Microsoft does not support Win 98. This OS always was an abomination. Despite I would not recommend it, I know that some of our customers still use Win 98.
We pay quite high interest rates for balances higher then $10,000. Look at
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/fees/interest.php?ib_entity=llc#credit
You will earn something like 4.544% from $20,000.
If you do not pay $30 a month in commissions, we will charge you $10. Find somebody else if it is unacceptable. The market data subscriptions are totally optional. You can trade without a subscription and basic US data are free.
Everything will go in accordance with http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/marginRequirements/physicalDeliveryLiquidationRules.php?ib_entity=llc
The event that you describe was caused by a bug that woke up because of CBOT Sunday trading time change. We recognized the problem...
1. There is no such thing as margin IRA. It does not mean that futures are prohibited. Futures do not require margin. There are only performance bond requirements in this world.
2. Whatever is called sometimes "margin IRA" in IB has just a benefit of fast settlement of stock trades. Nobody is...
Futures, including single stock futures are OK to trade on IRA. Please, do not confuse margin and performance bond requirements.
From http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/education/faqs/ira.php
What can I Invest in...
You can find a lot of information about you IRA possibilities here:
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/marginRequirements/stockIndexOptions.php
rosy,
Could you please elaborate, "Unfortunately, ib doesn't count that as a spread and requires full margin"? We use SPAN and you must have very good spread margin. If you have a concrete example, please PM me or just publish it here.
xiaohu,
Here is a very good answer of Michael Shapiro on your question from
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/discus/messages/216/35082.html?1147094486
Topix and Nikkei futures often open at 09:01 (Tokyo time) or later. This happens when there are more buy/sell orders than sell/buy orders...
I am surprised that you are surprised.:p It is a fact that we have one of the best execution engines in the World. For example, about a quarter of all American options orders come trough us. As a retail customer, you share the same venue with big institution customers and our own market maker arm.