Visiting this message board is like being in the twilight zone. I'll bet sponsor revenues generated from this site are at all time lows.
IB has a currency trading department which does exactly what you described: trading against the clients. The IB troll will be quick to defend IB and claim IB doesn't trade against its customers. But we all know he is a liar. Anyone who has a little knowledge of the brokerage business knows that there are a bag of tricks a broker uses to deceive customers. Trading against customers is simply unconscionable and unethical, not to mention greedy and deceitful. These brokers will anything to take your money, be careful. There are no honest brokers, just as there are no clean pigs. All brokers are dishonest, all pigs are dirty.
This IB troll you're speaking of happens to be on the management side in Asia with over 20 years experience as a market maker. The OP specifically mentioned in other threads he's trading in a paper account and to make claims on executions or orders based upon that is ludicrous. For your comments - there is a big difference between taking the other side of a trade (as you state - trade against you) and making a decision based upon client orders or order flow. Yes our market making arm does trade currencies to hedge our global book. However, the market being made will only become part of the book that is formed from all IB clients and the other major banks that are making markets. An IB client order will only trade against and IB affiliate if and only if the affiliate order is equal to or better than the prevailing market. So next time you call me a liar and a troll try to back up some of your statements with facts.
if you were in the broker's position you would do the same. IB's MM division crosses orders and provides shorts and yes - they can see all pending orders from their account holders. If you are worried about that, or worried about the penny you might lose then you probably need to rethink you trading style. If IB does not internalize your orders then some other MM on the street will mil your order just like IB has rights to. By allowing them to see your pending potential order it lowers costs for everyone.
IBG's MM arm does not see "pending potential orders". If anything it is the other way around, once a client submits an order, in some markets, the client order may get a chance to trade against the MM book and thus receive a faster and often better execution.
Wow, Def - the paranoid loonies are out to get you on this thread - what a bunch of absurdity they are throwing at you. Apparently, you are part of the global broker conspiracy against them and their $5k (or paper) accounts.
I'm pretty sure you guys are dealing with a troll (traderum) here, maybe Jasonn...check out this thread: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=183818