Best Thread Interactive Brokers

[Bozznorge]

Bozznorge

We will bill you monthly for your market data. The aforementioned has nothing to do with your leverage.

English is not my native language, so I have to make shure that I have understood.

So with the "aformention" you mean that i can buy stocks for, lets say Available Funds*3 over a long period. And IB will not liquidate my positions when they bill me for the monthly market data?

How do they do it than?

 

[Interactive Brokers]

Bozznorge

We will deduct all of your fees (e.g., brokerage, market data and etc) from your client account. In addition, from the available funds in your client account you can hold margined positions. Clients are required to maintain the necessary funds in thier client account to pay their fees and to sustain thier margined positions.

 

[TraderDude]

Hello IB,

I am interested in opening an Institutional account with IB. How much will I need as an opening account balance to day trade 1 contract on the FTSE 100 Index Futures please?

All my positions will be closed by the end of the day (no overnight positions).

Also would the account offer paper trading?

Thank you for your time.

 

[Jerry Medved]

TraderDude,

Don't know about the funding requitements, but as far as paper trading, yes IB does have that. you would login to Account Management on the IB site, then their site, then under Trading Access, select Paper Trading. IB will create another login ID for you. If you login with that ID into TWS, you will be in simulated trading mode

 

[coolTrader]

I am interested in knowing how many people use interactive brokers to trade forex. there is something quirky about the way their stops are executed it is as if you get charged twice to come out of a trade.

Interactive Brokers:
Can you please tell us how your stops are executed because I have several accounts with different brokers and it is pretty much standard.

Also it seems you don't have enough liquidity on forex as I find my trades being broken up quite often and I think they are small sizes.

I cannot see anything out there on your site that tell me about your forex.

 

[Interactive Brokers]

I am interested in knowing how many people use interactive brokers to trade forex. there is something quirky about the way their stops are executed it is as if you get charged twice to come out of a trade.

Interactive Brokers:
Can you please tell us how your stops are executed because I have several accounts with different brokers and it is pretty much standard.

Also it seems you don't have enough liquidity on forex as I find my trades being broken up quite often and I think they are small sizes.

I cannot see anything out there on your site that tell me about your forex.

1. For IDEAL Pro (Forex) we support the following order types, GAT, GTC, Stop, Stop Limit, Trailing Stop, and Market Orders. To learn more about the aforementioned order types click the following link http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/orderTypesMatrix.php?ib_entity=uk

2. Our IDEAL Pro quotes and the volumes attributed to these quotes for forex dealing come from large banks. IB does not make markets. What sizes of trade value are you trading in?

3. You can find various information about forex dealing in our website. For example, http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/forex.php?ib_entity=uk

 

[Interactive Brokers]

Hello IB,

I am interested in opening an Institutional account with IB. How much will I need as an opening account balance to day trade 1 contract on the FTSE 100 Index Futures please?

All my positions will be closed by the end of the day (no overnight positions).

Also would the account offer paper trading?

Thank you for your time.

FTSE 100 future particulars:

- Unit of trading Contract Valued at £10 per index point (e.g. value £65,000 at 6500.0)
- Quotation Index points (eg 6500.0)
- Minimum price movement (tick size and value) 0.5 (£5.00)

IB Commissions to trade FTSE 100 future:

- £1.70 per side (£3.40 roundtrip); This includes, brokerage, clearing, exchange, technology and regulatory fees.

NOTE: IB provides Direct Access, i.e., you transparently trade in the market and view prices. IB does not get in the middle of the spread. Rather you trade directly on Euronext. Further you can improve the quotes on the screen.

Example of making one tick on the FTSE future:

+£5.00 Trader makes one tick (0.50 = £5.00)
- £3.40 IB roundtrip commissions (£1.70 x 2)
--------------------------
+1.60 Net Profit when using IB i.e., if you make one PLUS tick on the FTSE future

Other costs and/or benefits when using IB:

Nil = To use any of the 30 plus order types we support.
Nil = To use our Paper Trading Account
NIl = IB Chart Trader and Charting package
Nil = Technology
Nil = Technology upgrades
Nil = Support
Nil = To attend our training Workshops in Central London
$10.00 = Minimum brokerage fee per month
Live market data feeds vary per exchange.
£1081 = Min. intraday margin requirement (per contract)
£861 = Min. maintenance margin requirement (per contract)

£3,000 = Minimum deposit to open an account.

