$52k gone from my IB account. What next, sue IB?

Quote from QuantPlus:

IB obviously has a history of rejected futures orders...
Or orders that are ** not being displayed **...
Being filled at a later time.

As a futures trader doing 50-100 contracts...
You should be VERY conscious of this...
And come up with ways to deal with it.

The fact you just coincidently happened to be away at the time of the fill...
Does not help your case.

If you feel you have been screwed:

(1) Stop dealing with IB Customer Service.

(2) Hire an experienced lawyer immediately.
You will probably have to hire someone in new York or Chicago.
VERY experienced in securities arbitration is COMPULSORY.

(3) Deal ONLY with the Director of Compliance for IB...
It's easy to get his name and number.

(4) Find out who the direct NASD examiner for this is...
And send a copy of all correspondence to this NASD examiner and his boss.

There are various levels of NASD arbitration...
Before you have to resort to the US court system.

My guess is that there are serious problems with IB's software...
And if they were to lose this in arbitration...
The NASD would also fine then like $500,000 or more...

So if you handle this profesionally...
IB will settle to avoid an NASD investigation...
Which they probably do all the time.
More...


Thanks QuantPlus,
your input is appreciated.
I forgot to mention that my account is under Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Ltd, so I guess that would mean dealing with FSA in UK/UK court system (although I would still prefer to settle this with IB directly).

Thanks everyone for the feedback. It's greatly appreciated, please keep it coming. I'll reply to every question/post soon, when I have some free time.
 
One clear problem with TWS...
Is that you can have a live order...
That you cannot see via TWS.

I just had one like that execute 5 minutes ago.

In theory...
TWS does not allow you to delete a symbol with a live order...
But this is not reliable...
And there are VARIOUS circumstances...
Where orders can exist that you cannot see via TWS.

If you are making $100,000 trades in fast markets...
You cannot trust TWS alone...
Because TWS is not a professional grade platform.

NOTHING about IB is professional grade...
It's a FREAKING retail broker.

If your trades can have 5 or 6 figure losses...
Then you MUST have additional proprietary software that uses the API or a FIX connection or whatever...
And does a lot of surveillance and cross-checking of orders/executions.
 
Quote from saxon:

zzzap,

Sorry to hear about your nightmare!

Just one question: When your GBP order was "rejected", was there still an order line showing on your screen? If so, was it red or magenta?

It seems that cancelled (or rejected?) orders are not completely dead until they show a red status.

saxon
More...


Saxon,
I'm aware that order can "stuck" and show in magenta.
In my case, there was no line with the order in the TWS and there wasn't any working order.
 
there is another angle here that is messed up. TWS was disconnected for >2 minutes. based upon my experience and understanding of this security device, for your TWS to reconnect, it would have required entry of the new security code. if TWS had not reconnected (as should have been the case without the new code entered), it would have never resent those orders anyway.

agree with the poster above- given the size of the error and the time that has gone by, you should only settle for talking to the top- i suggest calling their HQ (not a toll free #, check yhoo finance) and ask for the president (know his name). you WILL get his office and the people who handle escalated issues. document everything.

here ya go:

Thomas Peterffy
203.618.5800

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=IBKR
 
Quote from RAY:

Wow,

As most criticizem of IB is unwarranted; and you seem to have the need to immediately defend.

I decided to check this out, and read the LOG; which you obviously didn't. In my humble opinion: It is clearly apparent the situation as presented here is highly likely. The only way he is at fault is if HE had his orders set to be continually resubmitted (obviously not since the orders are so far apart). The order was clearly rejected and then when the software shut down and reloaded itself (many hours later) that order was somehow magically submitted and filled; ALL within a couple of seconds. His fingers can't be that good.

Thank you for stepping forward and bringing this to our attention. Please keep us updated as to the outcome. As I am a very Long term customer and supporter of IB; Things like this concern me GREATLY.

disclaimer: I use IB; I like IB, and I am not a software expert. So maybe I am missing something, and open to correction from the IB tech department.
More...

RAY,
thanks for the time going thru the log.
I'll keep you updated.
 
Quote from QuantPlus:

One clear problem with TWS...
Is that you can have a live order...
That you cannot see via TWS.

I just had one like that execute 5 minutes ago.

In theory...
TWS does not allow you to delete a symbol with a live order...
But this is not reliable...
And there are VARIOUS circumstances...
Where orders can exist that you cannot see via TWS.

If you are making $100,000 trades in fast markets...
You cannot trust TWS alone...
Because TWS is not a professional grade platform.

NOTHING about IB is professional grade...
It's a FREAKING retail broker.

If your trades can have 5 or 6 figure losses...
Then you MUST have additional proprietary software that uses the API or a FIX connection or whatever...
And does a lot of surveillance and cross-checking of orders/executions.
More...

I agree. But I have called Ib and asked them if anything was working on their end to be safe a few times. No problem with that. But you have to be in front of your screen. I have been dealing with electronic futures platforms since day one and it has always been a nightmare scenario of orders stuck in the pipeline that you cannot see. I always just call and check if I am worried. (of course technically --calling may not insure you)

Electronic futures are a no mans land. If you call an order into a desk it is on them but with electronic futures platform on your desk it is on you. And many of these types of things go into legal no mans land.
 
I had a few similar problems with I.B. back in 2001 and 2002, but programming upgrades to the TWS through the years has eliminated any further problems for me.
On one incident I ended up having to eat the losses and on the other incident it proved to be a favorable glitch.
One thing I will mention is, there is constant upgrades to
TWS coming up all the time to eliminate these kinds of glitches and errors. So either use the browser version of TWS, or make sure your stand alone version is upgraded everytime an upgrade message pops up.
 
Quote from QuantPlus:

One clear problem with TWS...
Is that you can have a live order...
That you cannot see via TWS.

I just had one like that execute 5 minutes ago.
More...

Oh, I'm sure you did.

If you are making $100,000 trades in fast markets...
You cannot trust TWS alone...
Because TWS is not a professional grade platform.

NOTHING about IB is professional grade...
It's a FREAKING retail broker.
More...

IB is the most professional broker I've dealt with. It seems like a high percentage of your posts are IB attacks. Perhaps you have an alternate agenda.
 
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