it's not really a fee against unscrupulous brokers, it is fee to protect you against the unbelievable incompetency of the government and it's regulators. what the hell? let's just tack on another 10 cents to everything you spend in case the trillions of dollars you have already paid in taxes have been wasted? better safe than sorry
at any rate, you should be covered at ib, no matter if you are trading futures or forex for the amount listed as"securites available for trading" up to the SIPC limit, after that, you're on your own Like the man said, "If you trade like I do, that should be the least of your worries."
I agree, the ideal setup would be private insurance at a percentage with no limits. At least then you would know somebody is accountable. Who now working for SIPC or FDIC loses their job (or even any money?) if the broker they were insuring blows it all on a last ditch effort trade?
IB should setup Lloyds insurance for customers directly from Account management. Like if you want 100K worth of insurance you can buy it for a year. The premium gets taken out of your IB account and sent to Lloyds who then email you your policy. Even if you have say 500k with IB you might only want to buy insurance for 250K depending on how much risk you want to insure. This seems like a good idea but i have no idea how practical it would be.
yeah, we've already been through this Options12, there's about a thousand pages on it on the other thread. I don't know what your thing is with www.interactivebrokers.com but if you don't like them, don't trade with them. It's kind of wierd that you have devoted your life to warning traders who trade with a broker you don't like not to do it.
I agree completely. That would be wonderful. I am very small, but still when I have a choice, I keep my consevative investments with another broker just to be a little more safe, even though it is much more inconvenient. The commissions are higher but they hardly ever trade. But yes I agree whole heartedly. It's no big deal for me, but it matters if it is OPM. I can explain to them why I lost some of their money, but it is hard to explain why I lost ALL of their money.
oldtime: no false statements; no problems. Why continue to suggest SIPC coverage of forex, etc when you are already familiar with the other threads? It's weird.
Peterfly sounds like too much of a Nerd to steal the cash, yeah he built a couple of mansions for his kids, but the last i read he drove a 10 year old lexus. Some one else at IB could steal it, like the CFO. But have you ever listened to the IB conference call with those two. They sound like they would be the last two guys on earth who would ever steal your money
Peterffy can personally write a check for 800 million without blinking an eye. I sleep pretty soundly at night having an account with IB. They are one of the very few firms that I would trust in this shameful low point of our industry.