Have had an MB trading account (I trade forex), but i hate MT4. Should i switch to IB? How do the spreads compare? I ask because i am looking to expand to futures and options.. Thanks
I decided I did not want to trade Forex and that trading currency futures was the better way for me to trade currencies. So, I cannot give you an opinion on MBT or IB for Forex only trading. I would open the account with IB and keep the MBT account until I made up my mind. I have had a bunch of issues with MBT that I have never had with IB. MBT with clearing firm Penson is a disaster at clearing futures but OK on stocks. I could do without an MBT account but I would not want to be without an IB account.
it all depends on your size, but if you trade forex I would go with oanda. I tried both IB and Oanda, if you don't trade news as such Oanda (tradefx) is the better option. I tried MB on demo, man I hated their interface.
If you want to trade forex AND futures AND equities, then the choice is IB since all funds are kept in the same universal account and moved around automatically, as needed, for your various trades. With MBT, YOU have to move funds between your SIPC insured account into your forex account as needed if you want to trade all three. As to cost, a commission comparison shows that IB is the lower cost of the two (MBT does have a equity all-in commission, but as has been pointed out on these boards before, you may not be getting the best fills with that option). Customer service-wise - well IB really doesn't have any, so if you need that feature, MBT wins. Spreads: spreads can be tighter on MBT. IB keeps their spreads quoted in 1/2 pip increments.
I am looking for a total package for mostly *currency* futures and forex....Options trading is only a smaller play... That sucks that MB has two separate accounts for each...that sours me alot...Another that makes me mad about MB is that i cant get a news feed on MT4, not a huge deal, but still a negative nonetheless...
TD might have something - on a chat a while back, I asked them about trading futures and fx all from the same account and they operate something similar to IB's universal account by automatically moving funds to cover a trade, but does not move back into SIPC account when trade is done. Never tried it, but maybe a TD customer can chime in. Other than that, IB is still cheaper.
Your experience has sure been different than mine. I have been trading since 1972 through many brokers and have never experienced any broker customer services that comes close to being as bad as that of MBT. Letting Kevin in MBT customer service continue to answer the customer service phone calls is a discredit to Ross Ditlove (owner of MBT). Trading futures through MBT reveals just how bad MBT back-office and customer service can be and MBT does nothing to correct the problems. I have found IB's customer service to be about what I would expect from a broker. The best thing about IB's customer service is I seldom need to call them because I seldom encounter problems trading through IB. Tom Peterffy sets the achievement bar high at IB and it shows.
Impression i am getting is to 'switch' to IB.... B/c if i have 10K in my account...I may want to go long Swiss Franc futures.....and simultaneosuly, long USD/CHF, or long EUR/USD.....i don't want to necesarilly switch programs to do this...
I come down rather hard on MBT but in all fairness MBT's backoffice problems with futures may well be entirely be due to clearing futures through Penson Financial Services. MBT does not have the back-office problems with stocks. I guess Ross Ditlove is patiently waiting and hoping Penson will eventually get the futures clearing working correctly but nothing has changed in more than a year.