IB is one of the firms I use. It's cheap and efficient. My only complaint is on the crosses. For that I use HotSpotFx. (Disclaimer: I am in no way recommending either of these firms, they are just the 2 I use and am comfortable with. Many others will find that trading thru a Currenex platform is more efficient for the style of trading they prefer.)
Do you trade spot with them cstfx? I've read their forex platform can be a bit 'quirky' and position keeping slightly obscure, is that your opinion too? I've just opened a master account with them but as clients haven't been tranferred on to it yet I haven't got full access hence the questions. Thanks Mick
Yeah, I use them for spot and to leverage futures positions. Yes, the platform is quirky; they are late coming to the forex table, so to speak, and they are still trying to give us a respectable front end for trading. And yes, position reporting is something they have acknowledged and are still working on. Like I said someplace else on this forum, it ain't perfect. I think it is obvious their focus for the past few months is to try to get as stable a platform as possible (and that's debatable) to withstand the scrutiny of the public going into the IPO. Now that that is out of the way, hopefully they will beef up the programming staff, and maybe, give us a non-java based front end. Also, for my next birthday, I want to be 6 ft tall.
IBj at IB mentioned they were working on the margin problems with crosses. I'll admit it is a hassle. I've been trading synthetic crosses in the futures markets, which is even less convenient (using excel to calculate dollar neutral futures positions).
Thanks for the replies guys, as long as I know roughly what to expect! I can handle those issues as long as execution is good, connection problems would be a pain but hopefully they're sorting that one out. Margin requirements I don't think matter a great deal, 50:1 or 25:1, it's a bit academic really. Is that the margin problem you were talking about or is there another problem with margin or margin calls? Commission looks very cheap, .2 pip, or have I missed some hidden expenses somewhere?
All this talk about IB. I don't know about you all, but when I try to figure these folks out, I get really confused with their web page. Also, now that they are going public, I think I would rather wait awhile before trading with them.