Keep in mind also that IB may not have that much in the way of cash in client accounts..at least from what I've read. Maybe I read this wrong, but there was a post a while back in another thread about funds under mgmt at each of the brokers. According to this chart, I thought IB only had about 130M or so. I know there are sweeps and the like from securities accounts to commodities accounts, etc... so I'm not sure precisely what this figure represents. The number seemed low to me, like something wasn't being counted. If that figure is legit and SIPC took care of the first 500K for everyone, the 150M would be more than enough for everyone else. This was the pre/post Refco chart that I'm referring to. Looking at IB's financials, they have much more lying around on the balance sheet. I'm not sure what that chart represents.
As a general statement, that is simply untrue. The only way you get only 50% is if you have twice the limit in your account, or the FDIC were insolvent and did not get bailed out by Congress.
Excellent Commentary All .................................................................................... The main issue here is safety of funds as must be compared to other firms...The late 90´s created a lot of non self clearing low capitalization firms....... Thus a brokerage has its liabilities...and a clearing firm has its liabilities... Thus if one trades and desires the competitive rates that IB offers....the question is really who is safer in this regard than IB...and offers what IB offers...??? Most small private firms do not provide financial information as does IB....thus one is left in the dark with the alternatives...
with all of your accounts combined under the ib fa master account all accounts trade exactly as one account according to a preset allocation. i dont see a problem but i dont do those types of trades. ib sweeps your futures account excess cash at night so it falls under better protection rules.