Im looking to begin day trading within the next six months. Ive decided to open an account with IB but I was wondering if I have to fund the account immediately? If possible Id like to leave the account empty so that I can use the streaming quotes and do some paper trading for a while before I use real money. My question: is this allowed or will IB shut down the account if I leave it empty for too long? I havent received a reply from IB and I cant find anything on their site about this question. Thanks Marty
I think you have 45 days to fund your account after signing up. I'm with IB and that's my experience.
Thanks El Cazador, Do you happen to know of any other reliable, free quote services that I could use for longer than 45 days to do some paper trading before I open an account with IB? Marty
Check out http://www.quotetracker.com . They offer several free realtime data sources, but I think for streaming quotes you will now have to pay $10/month. Still not bad, even while learning. It is a great piece of software and I use it as a backup data source. Good luck, Kirk