I was wondering my my accrued interest was staying flat, and then I checked the website and saw that the US benchmark rate is now 0.12%. Thank you fed.
IB saw this coming and changed the interest paid from libor to EFFECTIVE fed funds(not even the target) in the beginning on the credit crisis. Nice trade IB
Doesn't make much difference as overnight LIBOR is down to 0.19%. It would be nice if IB started offering money market funds as an option for uninvested overnight cash.
They need to do like mbtrading automatically sweep funds to a MM account. then leave the option for the user to opt out of the sweeps
IB is so customer friendly that they say "Minimum interest rate on credit cash balances is 0%. Interest charges will never be applied to credit cash balances." Oh well, zero interest is just another cost of doing business for traders.
few of these con brokers are paying anything. most money mkts out there paying 2.5-3%. so these shit ass brokers are making a killing on all these credit money
look on the bright side, you can buy stock and debt at pennies on the dollar, and that house that was 500k is now 200k. oops, sorry, that was YOUR house.
not sure what the best deal on interest is among the brokers. but with IB i use their margin a lot and each month i would still earn interest in my account (but i have not paid attention recently if it is still the case). honestly, i am just shocked that i earn ANY interest give the use of margin. IB is not trying to screw the little guy, that is for sure.
Most commoditites/futures broker do not offer interest-bearing accounts. In a way, IB does the right thing by not getting involved with MM accounts--look what just happened to the MM business--it needed bailing out. I have started to invest in preferred and investment grade bonds as a way to boost current income. Margin required is only 1/3 of equity, instead of the traditional 1/2, so I can't complain. Since I have the cash to cover the investments, there is no interest charged. Food for thought.