I'm afraid that making an allegation of impropriety without any corroborating details is nothing more than juvenile taunting. The pleasure derived from making the allegation , along with the caveat that no detail or proof can be offered , is at best, masturbatory, at worst slanderous. You know that Rearden Metal. And you know that a good trader doesn't accept anything at face value if it can't be verified.
I think you should take a few minutes to re-read and contemplate what TraderNik and NYOB are saying before talking. They are not accusing IB of being a bad broker or doing anything blatantly illegal. I am not going to spell it out for you, but you should spend a little more time reading instead of worrying so much about replying. The point they are making seems pretty obvious and I would venture that almost any broker would do the same. Hell, most any business would do anything they could to make money within the scope of the law. In other words, use them for the service they provide, but remember that they aren't your friend, they are your broker. Same with a realtor when you buy a house...they are there to facilitate the transaction, but in general they are not above doing their thing to make as much money off you as possible (ie the higher the price you pay for the house, the more commission they get, etc even though most people mistakenly think the realtor is there to help them get the best price on the house). Their best interests and your best interests are not the same. Always remember that.
Reaver, you should take your own advice. If you read my post you would see who it was in response to.
To me this seemed to be directed at TraderNik. My apologies for misinterpreting your post. It wasn't really on topic, and in that case posting a quote you were responding to would have made for more clarity instead of my assuming we were all talking about IB and its policies here. I apologize for mistakenly assuming your post was on topic. P.S. To clarify, I am not ripping on IB. Neither is Nik. I think pretty much any broker would follow similar policies and it would be prudent of a trader to remember whose interests lie where.
It's only my anectodal evidence, but I often get closed at near EOD by IB's margin "auto-clerk". It happens in fast markets when way too many limit orders (stocks) fill and I go over over-night limits. Sometimes to the tune of $150k-$200k. Yeah, I know. Small change to all you ET Kowboyz... So what happens? They close some of my positions until I am under the limit. I log each and every trade (couple thousand last year) and I can tell that, at least in my case, these margin call closeouts are overwhelmingly profitable. Some are losers, some are winners, but overall they make money. So if IB is "trading against me" during margin closeouts, they are losing their ass. I really doubt they bother stealing from us retail shlubs. They make plenty on good ol' commish. Good trading to all.
This post, along with those of TraderNik, Reaver, and NYOBScalper, amongst others, all have one thing in common. No facts at all. Readen expects us to accept his assessment of IB because he has been right about something else in the past. LOL. The best I can tell, TraderNik, Reaver, and NYOBScalper all have the belief that any business, to include IB, will screw you if they can. But again, what they all have in common is that there are absolutely no facts. Are there any facts present in this thread? Yes, we now have Wayne Gibbous telling us about liquidations he has in which IB has handled them correctly and professionally. Prior to this we had Lobster tell us about a liquidation he had which too was handled correctly. I think the posts of Rearden, TraderNik, Reaver, and NYOBScalper should tell us at least a couple of things. First, they tell us the sorry state of affairs that people have reached this degree of cynicism that they can accuse without fact, and two, they tell us something about these guys own morality and ethics that WITHOUT any facts they can state that a firm would in essence steal from their customers, without bothering to wonder what they steal from IB in the process of their non-factual attack. I'm even being attacked for being a defender of a company against a nonfactual attack. I mean how turned around and twisted can the psychology of some of these young guys be. Maybe you guys should stop watching TV and start doing some reading about philosophy and morality. You might learn something about the doctrine of fairness, and the concept of innocent until proven guilty. And Rearden, back to the Ayn Rand books, you missed all the important lessons. OldTrader
Sorry but I believe my statement was true and well founded, speaking in generalities. Not calling them shady or crooked, but many companies leave themselves legal avenues to turn maximum profit from their clients. Hell, look at credit card companies, mortgage lenders, etc. They are generally not breaking any laws, but they will stiff you if given the chance. There is a difference between legal and ethical. My opinion from experience, is that many business will pursue profit from their client via any legal means possible. I am very happy for you if you have not had this type of experience with businesses in the past. If you have always had good old fashioned business ethics from anyone you conducted business with, then good on you. I envy your good fortune. I explicitly stated I wasn't ripping on IB specifically. I am speaking in generalities. If you want to keep accusing me of targeting IB, then go right ahead. I don't have an agenda, but I believe my assessment is correct. It is just the way the world is. It is what it is.
It doesn't hurt to be suspicious but I'll say the statement is utterly false with IB, but what the heck, I only work for the Group in a management role.
The problem with "speaking in generalities" is that it torches everyone without torching anyone specifically. It's the worst form of crap. I could argue with you about some of your more "general" claim, but frankly it's not worth it, because your claims aren't based on fact. They're based on generalities. Does IB fit into the generalities? We don't know because you have no fact. But somehow here your generalities are in the midst of a thread about IB. Complete crap. OldTrader