credit for his loss! that's when we left Lind. Oh. I forgot to mention, we paid $20 bucks per turn, and $800 per month for software and data! 1987 dollars.
Couldn't be happier with IB. I am not a scalper so I can't comment on 'fills'; I simply use limit orders for most trades.
-My entries have been slipped too. I wanted to short Gold .. I still made good profit, but it put me in $6 lower than where I wanted to get in- dear sir ... I am a prof. gold trader ( silver too ) can you give more details on how you got such a bad price other than you did not pull the trigger and watched the market cascade down at some point in time ?