Also, IB pay interest on your funds on deposit.

For example,

If your base currency is GBP, we take the LIBOR rate (Benckmark) for that day less 0.5%

4.43% LIBOR as of 29/03/2006
- 0.5%
--------
3.93% = Interest earned (applied to end-of-day settled cash balances) for all GBP funds held at IB => £6,000

We ask all of our prospects to view and compare us to other brokers. That is, if you find a better value we suggest you take it.

If you want more details regarding the above and/or would like assistance in opening an account please call our London office, 020 7 776 7800.

 

[coolTrader]

1. For IDEAL Pro (Forex) we support the following order types, GAT, GTC, Stop, Stop Limit, Trailing Stop, and Market Orders. To learn more about the aforementioned order types click the following link http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/orderTypesMatrix.php?ib_entity=uk

2. Our IDEAL Pro quotes and the volumes attributed to these quotes for forex dealing come from large banks. IB does not make markets. What sizes of trade value are you trading in?

3. You can find various information about forex dealing in our website. For example, http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/forex.php?ib_entity=uk

Thanks for your reply I have read all this but i will give you an example

. If I buy GBP/USD @1.8413 my stop is at 1.8403 ( a 10 point stop) the stop does not execute unteil the ask price gets to 1.8403 and then the stop gets executed at the bid price and the spread may well vary at that time up to 5points So I could get filled on 1.8401( for a 2point spread) or worse moving my loss from 10 points to 12 or more (depending on the spread when the ask price gets hit) t

Surely this cannot be right?

 

[theaks]

Margin Requirments on UK Shares

I've just opened a IB account to hold longer term positions in UK shares on margin. (Yes I know I have to pay stamp!!). Does anyone have any experiance of doing this?

The only transaction in the account was to buy one block of LLOY, I had surplus margin for a while. Now the stock has gone UP more, and I got a "Margin Violation Warning(SMA)" email tonight. My SMA shows as negative, and I honestly don't understand how that can happen when my only position has gone further in the money. It looks like some sort of Reg-T process is being applied, anyone any ideas?

thanks, theaks.

 

[Mattybuoy]

I've just opened a IB account to hold longer term positions in UK shares on margin. (Yes I know I have to pay stamp!!). Does anyone have any experiance of doing this?

The only transaction in the account was to buy one block of LLOY, I had surplus margin for a while. Now the stock has gone UP more, and I got a "Margin Violation Warning(SMA)" email tonight. My SMA shows as negative, and I honestly don't understand how that can happen when my only position has gone further in the money. It looks like some sort of Reg-T process is being applied, anyone any ideas?

thanks, theaks.

Did you perhaps use a large proportion of your account and the 4x day trading buying power to buy the position? If so, then come end of day your available buying power will reduce to 2x (as per Reg T), hence producing the margin warning.

Or, the other possibility is that you are suffering from the difference between LSE "portfolio risk-based formula" margin (about 30-40% apparently, for FTSE100) and regulatory "rules-based" Reg T margin (50%). IB apply the former on opening UK stock positions but the latter is applied across all account balances every day after close of business. Again, this would be only be a factor if you used a large proportion of your account for the position.

As far as I can tell, the SMA is equivalent to a cumulative Variation Margin bucket.

I am very interested in your experiences BTW, thanks for posting

 

[theaks]

Did you perhaps use a large proportion of your account and the 4x day trading buying power to buy the position? If so, then come end of day your available buying power will reduce to 2x (as per Reg T), hence producing the margin warning.

Or, the other possibility is that you are suffering from the difference between LSE "portfolio risk-based formula" margin (about 30-40% apparently, for FTSE100) and regulatory "rules-based" Reg T margin (50%). IB apply the former on opening UK stock positions but the latter is applied across all account balances every day after close of business. Again, this would be only be a factor if you used a large proportion of your account for the position.

