Anybody else's ER2 quotestream from IB go down today?
- Thread starter RussellDaytrade
- Start date
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An outage is an outage not a mistake on their end, and unless you can prove they deliberately did something (why would they?) you're pretty much up the creek. I don't think you'd find a broker who would compensate you for something like this. That's why you need a backup broker.
IB does. Any broker in general has an ideal customer and a non-ideal customer. Someone who doesn't trade enough to cover the costs of being a customer is going to cost them money and would likely not be approved (and might be dropped as a customer -- have their account closed). I don't know if IB specifically does this, but I don't see why not. If you're going to cost them money why should they keep you as a customer?
"The customer is always right" doesn't necessarily apply when you're costing them money. Maybe it's not nice but that's the way things are -- especially when you've got a platform people want (as IB does). Not saying everyone loves IB or wants to use them -- but they are among the lowest cost brokers with the most features. And if they can make money and stay in business for active traders by getting rid of people who cost them money so be it.
That said I've seen banks do this as well. My sister applied for an account with an internet bank and was rejected. They felt as a student she wouldn't have enough money in the account to make it worth their time. So she used a different bank, and it was their loss....but I'm sure they're not sitting up nights thinking about it....it was a business decision....
Sorry to sound so cynical....but that's life
Not likely -- re-read the customer agreement. Unless it was an "error" on their part (such as a system bug they should have known about) you don't really have a claim. Even if the outage was caused by a techie deliberately doing something (not likely) I still think they won't compensate. Which is why you need a backup broker. But it was also a good point about using native orders in a case like this.
Note you could also hedge on different exchanges -- for example SPY to hedge ES, IWM to hedge ER2, and you could also buy/sell options as well. Not ideal....but better than a kick in the @ss....
sideshowbob and dcraig thanks for your responses.
I was thinking of this scenerio recently.
So what if say, IB's connection to the exchange goes down, it could be their service provider or their own internal problem. ( to me, their service provider's problem is IB's problem )
As a result i suffer huge loss, since my simulated stops cannot be executed.
What if the loss is so huge that my margin gets wipe out and i end up "owing" IB money.
If on my end, i clearly see it as their problem can i don't pay ?
Because in the first place if their system is working, they should have force liquidated the position.
It may sound like a silly example, but i always believe in murphy's law.
I was thinking of this scenerio recently.
So what if say, IB's connection to the exchange goes down, it could be their service provider or their own internal problem. ( to me, their service provider's problem is IB's problem )
As a result i suffer huge loss, since my simulated stops cannot be executed.
What if the loss is so huge that my margin gets wipe out and i end up "owing" IB money.
If on my end, i clearly see it as their problem can i don't pay ?
Because in the first place if their system is working, they should have force liquidated the position.
It may sound like a silly example, but i always believe in murphy's law.
I have never used IB as a broker before, and have no opinion on them at all.
I do use a broker that can be reached by phone inside of three rings for when emergencies arise. Right now I'm using Mirus Futures with NinjaTrader (no affiliation with either) and have never had a connection issue at all. High volume periods are not a problem to trade.
My TradeStation charting service (not brokerage) locked up precisely at 2:15pm EST Wednesday and needed a total reboot to get working again. I run eSignal on another computer, and it was flawless as usual.
No broker is immune to outages and issues, but it helps to trade with one that can be reached by phone immediately. The next time CME Globex goes down, I can offset any position with big cars in the pit by phone. Seen it before... will see it happen again.
Best Trading Wishes,
Austin
I do use a broker that can be reached by phone inside of three rings for when emergencies arise. Right now I'm using Mirus Futures with NinjaTrader (no affiliation with either) and have never had a connection issue at all. High volume periods are not a problem to trade.
My TradeStation charting service (not brokerage) locked up precisely at 2:15pm EST Wednesday and needed a total reboot to get working again. I run eSignal on another computer, and it was flawless as usual.
No broker is immune to outages and issues, but it helps to trade with one that can be reached by phone immediately. The next time CME Globex goes down, I can offset any position with big cars in the pit by phone. Seen it before... will see it happen again.
Best Trading Wishes,
Austin