Anybody here trade forex with IB?

Some months I'm over $1B in forex trading and get a reduced commission. Last month hit $2B and got a further commission break. But individual trade size is rarely > $5M so slippage hasn't been a problem. Lots of medium size trades.

As I mentioned, I haven't used any other broker . . . or platform for that matter. I can understand others concerns and expect I would readily see TWS platform faults if I used something else. But I'm doing fine as is and don't want to rock the boat trying anything else.

But my main point is IB does exactly what you tell them to do very well and very cheaply.
 
i trade forex heavily on IB
but i am not really so happy, the reason is, i have never seen my buy order getting filled unless the ask crossed it, same for short...

not sure if ib trade my position or not, but the point is, sometimes when i am in between bid/ask i should get a fill! but i never seen that!
 
Quote from xbaha:

i trade forex heavily on IB
but i am not really so happy, the reason is, i have never seen my buy order getting filled unless the ask crossed it, same for short...

not sure if ib trade my position or not, but the point is, sometimes when i am in between bid/ask i should get a fill! but i never seen that!
More...

Is your size less than $25,000? If so, that would explain your observation. For sizes greater than $25,000 that will not be an issue.
 
Quote from def:

Is your size less than $25,000? If so, that would explain your observation. For sizes greater than $25,000 that will not be an issue.
More...

def, can you point me to tiny print regarding security of funds for AU based trader with IB?

any restrictions on withdrawing funds ?

I am looking to start with cca 50k deposit.

thanks
 
Quote from macroman:

def, can you point me to tiny print regarding security of funds for AU based trader with IB?

any restrictions on withdrawing funds ?

I am looking to start with cca 50k deposit.

thanks
More...

You'd be opening the account with IB LLC and thus you'd be offered the same security as all clients.

The only restrictions on withdrawing funds would be that they must be made to the same name of the account holder. There are some minor restrictions on timing related to incoming funds and withdrawing them within a few days of deposit (reason being protection against fraud, AML and the like)

withdrawals:
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=funding&p=cash1

security:
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/whyib/PDF-RiskManagement.php

http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=ibgStrength
(read the tabs: Financial Strength
Account Protection
Login Protection
Privacy
FAQs)

The Strength and Security FAQs would probably interest you most. Topics under that link are:

Strength & Security FAQs

Financial Strength

How does IB protect my money?

How is Interactive Brokers doing itself, and how does that affect me?

How much exposure does IB have to a single bank?

Could IB's market making affiliate, Timber Hill LLC, suffer big losses and could that endanger my account?

Can IB prevent me from withdrawing money?

What other steps does IB take to protect itself and to protect me?

Anything else you want to tell me?
 
Cool! thanks for prompt response.

what about account currency. What are options USD only ?

Any interest on deposit ?

Reading that counterparty for futres or options is IB. Regarding stops... Can IB trade outside published transactions for stocks or SP futures ? I mean stop or margin limit chasing ? Can IB high or low of day be different from what can one see on say yahoo high/low ?

and while at it... What happens when some stocks trade at near zero, as seen on couple of occasions when stock bought on margin and price moves from 70 to 2 or so for couple of ticks...
 
Quote from def:

Is your size less than $25,000? If so, that would explain your observation. For sizes greater than $25,000 that will not be an issue.
More...

my size is always 100k for about 12 pairs.

i tried limit, REL orders, same issue,..
 
Quote from Hurricane:

Some months I'm over $1B in forex trading and get a reduced commission. Last month hit $2B and got a further commission break. But individual trade size is rarely > $5M so slippage hasn't been a problem. Lots of medium size trades.

As I mentioned, I haven't used any other broker . . . or platform for that matter. I can understand others concerns and expect I would readily see TWS platform faults if I used something else. But I'm doing fine as is and don't want to rock the boat trying anything else.

But my main point is IB does exactly what you tell them to do very well and very cheaply.
More...


WOW a turnover of your side is just to much even for myself. I mean 1 Billion and even 2 Billion turnover for 21 trading days equals a daily turnover of 47 600 000 millions (for 1 billion) and 95 200 000 millions (for 2 Billions).

Your account must be measured in few millions comparing to your trading size,even if you use the maximum leverage still you need some millions in your account

My daily turnover on average is not greater than 1-1.5 Millions.
 
wow, someone revived my first post when I came back to ET and started trading again. Now that I have been at it 3 months I know everything there is to know. Never have figured out how to use fxtrader, I just set up everything like I did when I was trading futures on tws.

As far as splitting the bid/ask, on Sunday night the fx spreads are still very wide. If you want to get in you can just split it, but still, my bid is never going to get hit until it matches your ask. How could it ever be otherwise? I don't care if you are trading fx or ES, no trade gets filled until the buyer and seller agree on a price.

For a second there I was the best bid, the ask came down and hit me, now all the bids are still way down there and the ask may have moved lower or back up or stayed at my bid price.

If you're saying that your bid just sits there and doesn't get filled until the ask moves all the way down to the lower bids, then yes, that would be a problem. But if someone wants to sell 1m and you're sitting in the middle with 100k, then yes the ask will move down and he sells 900k to the lower bid and a 100k to you at the best price.
 
but getting back to fx at IB. If you have experience trading futures, you can just set up an fx page exactly the same. The only difference is no calandar or contract size to worry about. For instance if 125k is too small but 250k is too large you can just trade 175k or whatever. Everything else is just the same. Except according to IB a new session starts at 17:00 est and all pnl in tws is reset to zero. Except for trades made after 00:00 which are reset the following 00:00. And then they are re reset at 17:00. Makes it a little difficult if you hold overnight because the only other way to know where you stand is to check the account window (which I keep open all the time) but it only updates every few minutes. In forex it is not uncommon for the big move to take place and return faster than your account window updates. I had a problem with my account window one time and the IB tech support told me I should write everything down. If you think waiting 2 minutes for a computer to update is slow, you should see me with a ball point pen, a spiral notebook and a calculator.
 
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