I wouldn't be surprise if someone online that GRULSTMRNN has been talking to in which you mentioned your real name, mentioned you formerly worked at a financial institution along with stating you had a LinkedIn profile... That a-hole than contacted IB to snitch on you and to cause you some headache. Yet, if that's not what happen and IB actually routingly take the names of their clients (most likely via an algorithm) to scan social media to determine if a client should be re-classified as a professional trader... That would be very scary. Just another example to be very careful about your personal & private info you put out online and never share any info about your trading accounts with anyone because you really do not know what they will do with that info or whom they will share it with especially if its someone that lives in the "Gotcha" moments. By the way, this happen to me before but not with a broker. It happen with a charting service after they discover (someone told them after seeing a statement in my profile) that a few friends and I rented an office to trade instead of trading at home. He didn't bother to tell them that we were retail traders that traded their own personal trading accounts. They took that simple statement to suggest it was a "prop firm" and then had the nerve to tell me that I should have specifically stated it was not a prop firm. How in the hell would I know that some idiot out there would assume in error that it was a prop firm. Regardless, I specifically checked the box in their brief questionnaire that I'm not a professional and I've never worked for a professional trading firm...it took a few months to resolve the issue and they kindly reimburse me for the extra trading fees that they charge professional traders. Yet, a lot of newbie traders walk around forums saying they are a professional trader when in reality they're just a retail trader trading from their personal trading account without knowing the implication of using such language (professional trader). Its simple, if a financial institution or entity are paying you (you're getting a salary) to trade their money...you're a professional trader. If you move on to another career or become a retail trader...brokers, charting services or whatever should not be allowed to use your past prior job history to say you're still a professional trader. Its just strange that IB would change your classification without even bothering to contact you first before they did it. An email, letter and phone call would have prevented them from possibly losing a client. I wouldn't be surprise if brokers have a list of employees at businesses they've had as professional clients...brokers than take that list to scan their own list of "non-professional" clients to catch someone not telling the truth...that "Gotcha" moment. wrbtrader
I wouldn’t think the broker is to blame. Most likely the exchange doing their own audit. IB passes those professional data fees over to the exchanges.
Probable source may be data mining, data broker selling their classification of your data. It doesn't have to be correct to hurt you, and exchanges have no qualms about trampling broker customers.
The absurd is that the professionals have to pay more. They are the ones who trade, provide liquidity, and help the volume. Yet, you can be a perpetual paper trader who doodles all day, consume bandwidth and bother tech support because you are bored, and pay nonprofessional. Where is the logic? People who trade should pay less than the ones who just use the resources of the exchange for data.
I actually do not care and if they asked me for my LinkedIn from the beginning I would have sent it to them. What I care about is that they adhere to their own definitions and guidelines.
Yes, I do know that exchanges even breathe down the neck of Bloomberg and that BBG, in turn, is obligated to thoroughly investigate. And I am perfectly fine with that. I just disagree with IB not applying their own written definitions.
Well again, that is not what my LinkedIn profile states. My LinkedIn profile only states a status that has not been updated and I made the adjustment and hope that IB can work this out with their compliance and market data team.
Long story short, IB clearly states in its definition of "Non-Professional" that certain conditions have to be met as of now, not what someone did or where someone worked years ago. I do not want to have this thread blow a relatively manageable issue out of proportion. I have hope that IB will make an adjustment because I have done nothing wrong, nor did I misrepresent anything. I simply wanted to hear whether others have similar experience.
Did your non-updated Linkedin profile state that you work as a professional for an investment bank or a similar?