Dam IB logged off 3 times...

Quote from def:

scientist,
you are way off, you've just insulted the numerous people at the firm whom i'd consider more intelligent than me. i must admit, though while you guys test me often, i normally have no problem keeping my cool outside of trading hours. However, since you're doing it now forgive me as I say that for someone claiming to be so smart, you should know your comment is asinine.
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More intelligent? Friendlier? I remember when I changed my broker to IB, it took them several months for a transfer from my savings account into my IB account. The money was floating around in cyberspace, and IB was very, very uncooperative about helping me with the issue. At the time, we were talking about over $100K, which I had no real idea where they were, I could not trade for several months and IB was behaving like a bunch of bastards about it, until a few months later they figured what was going on. And it wasn't until I got very loud at the management that they even bothered doing anything. This was my first impression of IB. Also, if you ever want to call IB to close out a position during a server-crash, you're likely to wait 20 minutes until anybody picks up the phone, and then it takes another 5 minutes of ardous identity procedure to get them to act. Anybody knows this about IB. This is why I haven't traded that much with IB at all, it's primary purpose is hedging and testing a few things. Let's face it, def, IB is operated by a handful of cyborgs and you know it.

My comments I just made in the post you replied to were very well-meant indeed. If you want me to go into an offensive, with more details about other things, or start an entire thread here about IB, to collect other people's experiences as well, you're very welcome, I'll do that for you. But then don't say I haven't warned you.

in any event, you state that you had one bad week. outside of this past week I think we've done pretty well and even with the short amount of time that some of our connections were down, I still believe our reliability stands up well to most firms. thus again i believe your comments are way off the mark. good luck where ever you end up and to be fair, I'm sure you'll make a point of posting if and when you lose your connection to them.
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In any event, I had "one bad week". def, I am a scalper. I cannot have one bad week, day, or hour.

Regarding comments about other brokers - I haven't had any bad experiences yet - But I'll make sure they be heard here when they occur! I have nothing personally against IB whatsoever, I still have account with them, I am just stating my state of experiences.

I am being just, I have in the past, even very recently, strongly defended IB here when they were unjustifyable attacked by people for issues such as wire transfer security. I'm sure you'll remember it well. Just as I will defend in injustice, I will offend if the reasons are valid.

finally, if you want to discuss fees, think about two things: first, i assume we'll make a statement soon and i'm sure we'll make our mark. second, given most of the firms offering a cheaper fee don't self-clear, don't own their software and aren't nearly as efficient as we are, think about who will remain in business or will be able to maintain their current fee structures after the current price wars.
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"Soon" is always a good word. You guys were leaders for years, always the first to announce rock-bottom rates. You shouldn't be coming out with new rates "soon" or "now", but "yesterday". When did you start being slower than the competition?

Regarding the "current price wars": Well, all we can expect for now is cheaper and cheaper rates. There is the Eurex coming to Chicago and other things. It will be a fun few rounds of mud wrestling and heavy fire. Make sure you position yourself well before the action starts.

Talking about offensive and defensive here (both of which you are in your reply) - Stop all of this now and go into initiative instead!

If you don't take initiative, your clients will. Namely start an exodus. And then, all your self-reliance & efficiency won't help you.

Scientist.
 
Quote from H2O:

And adding to this,

IB is still the ONLY broker I know of that offers
- Multicurrency accounts for all products (not just futures)
- These accounts are SIPC insured (even if you only trade futures)

This might not be a problems for people living in the USA but think about European traders (like me)

- If I put 100K USD in a trading account and within months the EUR / USD has been rising from 0.80 to 1.20 (50%) that would have cost me €33K !!!!!
- If I put 100K in an account I don't want to lose it because of financial problems on my brokrs / clearing firms side. This might not be a problem if you have an account with 5K.....but think about it. IB accounts have SIPC and a very stable firm.

As for disconnection problems, I'm on the Swiss servers and I haven't had disconnections for a while... This doesn't say that IB should be fixing any problems on THEIR side. As I said before : Trading is not some kind of game.

Commissions : I'm very glad with Def's : "first, i assume we'll make a statement soon and i'm sure we'll make our mark. "
:)

Improvements for IB :
- Let people access more symbols than 40. (Make something like a minimum commission or else you have to pay so no bandwidth is wasted)
- Create 'Spread-Orders' . Buy(sell) XXX and Sell(buy) YYY if XXX - YYY (or XXX / YYY or XXX + YYY) has a certain value.
- I don't like to work with 3rd party software (Other than my own excel) and I heard a lot of people like to trade from a 'Dome' kind of trading ladder.

Just my thoughts...
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Agree in all points. Very good points. There are advantages to being with IB, such as account insurance, and of course the multi-currency, multi-country, multi-issue universal accounts.

