Good isn't it, anyway there you have your answers from other people above, I have more experience, used more brokers including all mentioned, in all scenarios from retail to institutional, using all account sizes, with all asset classes. -IG for CFDs which have leverage advantages -"If you prioritize low commissions and a comprehensive trading platform, Interactive Brokers" Nothing in life comes for free, what no one has mentioned is the margin issue with IB, firstly they are higher than other brokers with leveraged positions while usually providing lower leverage, however the issue is their 'variable' margin where at times if you trade too close to the edge, which you will never know is the edge being a 200% uplift of original margin, you will be liquidated, with Stocks this issue is negated. The interesting part of this is that no one provided any detail whatsoever, choosing a broker is an intensely complex 3D spreadsheet with variables such as AUM, trading style, asset class, long or short focus, leverage used, trade size to deposited capital, hold duration of trades and investments, timeframes in focus, and probably the most important - segregation of funds to limit contagion from trading mistakes.
I used them both, IG first, IB later. It's obvious that IB is the bigger house. But... Sometime is good to trade with the bucket shop, with all the respect for IG. With IB, you have all instrument, with IG standard account you don't, you can upgrade account and request specific instruments. Options on IG sucks, at least last time I traded with them. No Greeks, wider spread... Probably OTC. But what I miss from IG is stuff like guaranteed stops, easy learning curve on the platforms, very stable data (no freeze) and easy chart trading if you are into intraday. Prompt and decent customer service.
How does one get exposure on brokers deal with this? As in, how do I know how brokers actually implement this behind the scenes? How they actually segregate funds? Is there a way to know beyond the "ye ye our funds are segregated and secure bla bla" found on T&Cs?
https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...investing-strategy.372423/page-9#post-5779043 Like I said above, if you believe you can compound to 500% per year then life will not be very pleasant for you nor anyone around you, it will induce a 5stage grief cycle, the 50% per quarter was to incubate a hedge fund where part of the structure used IG for profits, I usually do it for family office and hedge/crypto fund startups, it bypassed the multi-year seeding, but you still need the algos, it took a few months but hit the Dow 31,500 target (in Red) to perfection. I was in a team that created 500% per month non compounded to seed another entity using the same algos on Forex and Futures sub-minute timeframes, managed to get people access to the algos for 2k/mth, but it needed me and/or other analysts to provide the trades to take so we demanded a percentage of profits, it's not worthwhile unless you have $3k to $5k capital, plus it would only sustain for a few months before you need to move to investment grade, oddly the best time for these 'burst' profits are Christmas, Easter, and Summer, when no one else is working and only juniors are on the desks. Actually maybe I'll do that the next month or two, what a good idea, thanks
Not the brokers segregating funds, you segregating funds to stop contagion of your capital (time), the world is intensely lazy, they're not going to do it for you and will happily enable your contagion (money). https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/a-theory-about-good-vs-bad-traders.373180/page-4#post-5781053
Commission: IB 0.005 or below IG 0.02, so 4 times higher . You point to CFD leverage. For retail: IB 20%, IG 20%. But do not take my word for it. Take the word from IG itself: "79% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider."
I don't smoke, this is the usual type of comment from bad traders, anyway IB is good if you stay away from margin.