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T-Bills is by far the safest thing you can do, provided that by "safe" you mean "safety of principal". They are a direct obgligation of the Federal government. You can buy T-Bills on the internet at http://www.treasurydirect.gov/ These are exempt from state tax by the way which boosts the...

Thanks for the response, and for injecting some facts into the situation. LOL! I guess I'm quite mistrusting of anything that IB does that might affect the platform in a negative way, whether I actually know any real facts or not. Your facts though have reassured me on that score. Given...

Kiwi: I gotta agree with Larry. I would stop any form of backfill if I were IB. Can't figure out why you guys just don't put up a little bit of dough to buy the backfill in other places. OldTrader

If your strategy was rendered "useless" by a $1 cancel/modify fee offset by $5 for every execution, your strategy was hopelessly thin. You should probably get down on your hands and knees and thank IB for coming up with this new fee in time to keep you from instituting a poor strategy. OldTrader

Just thought I'd mention that it looks to me like stops would automatically cancel at 3PM CST IF you have elected to not have stops triggered after RTH. All day orders would be cancelled after 3:15PM...so that cancellation charges would not apply after the above times. Frankly though, it's...

I have not bought anything in the last couple of years. But in my area I think a guy could still buy property according to my criteria. You know, I was living in S. California both before and after the last peak in real estate prices around 1990. I was able to find property in that market in...

Viv: First I want to say I enjoyed reading through your journal. Rather than to overfocus on one day, you might want to lengthen it out to a week or a month. Personally I use a month. Takes alot of pressure off on the day to day performance. Another suggestion. I like to raise and...

"Appreciation" is the one element I never made a real estate investment for. What if you could buy a property so cheap, that when you fixed it up, and considering you costs of holding and selling, that you could resell it for a satisfactory profit. Would you buy it? Now, what if you could...

Cutten: When I made my statement I also said that the median prices had not declined NATIOWIDE in the last 50 years. To me what that means is that there are poor odds to a forecast of 30% down nationwide. Doesn't mean it can't happen....anything can happen. So that it's clear, in my...

I'd say most successful real estate investors buy property at a discount to retail value, which boosts gross rent versus their costs to own. But it may well be that the scenario you just gave is not an effective scenario for California, at least not in the neighborhoods you live in. But as a...

There was the move in the 10 year from about 4.1% in late 1998 to late 1999-early 2000 at 6.8%. I make that to be about a 65% move. Then there was the move from mid 2003 from about 3.1 to early 2004 around 4.9%.....about a 58% move. There were comparable types of moves in the mortgage market...

I've transferred various assets on different occasions over the years to IB with never a single problem. So when I read an idiotic post like yours bashing IB for something they clearly have no control over, and doing so in a public forum, I think it's important for someone to respond...

The question I have is WHEN is the cost of owning vs renting going to approach 1? I lived in S. California at one time...it was not 1 then, nor am I aware of any period when it was. If I'm right about this, then making a statement of this type is tantamount to saying you will never buy...

This is the other prediction folks have been making for the last several years...that rates would rise. Hasn't happened yet has it? But the homeowner can continually refinance if this is the case, thereby lowering his payment. OldTrader

I think it's important to point out that there has never been a decline of any magnitude over the last 50 years in the median house price nationwide. No declines at all. Only advances. I've posted a link to this several times. There have been declines on a more localized basis. California...

Look my friend, why don't you call the account transfer department first thing in the morning? Why bash IB over something that likely has nothing to do with them? If your account has a debit then obviously you need to do something regarding the debit. IB didn't cause the debit. OldTrader

If you change the terms of the loan then you change the example. If you want to figure out what would happen with an ARM, you just pencil the situation assuming the worst case scenario of the ARM. Some ARM's have a fixed rate for a specified period, and then the rate "may" escalate depending...

Recently a guy asked me whether I thought he should buy a house. In the process of attempting to provide him with an answer, what occurred to me was that there is more than simply price that is important in terms of the purchase of a house. Interest rates are easily as important if not more...

Here's the link: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/marginRequirements/margin_amer.php?ib_entity=llc

IB's intraday margin is $844. This means you can trade 71 contracts intraday. You said you just want to trade for a "few ticks", so intraday ought to be more than sufficient. Overnight margin is $1688. By the way, you could trade 108 of the 10-year intraday. OldTrader