All of this stands in favor to IB, and are main, if only reasons to stay with them.

Let's hope that they get a grip on all the other issues as well asap.

I am glad to imagine IB is prepared to set a new milestone in comms rates soon.
The order of <$3.00 /RT for futures wouldn't be bad. After all, there are now much less efficient brokers offering similar rates.

As an exchange seat lessee with CME, I can get comms in the order of $1.40-$0.80 /RT flat.
And this with not even self-clearing brokers. How much profit does IB make at $4.80 /RT?

Let's well hope IB is less concerned about losing a few (hundred) million in net profits than about losing their leading role / pants.

Scientist.
 
Quote from Scientist:

I think IB should stop defending themselves, shut up and put some money into serious upgrading of server reliability, redundancy and updating of trading rates.

This is well-meant and very sincere. If they don't, they will get the bill sooner or later. Traders are very impatient fellows. They only have to lose a couple of K or opportunities a few times and they'll run away and get the next best deal. After all, there's plenty out there now. And once a bad experience with a broker sticks, they'll never go back. That's a client lost for lifetime. To top it all off you get some bad propaganda, too. And never underestimate the impact of propaganda in a word-of-mouth community like that of trader's.
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Scientist, I often think you are full of ****, but these comments are on the money. :)

Even one significant disconnection per week during active trading hours is one too many. Connection and platform reliability is a legitimate basis on which to judge a broker, and disconnections should not just be considered a "feature" of online trading that customers should be expected to swallow without comment.
 
Quote from franklin:

Scientist, I often think you are full of ****, but these comments are on the money. :)
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Franklin, I appreciate your honesty. Everybody's darling is nobody's darling... :cool:

Even one significant disconnection per week during active trading hours is one too many. Connection and platform reliability is a legitimate basis on which to judge a broker, and disconnections should not just be considered a "feature" of online trading that customers should be expected to swallow without comment.
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One word: AMEN. :mad:
 
scientist,
re-read my comments this AM and i did come across a bit harsh but i thought you were off the mark in regards to your blanket description of the people. i appreciate the comments related to me but if you look at the big picture, it's hard not to envision a group of highly dedicated and intelligent people behind the scenes. but since you made the comments, others probably feel the same way and I'll make a point of bringing them to the attention to the senior managers.

i'd concede that you are right. we should be striving and do strive for 100% connectivity. However, there are so many variables that we aren't in control of once you go beyond our office. nevertheless, we'll continue to place large resources towards that elusive goal.

web site - and my comment about trying a search on packet loss: you don't need to know that specific comment. Under help there are a large number of FAQ's and one of them is on technical issues.
 
Quote from def:

scientist,
you are way off, you've just insulted the numerous people at the firm whom i'd consider more intelligent than me. i must admit, though while you guys test me often, i normally have no problem keeping my cool outside of trading hours. However, since you're doing it now forgive me as I say that for someone claiming to be so smart, you should know your comment is asinine.

in any event, you state that you had one bad week. outside of this past week I think we've done pretty well and even with the short amount of time that some of our connections were down, I still believe our reliability stands up well to most firms. thus again i believe your comments are way off the mark. good luck where ever you end up and to be fair, I'm sure you'll make a point of posting if and when you lose your connection to them.

finally, if you want to discuss fees, think about two things: first, i assume we'll make a statement soon and i'm sure we'll make our mark. second, given most of the firms offering a cheaper fee don't self-clear, don't own their software and aren't nearly as efficient as we are, think about who will remain in business or will be able to maintain their current fee structures after the current price wars.
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Agreed.
Thanks again Def, for all the help & posts.
IB's probs (very slight ones) this week cost me good money....but just do as well as you guys have for the last 18months, & I'm there for life.

Sure hope you never stop posting- you are a huge help!
 
Quote from def:

scientist,
re-read my comments this AM and i did come across a bit harsh but i thought you were off the mark in regards to your blanket description of the people. i appreciate the comments related to me but if you look at the big picture, it's hard not to envision a group of highly dedicated and intelligent people behind the scenes. but since you made the comments, others probably feel the same way and I'll make a point of bringing them to the attention to the senior managers.

i'd concede that you are right. we should be striving and do strive for 100% connectivity. However, there are so many variables that we aren't in control of once you go beyond our office. nevertheless, we'll continue to place large resources towards that elusive goal.

web site - and my comment about trying a search on packet loss: you don't need to know that specific comment. Under help there are a large number of FAQ's and one of them is on technical issues.
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Thanks, def. A good deal of commitment is a good start. I think most of us here hope you can keep the promise!
Besides, I don't think I doubted the intelligence of IB staff. Sure they're intelligent and dedicated. But so are the borg.
What I really meant is maybe a bit too dedicated - I.e. understaffed / not exactly redundant.

Regards,
Scientist.
 
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