As far as I can tell, the SMA is equivalent to a cumulative Variation Margin bucket.

I am very interested in your experiences BTW, thanks for posting

Well - the thing is I didn't do any trades that day (yesterday). They havn't liquidated my (one) position, although if they tried at 3.50 US time they would have hd difficulty as it's a UK stock. I'll see what happens today.

 

[TraderDude]

FTSE 100 future particulars:

- Unit of trading Contract Valued at £10 per index point (e.g. value £65,000 at 6500.0)
- Quotation Index points (eg 6500.0)
- Minimum price movement (tick size and value) 0.5 (£5.00)

IB Commissions to trade FTSE 100 future:

...

Thank you for the reply IB, that was a very informative post

Just 1 final clarification if you wouldn't mind...

Would my account definitely be able to paper trade FTSE 100 Index Futures? I only ask because if I heard that IB accounts don't allow paper trading for Futures.

If you could answer this for me today that would be great. Then if all is good I will open an account with you shortly.

Regards, TraderDude

 

[TraderDude]

Oh sorry one other thing...

You mentioned in a previous post that the minimum opening account balance is £1,450

I presume this doesn't apply to Futures and that to trade Futures you need £3,000 as a opening balance?

Would it be possible for me to open with £1,450 and just paper trade? Then when I wanted to go live top it up to £3,000?

Once again your time and assistance is appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[idetkov]

From a formal point of view, 1,450 is enough for everything. Still, you should have more money on the account when you go to a real trading. AFAIK, paper trading works for US products only.

 

[coolTrader]

Thanks for your reply I have read all this but i will give you an example

. If I buy GBP/USD @1.8413 my stop is at 1.8403 ( a 10 point stop) the stop does not execute unteil the ask price gets to 1.8403 and then the stop gets executed at the bid price and the spread may well vary at that time up to 5points So I could get filled on 1.8401( for a 2point spread) or worse moving my loss from 10 points to 12 or more (depending on the spread when the ask price gets hit) t

Surely this cannot be right?

Did not get a reply to this.. On the forex side I dont think IB is liquid and I also noted that it seems when converting profit from another currency to the base currency you also charge commissions?

Why is this not clearly stated on your website?
You are a broker dealer not just a broker not very good for me.

Since your are regulated by FSA surely there must be some standard way of currecy treatment you seem to treat it differrently from other instruments.

 

[Interactive Brokers]

Did not get a reply to this.. On the forex side I dont think IB is liquid and I also noted that it seems when converting profit from another currency to the base currency you also charge commissions?

Why is this not clearly stated on your website?
You are a broker dealer not just a broker not very good for me.

Since your are regulated by FSA surely there must be some standard way of currecy treatment you seem to treat it differrently from other instruments.

CoolTrader:

1. The quotes on our screen come from various entities which dynamically also provide the liquidity.
2. IB offers two types of forex, IDEALPRO for forex traders of over $25,000 USD or equivalent, and IDEAL for currency conversions under $25,000. Respectfully the aforementioned is denoted on our website http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/fees/commissionForex.php?ib_entity=uk
3. Again, Interactive Brokers does not make up part of the quotes for forex dealing. Rather the quotes come from various entities.

 

[Interactive Brokers]

Oh sorry one other thing...

You mentioned in a previous post that the minimum opening account balance is £1,450

I presume this doesn't apply to Futures and that to trade Futures you need £3,000 as a opening balance?

Would it be possible for me to open with £1,450 and just paper trade? Then when I wanted to go live top it up to £3,000?

Once again your time and assistance is appreciated.

Thank you.

Trader Dude:

You should deposit the necessary funds in your account to cover the respective margin to trade the products you elect to trade. For example, for futures please refer to our margin page for futures http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/marginRequirements/margin_amer.php?ib_entity=uk

 

[def]

Did not get a reply to this.. On the forex side I dont think IB is liquid

I'd like to add to this as well as the comment is inaccurate. IB's IDEALPRO quotes are usually 20-30 million up per side with a spread for the euro/$ usually 1-2 pips wide. The spreads for the other majors are similarly competitive. If you want to work a market between the spread, you can do that as well - believe it or not - this is not a common practice in the FX market. Liquidity is not an issue with IB's FX offering.

