Bravo, thanks for chiming in. So many misperceptions on this site. I trade with you guys pretty much from the day you opened the doors and I am overall happy. Yes there are flaws but the flaws are with APIs, and other minor issues. The flaws are NOT alike those other underfunded FCMs suffer. The flaws are not with potentially seeing the firm go under because you allowed some lightweights to leverage up 200:1 in currencies that are at risk of central bank intervention (eurchf ring any bells...). In short I am thankful that you guys run a tight ship in the risk management arena. I got occasionally frustrated, for example, the fact you guys charge ridiculous amounts of margin for a short bitcoin futures contract, basically signaling you don't want anyone trading this contract. But I can work around those flaws. I don't want to work around a broker who takes risk management lightly.
I be liken IB, but seriously - nealry everyone is using TOS or some others brokers platform for their charting. IB should buy one of the charting companies like TradingView or whatever.
They are not in the charting nor data business. It's nice to have it all but I like the focus on execution and pricing.
I would argue that commission combined with interest rates alone (irrespective of whether you are borrowing or earning interest) puts IB pretty much ahead of everyone else. On top of that comes all the other advantages of which safety including the Insured Bank Deposit Sweep Program is high on the list. I love the independent nature of trading. However, the advantages of IB makes me increasingly dependent on IB. I don’t like to be dependent on anything. That would be my only argument for choosing an additional broker. Lightspeed and Charles Schwab would be my preferred second choice. One grey area where I do not know how IB stacks up is short borrow fees. Are they high, normal or low compared to other brokers? Is there any reference for this besides opening accounts at other brokers? Maybe we could compare rates in this forum to shed light on the rates.
My only current issue with IB is loss of access to account on US farm slightly after midnight EST for 5-10 min. I know that TWS needs to bounce ever 24 hours and gateway looses access, but still it is 2019. That damn garbage collector on Java
ib serves a much needed entry level and it's true no one spends more money on advertising than they do. their advertising is as good as their services and products are bad unfortunately. they have always been this way and will never change. i am surprised that there hasn't been a class action case brought against them on the data feed issue alone.
I could never wrap my head around tjst in so many years of operation their IT Team could not come up with a feasible change that kicks off daily risk and settlements in the background and update accounts without disconnect. It's indeed very eyebrow raising, but oh well...
Bollocks. Show me another broker that provides better quality of execution in retail space than IB given the wide array of asset classes and market centers they connect to. Even Rob's firm, that provides access to a fraction of products does not do better in execution even with the few exchanges they offer . When the product is execution then they are selling a pretty damn good product.
exactly this is 2019 and they have spent zilch on improving anything also the data feed is criminal in my opinion.