Best Thread Interactive Brokers

[Deltatrader]

I would not recommend Interactive Brokers. They will change the margin rules, forcing liquidations to generate extra commissions. Here is my post:

Has anyone else noticed a 400% increase in margin rates with Interactive Brokers lately? I trade short options on Treasury Bonds and Notes (STRANGLES) on ZN & ZB.
Last week 7-15-2008 IB sent out bulletins saying that they would have gradual daily increases in margin rates to more accurately reflect the risk in short options. We'll it turned out to be not such a gradual daily increase. My margin increased by Fourfold (400%) OVERNIGHT. ! I woke up Thursday morning to find that IB had liquidated a large portion of my positions. If anyone else has experienced this, Please post a reply.

 

[nine]

So we get a loser or shill coming here to slander a good broker. And rude enough to copy his foolish post from another thread (so I shall be equally rude, apologies mods, and answer in both threads).

IB, by raising margins has protected their customer base from fools who trade with too little margin in volatile times.

Why do we need this you say? Brokers have insurance. Well, interestingly enough many brokers don't but because of the universal account sweep IB's is pretty good. So, why do they need to be conservative? Because when a broker gets into the deep brown stuff because they let too many customers overextend themselves into margin calls we all suffer. If they're not insured you lose some of your money and even if they are you spend months or years getting your trading accounts sorted out again.

So, thanks IB for being careful in your business operations. Your solid retail and professional clients appreciate your concern.

 

[tibogl]

Thx for all these informations.
Actually anybody know if we can do Fx forwards on Ib or not?
also do we need to subscribe to the flow if we want to deal? (i . e do I need to have the eurodollar flow to trade them , as I ahve them on other platform already I just don t want to pay for something I don t need)
thx vm for your answer

 

[Adamus]

So IB didn't raise margins overnight without warning, as that poster said? Or did they? Sounds like s/he has a right to complain (although cross-posting was totally unnecessary).

 

[rnicoll]

So IB didn't raise margins overnight without warning, as that poster said? Or did they? Sounds like s/he has a right to complain (although cross-posting was totally unnecessary).

As far as I'm aware, only intraday margins were affected. Personally, I trade with a huge buffer between me and margin calls, so I didn't notice either way.

 

[firewalker99]

So we get a loser or shill coming here to slander a good broker. And rude enough to copy his foolish post from another thread (so I shall be equally rude, apologies mods, and answer in both threads).

IB, by raising margins has protected their customer base from fools who trade with too little margin in volatile times.

Why do we need this you say? Brokers have insurance. Well, interestingly enough many brokers don't but because of the universal account sweep IB's is pretty good. So, why do they need to be conservative? Because when a broker gets into the deep brown stuff because they let too many customers overextend themselves into margin calls we all suffer. If they're not insured you lose some of your money and even if they are you spend months or years getting your trading accounts sorted out again.

So, thanks IB for being careful in your business operations. Your solid retail and professional clients appreciate your concern.

Next to that, it's also a perfect contrarian indicator for a temporary market bottom
(last time they raised margins was at the March lows!)

 

[theoracle]

Hi,

Is it possible to open a SIPP account with IB? I notice some old threads from 05/06 discussed it but was it ever sorted?

Cheers,
Nick

 

[ibj]

So IB didn't raise margins overnight without warning, as that poster said? Or did they? Sounds like s/he has a right to complain (although cross-posting was totally unnecessary).

We have been raising margins on US govt bond options over the last 2 weeks. The change only affects people with large short positions in far out of the money options. To be more exact, the core margin model did not change; we just added an extreme move scenario which impacts low delta, low gamma options.

Overall, we did not increase margins, simply eliminated an intraday margin reduction. We occasionally eliminate intra-day reductions when we observe large, highly leveraged positions developing in very volatile markets with potential liquidity gaps. It is admittedly conservative but we are doing our best to ensure IB and its clients will not join the ranks of the victims of the 2008 financial system crisis.

There are brokers who offer ES min future intraday margins at $500. We will never be one of them. When one client loses money and goes negative, the broker has to cover those losses and must redistribute these indirectly to other clients in the form of higher commissions. IB's ability to offer the lowest commissions is at least partly due to our avoidance of losses from inadequately capitalized clients.

 

[ibj]

Hi,

Is it possible to open a SIPP account with IB? I notice some old threads from 05/06 discussed it but was it ever sorted?

Cheers,
Nick

Coming.
We are working on an account design with one of the UK's largest SIPP providers. Expect something by Q3.

 

[Adamus]

We have been raising margins on US govt bond options over the last 2 weeks. The change only affects people with large short positions in far out of the money options.

Hi IBJ,

interesting to hear the word from the horse's mouth. However you didn't answer the actual accusation itself: that you liquidated a customer's position without warning.

I can understand that IB might take such action with a client who has broken your rules on position size or whatever, but from what you say, you changed the rules yourselves and it appears you applied it to your customers' accounts without informing them.

In those circumstances it's hardly surprising that one of the affected customers then begins spreading negative comments about you.

 

[bradl112]

WOW ! You mean IB can target a specific group of investors without changing the same margin requirements for everyone ? That sounds awful biased and looks like you have lost control of your own account. .

Sorry NINE, I would not call anyone a loser who has a legitimate complaint without knowing all the details.
I agree with DeltaTrader, it seems like the margin increase is excessive and that it was not handled properly.

 

[Mattybuoy]

Excellent news about the SIPP account!

 

[Benedetti]

I would like to know at which point it becomes favourable to be on the unbundled structure for trading US market futures. Thanks.

 

[BalRog5]

What if I open EUR account, and trade USD futures, like corn? Is there a fee (or bid-ask spread) every time currency needs to be converted?

 

[peto]

I would like to know at which point it becomes favourable to be on the unbundled structure for trading US market futures. Thanks.

http://individuals.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=futuresComparison&ib_entity=llc

You will see that unbundled is less in nearly every case, even at low volumes.

 

[peto]

What if I open EUR account, and trade USD futures, like corn? Is there a fee (or bid-ask spread) every time currency needs to be converted?

No. you use your euros for margin, then when the position is closed your profit (loss) will show as a USD balance (or negative balance). Eventually you may want to convert this back to euros depending on your long term view of the future of the usd, but there is no need to do this often, once a month or two would probably suit most people since there is a small bid-ask spread (but only 1pip on Idealpro if you change >25k, perhaps as part of another trade) and fee $2.50(?) to do so.

 

[Adamus]

How long do you think we should give IB to reply to post 1070 above before concluding that they're not worried about their reputation?

 

[Benedetti]

Thanks very much, Peto.

I've got another one. How do you sell stocks after market? I guess there is an option that needs to be activated, but I cannot find it. Thanks.

 

[Benedetti]

Thanks very much, Peto.

I've got another one. How do you sell stocks after market? I guess there is an option that needs to be activated, but I cannot find it. Thanks.

Ok, I found it. It turns out that I was trying with a Market order, and you need to put a limit to be able to trade outside regular trading hours, which makes sense.

 

[marky]

IB Data

Hi Guys

I hope im not covering old ground, but here goes, i have always traded futures but now i fancy having ago at uk stocks, i use IB and downloaded historical data and was surprised at the amount of spikes, so i thought i will wait untill the market opens then collect real time data, and to my surprise the data is full of spikes, what i want to know is, is this the norm for uk stocks with IB, also i checked the stocks on a bigcharts.com and ADVFN, the data was spike free. i use tradestation 2000 and IB.


Best Regards mark