ib

[marky]

Hi all
A friend of mine has just opened an account with ib this week and has been told by ib because he has a small account to trade the emini dow he is only allowed to make 3 trades per week untill he has $25000 in his account, as you a regarded as a pattern trader and a high risk to do more than 3 trades per week is this the norm as im just about to go with ib myself to day trade .

regards mark

 

[JonnyT]

Hi Marky,

These rules do not apply to futures. The IB accounts are Universal so I suggest he has his knickers in a twist.

JonnyT

 

[marky]

Cheers Jonnyt

 

[Skimbleshanks]

Errr ... not necessarily so. Although your friend has a Universal account, as part of the opening procedure you are asked to choose between a Cash Account or a Margin Account. Both of these are still under the Universal account banner.

A cash account gives you the ability to trade stocks and stock options in the base currency you nominated for your account.

However, a margin account gives the options of trading in stocks, stock options, futures, options on futures, and SSFs (single stock futures).

So, although he has a Univeral account, it suggests to me as if he has opened a Cash Account, and therefore the information given to him by IB would be correct. If, however, he has a Margin Account and is solely trading futures then the $25,000 account minimum does not apply.

 

[osho67]

Is there any inactivity fee with IB? On their web page I had read somewhere $10 and somewhere $30 per month. I cant find these figures and some info on this would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[peto]

Min monthly commission is $10.

If you subscribe to Non-professional US Securities and Commodities Exchanges ( e.g. GLOBEX I think) then the subscription charge of USD 10.00 is waived if monthly commissions > USD 30.00

**On a completely different point traders should be aware that there may be a problem with bracket trades placed through IB's own system. Subsequently changing the value of the Stop part of the order will cause the trade to immediatly execute at the market price! This bug was apparent on the demo system as well today.**