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For those interested, Timber Hill (a unit of Interactive Brokers) is mentioned in a Wall Street Journal article today. It's on page C11 and titled, "Timber Hill Deals Blow to Amex In Plan to End Specialist Activity". They are closing their specialist operations at AMEX to focus their efforts...

Spreads are too big and liquidity too small for my tastes.

If I'm putting in a limit order GTC than I definately don't use Smart routing to avoid after hours executions. If there's news after the close that allows my order to go through, I'd rather wait and take my chances at getting price improvement at the next day's NYSE open. If I'm putting in a...

I haven't been to Rio in a while but I returned last month from a visit to Curitiba. This city is rapidly recoming a new business center and is located west of Sao Paulo. It is capital of the province in which Iguazu Falls is located. Not a great place to stay longer term but I mention it...

I recently received my token device for generating a response to IB's challenge. I've previously used them and they are as fool proof a method of security as you can get. Any one can get one from IB at no charge (deposit required for some accounts). There are only two ways I can think of to...

Be careful shorting MCD. True value is locked up in real estate and not reflected on their balance sheet. They own most every decent corner in America. Slowed restaurant growth means reduced capital expenditures and the ability to increase dividends.

Apart from commissions, futures is a zero sum game. Can't say that about the stock market.

I'm still waiting for the original poster (electron) to provide the details. If IB made an error, what is it? Need to be specific like "they charged a $20 commission when it should have been $15" or "the opening cash balance is $10 less than yesterday's closing balance". If a broker did...

I do a daily reconciliation of my account statement to my own records maintained in Quicken. The few times I've found a difference, I've gone line-by-line to find MY ERROR. But if you don't keep up with it daily and you do a lot of trading, it can be very difficult to reconcile your books. So...

The mere fact that we're debating if someone is buying strongly or trying to fake strength tells you not to over analyze it. Without seeing the market depth, there's no telling what's real and what's a bluff. Sort of like playing poker.

This is a perfect example of order execution being worth more than cheap commissions. I have compared executions between my supposed "full service" broker and IB. Full service broker goes through TriMark. I direct the IB order to NYSE. I've found that IB is normally better due to a fairer...

When using an iceberg order, is the true size of your order hidden from only from the market place? That is, the specialist knows the true size. Or is the order maintained in IB's system and only fed as necessary?

The .005 per share commission is handled fairly. In fact, it's more than fair since as previously mentioned, a changed order is still considered the same order rather than a new one. I don't know any other broker that does that. If you cancel your order before more than 500 shares is...

CBS MarketWatch provides the ex-dividend date when you ask for a stock quote on an individual security. The record date is 2 business days later (i.e. 3 business days after the last date you can trade the stock with a dividend).

With that number of trades a day, you won't have any difficulty keeping track of your trades on Excel. That's what I do as it hasn't seemed worthwhile to try to download the data in Quicken or something else like that. Just be sure to keep up with it and cross check it frequently (like daily)...

I'm always suspicious now when a broker sells order flow. I had the opportunity to compare some executions between IB and another well known retail broker. When I placed a limit order with the retail broker to buy or sell between the posted bid and ask prices, my order was never displayed to...

Looking back at my monthly IB account statements, I find that the last time I was filled by TMBR was in early June. I use to regularly get fills from Timber Hill. Has anyone else noticed this or have an explanation?

I agree with the original poster. If I have a day limit order to buy stock below the 4pm closing price, I don't want to take the chance that the order gets executed because of bad news released at 4:15pm. Better to have it get executed at the next day's 9:30am open. For NYSE traded stocks I...

ElectricSavant, Were you in tax court related to a 72(t) distribution from your IRA or is there something even more obscure that I'll need to research?

A nominal charge for depositing a bad check is in order. It may not be your fault, but it certainly isn't the bank's fault either and they have to handle the check twice and return it to you in the mail. This fee is usually very small as compared to the charge when you write a bad check.