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I usually direct that my trades of NYSE stocks go directly to the exchange (something you can do with Interactive Brokers). This ensures you'll get your fair shot at buying at the bid and selling at the ask price. If the broker decides where your order will be directed to, you'll generally pay...

Thanks for the replies. I did say that the stock was in street name, so this makes sense. So in my example, the broker would get to decide which of the shareholders (A, B, C, D, or E) would not get to vote.

Perhaps this is purely theoretical but I've wondered how voting on stock acquired through a short sale works. As an example, suppose that XYZ Corp has 5 shares outstanding. One each is owned by A, B, C, D, and E who hold the stock in street name through a common broker. Person F comes along...

I'm always surprised at the amount of confusion involved with dividends. Suffice it to say that if you own a stock as the calendar moves to the ex-dividend date, you will get the dividend on the payment date. If you are short a stock as the calendar moves to the ex-dividend date, you will pay...

I got the book from IB about a week after another broker sent me a leather folio with notebook and pen. Wow, two gifts from brokers in one month! . . . But I like the book best.

My experience (somewhat limited) is that slippage is far more significant in pairs trading than transaction costs, particularly when you exit.

Don't be short MCD later this year when they announce a significant increase in their dividend. Their new strategy is to maintain what they have already, limit capital expenditures on additions, and pay out excess cash to shareholders.

And after figuring out how to bypass your firewall, consider whether the price you'll pay if caught is sufficient to continue using IB versus a broker you can access from Internet Explorer.

Pasternak, FD and MAY have a correlation of 93%, so presumably this is one that could have (might have) met your requirements. Would you handle a sudden change in spread/ratio as an opportunity to put on another leg or just wait it out and see what happens?

Here's a pairs trading recommendation that came out from an analyst this morning. Naturally, I'm on the wrong side of this one. A good example of where playing divergence based on the fundamentals would have been better than expecting convergence based on technical analysis. 7:46am 06/13/03...

A study of FNM/FRE over the past year, a highly correlated pair, should be a must for anyone considering pairs trading. It highlights one of the biggest problems I have had with pairs trading. A very high success rate (90-95%) with some killer losses mixed in. I'm long a mere 100 shares of...

Cooking the books is never good, but keep in mind that senior management in this case is accused of underreporting profits. FNM and FRE's growth has been real. After a few days to let the dust settle, might be a good time to buy them.

A different question for Excel experts. I would like to include a time function in a macro such that the macro kicks off at a certain time. For example, if time = xyz, than . . . Is there anything like this in Excel?

It was with IB. If I route one to AMEX and the other through SMART execution, would that work?

I live in Florida and mail checks to IB in Connecticut. I consistently get an E-mail from IB at about 4pm, 3 days later, advising me of the receipt and the date my funds will be available. It seems to work flawlessly so long as you print out the deposit notification form and send it in with...

I placed a limit order to buy shares of an AMEX listed security. I got a partial execution which was followed by a rise in the stock price. I left the unfilled portion of the buy order alone and tried to place a sell order (a limit order at the bid price) for the position I now had. The...

IB handles checks exactly as they promise. Ten days to clear. I wish it was faster, but as long as they do what they say they are going to do, I won't complain.

I haven't seen specifics of the final legislation but expect dividends on certain types of preferred stock (e.g. those set up as trusts that receive their income from selling debt to the parent company) will continue to be subject to ordinary income tax rates.

Back to the poster's original question, I filled out an evaluation of IB several months ago. Nothing has really changed. I am very satisfied with them but support remains slow. Don't be in a big hurry to upgrade. I had to live with a bug for a couple of weeks until it was fixed in a later...

I believe dividends on short sales decrease your basis. That is, they decrease the amount you received for the stock when you sold it short. You realize a reduced profit when you eventually buy the stock back. I'm talking about individual investors here. I'm sure it's different for traders...