Here's a link comparing FX brokers on an independent site. Click on the average column or the currency to sort. http://www.brokersmatrix.com/common/spreadtable.php

 

[coolTrader]

I'd like to add to this as well as the comment is inaccurate. IB's IDEALPRO quotes are usually 20-30 million up per side with a spread for the euro/$ usually 1-2 pips wide. The spreads for the other majors are similarly competitive. If you want to work a market between the spread, you can do that as well - believe it or not - this is not a common practice in the FX market. Liquidity is not an issue with IB's FX offering.

Here's a link comparing FX brokers on an independent site. Click on the average column or the currency to sort. http://www.brokersmatrix.com/common/spreadtable.php

I am sorry I disagree with you that liquidity in forex is not a problem infact. I have the following serious gripe which I have never noticed before. So watch before you tell me about fx and trading. I am currently not happy as at this morning looking at my statement I am not happy with interactive brokers. But that is my problem.

Did you know?
1) You are charged to convert profit to your base currency in my case it is GBP. Where in the world have you seen this being done? This is currency market we are talking about?
2) £1.55 to convert from CHF TO GBP and £1.50 from USD to GBP.

So basically interactive brokers make money all the way. They have a model that works perfectly for them.

Why do they claim to be in the UK and have a base operator of USD. Why should any conversion take place?

There was a night I left a balance in my account the next morning it was gone. I looked at my statement I could not find anything there.

I will advice everyone to look at their statements and make sure they can reconcile their accounts.

I have used interactive brokers in the past for trading the dow. Which I thought was ok execution wise etc.

When you take a trade conversion is done automatically and when you want to take you profit/loss you have to pay for that . Outrageous.

 

[def]

I am sorry I disagree with you that liquidity in forex is not a problem infact. I have the following serious gripe which I have never noticed before. So watch before you tell me about fx and trading. I am currently not happy as at this morning looking at my statement I am not happy with interactive brokers. But that is my problem.

Did you know?
1) You are charged to convert profit to your base currency in my case it is GBP. Where in the world have you seen this being done? This is currency market we are talking about?
2) £1.55 to convert from CHF TO GBP and £1.50 from USD to GBP.

So basically interactive brokers make money all the way. They have a model that works perfectly for them.

Why do they claim to be in the UK and have a base operator of USD. Why should any conversion take place?

There was a night I left a balance in my account the next morning it was gone. I looked at my statement I could not find anything there.

I will advice everyone to look at their statements and make sure they can reconcile their accounts.

I have used interactive brokers in the past for trading the dow. Which I thought was ok execution wise etc.

When you take a trade conversion is done automatically and when you want to take you profit/loss you have to pay for that . Outrageous.

I am posting a few minutes after your above post. The current spread for GPB/USD is 2 pips wide 5million x 13million. If you have a problem with that liquidity, I'd be shocked.

cost: we could easily do what other firms do and shave a pip or a have pip off the spread and make that 2 pip spread a 3 pip spread and not charge a commission. However, we don't and the effective rate for a 100K conversion is 0.2 pips or 0.00002.

You also are funding in GBP and trading in USD. You seem to be looking for a free lunch. The fact is, if you want to trade in a market outside of your base, you do NOT have to convert. You can trade, a margin loan will be extended and you would just have to convert back your profit or losses if/when you desire. You don't seem to understand that the marks at the clearing house wil be for or against you in the local currency. IB could automatically sweep that back for you. However, that would be a trading decision and we don't make those for our clients. In addition, we could shave a few pips off the spread like most firms and make it seem you aren't paying a commission to convert funds but we prefer full transparency and actually offer a better deal by providing true interbank rates.

You're complaining about a tiny and very reasonable commission. I don't see you complaining about the free wires, higher interest paid, lower margin charged, etc etc. All in all, we are offering an extremely competitive and fair deal.

As for the questions about your balance in your statement. Please contact the help desk. I'm sure they'll be able to assist in reconciling your account statement.