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Don't feel so bad. State pension funds here in the U.S. have just launched investigations/litigation against banks that handled their foreign currency transactions. Seems that for years, many of the banks routinely booked the exchange at the most unfavorable rate of the day regardless of when...

If all your activity is trading (i.e. short term), you can avoid the wash sale rules entirely by simply not trading a security for 30 days. That might not be practical for you, and your Schedule D won't properly reflect each transaction, but if you can manage it you'll find that in aggregate...

The virtual fx position is just a reference for trading. It should reflect what's actually happening in your account, but for various reasons, can get out of synch. You can correct or delete a position in the virtual fx by right clicking on the currency pair and selecting the adjustment line...

On the Account screen, in the FX Portfolio - Virtual FX Position section, put your cursor on a contract description and right click your mouse. One of the options is to adjust the position size or price.

I haven't experienced the problem you cite. But my understanding is that the virtual fx table shows your open currency pair trades. This might be different than actual fx positions. Example 1 - You buy a Canadian stock on the Toronto Stock Exchange. To eliminate your CAD margin load, you...

I don't know. I haven't used any bucket shops but seems to me that IB's spreads are sufficiently low, and the occassional price improvement on limit orders, more than offsets the commissions.

It's a long term capital gain so taxes will be more like $50M, lower taxes being her reward for being a good capitalist.

Basically I just watch the charts and make decisions based on experience and intuition. The charts are a technical tool but I don't do any technical analysis, couldn't define what a bollinger band is, don't know retracement points, etc. For me, the simplier the better.

It can't hurt to ask for an exception. But the bottom line is that IB is indifferent as to why you are sending and cancelling so many orders. They've made a business decision that they don't want to do business with you under the present circumstances and they're free to drop your account. So...

I have at times qualified for some token settlements so returned the required form/documentation. Usually it's very small $ but a couple of times I have been surprised. Once, not nearly as many people as expected bothered to respond, resulting in my getting about 3 times the share that was...

So I went thru 8 pages of notes because somebody got the program name wrong? A great example of how rumors get started. Can't believe anything on the Internet these days.

Take a large enough group of monkeys throwing darts and you will find some that have excellent 3 year records!

"Promises solid returns" is the tip off.

Actually, one proposal floating around Washington is to couple reduction/elimination of deductions with lower marginal tax rates. This maintains or increases tax revenue while providing greater reward for generating income.

Can you say more about why you want to switch from IB? I've only used IB for a few pink sheet trades but find they handle the same as any OTC issue. Their quotes are real time, same liquidity as everyone else, low commissions and only $1 a month data fee (as I recall).

No, it's not tax evasion. It's tax avoidance and it's perfectly legal. Trading in a retirement account can defer the taxes (or even reduce them if your tax bracket when the funds are withdrawn are less than your current marginal rate). You can also avoid state taxes in this way by moving to...

I can only speak to forex through IB as I haven't used any other broker (or bucket shop). Price improvement is certainly not due to their generosity but due to the fact that there's no central market/order book for forex and IB acts only as a broker (i.e. they don't take the other side of the...

Actually this makes perfect sense. If the market value increases, the amount borrowed is higher so you should pay more in interest.

Yes. I meant an order that isn't executable when placed. You won't get screwed by CME if your buy limit price is above the current market (and conversely for sell orders) but I don't consider this "price improvement".

Check to see if your quotes are 30 minutes fast as well. If so, you'll make a fortune!:)