Did I get screwed by IB today ?

Quote from chrismontez:

"we think that such posts are contrary to our interests as customers of IB"

Where does this come from???? I've been with them for 5 years and as far as I'm concerned the more criticism they hear the better. Maybe they will put an effort into improving things, especially now that they are publicly traded. I pay them thousands of dollars in fees and expect reliable service for their fees. For instance, this week alone I had to deal with them twice because I had not been given accurate information. Money I was told would be in my settled cash account in 3 days and available for trading took 5 days because they did not tell me that the banking dept would be closed on Columbus Day and although the $ was there on Tuesday, your buying power is based on the excess liquidity at the previous day's closing. They should have told me that when I 1st asked when the $ would be available. I was also told I could trade debit spreads in an IRA account I recently set up. But after buying the long positions, I couldn't execute the shorts. It turns out I had to apply to upgrade apply for trading permission to do spreads. Not being given full information upfront cost me $$ in both instances.

Now if you are holding IB stock I can understand your concern about criticism. Being just a customer, I think the more they hear the better.
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No, your suggestion that I hold IB stock is incorrect. I have never held any position whatsoever in IB stock. I want IB to receive constructive criticism, in order to facilitate continual improvement, but I don't want to see IB receive unfair and destructive criticism. The title of this thread is unfair and destructive. It harms my interests, not because I am a stockholder, but because I am a customer.

IB is imperfect, but the reason you stay at IB, and you keep complaining, is that you can't do better anywhere else. If you first accept the reality that IB is your best alternative, then you will be better prepared to offer criticism in a constructive and fair and respectful manner, as a way to help IB improve.
 
I'm not suggesting you own stock or not. As a stock holder I would only want to hear customers rave it up as such a wonderful company so other's would invest . As a customer, I'm more interested in seeing what problems other customers have so maybe I can avoid getting in the same situation. My only reason for posting was to point out that I am one customer who doesn't think such postings as the original thread are contrary to my best interest.

I realize IB is the jiffy lube of brokerage firms and you get what you pay for. But I think there could still be some serious effort to have employees trained enough that they can give out accurate answers regarding IB's policies and procedures on transactions, setting up accounts, margin requirements etc... If you don't think that is a constructive criticism, I'm glad we are not in business together.
 
Quote from chrismontez:

I'm not suggesting you own stock or not. As a stock holder I would only want to hear customers rave it up as such a wonderful company so other's would invest . As a customer, I'm more interested in seeing what problems other customers have so maybe I can avoid getting in the same situation. My only reason for posting was to point out that I am one customer who doesn't think such postings as the original thread are contrary to my best interest.

I realize IB is the jiffy lube of brokerage firms and you get what you pay for. But I think there could still be some serious effort to have employees trained enough that they can give out accurate answers regarding IB's policies and procedures on transactions, setting up accounts, margin requirements etc... If you don't think that is a constructive criticism, I'm glad we are not in business together.
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Chris:

The point seems to elude you. The title of this thread is "Did I Get Screwed By IB Today"? The original poster then goes on to talk about his stop orders, etc etc. Come to find out, he did not know how stop orders on IB worked, simply because he had not read the User Manual. Now, that has nothing to do with IB. That has to do with yet another accusatory thread about IB.

So when you make the statement "I am one customer who doesn't think such postings as the original thread are contrary to my best interest.", you imply that any statement whatsoever about IB, accurate or not, fair or not, somehow benefits you. That somehow trashing IB's reputation is open game, and will benefit you and other concerned customers.

Just so you know, I don't think inaccuracy, lack of fairness, lack of personal responsibility is ever appropriate, refarding IB or anything else. By the way, your post borders an unwillingness to take personal responsibility for you own circumstances. I mean I suppose IB might have told you it was a banking holiday on Columbus day, or perhaps they might have told you....oh by the way Chris, sign up for the trading right to trade spreads. They might have Chris....but then again, it might not have been out of the realm of possiblity that you might have been expected to be informed of holidays and how your TWS system works. I mean, it is your business isn't it?

Either way, when a title opens the possibility that IB screwed someone....I expect to read about how IB did that. Instead, what I read was about how this guy didn't read the manual, and therefore didn't know how his stop order was going to work. That is only HIS problem Chris. Hope you see the distinction.

OldTrader
 
Quote from OldTrader:



Either way, when a title opens the possibility that IB screwed someone....I expect to read about how IB did that. Instead, what I read was about how this guy didn't read the manual, and therefore didn't know how his stop order was going to work. That is only HIS problem Chris. Hope you see the distinction.

OldTrader
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But again, that's why the OP was asking if he got screwed by IB today. The fact he did not know for sure if it was an exchange rule or any other option out there led him to believe he might be screwed by IB.

And I would agree with Tums, there's just tons of IB fanboys that would jump at every opportunity they get when someone criticizes IB. I got blasted by posters here when I complained IB reset my temp passcode within 5 calendar days when I was told a passcode works for 7 calendar days. I am however happy that someone from IB private messaged me and offered to help to which I'm very grateful of.

In the eyes of these guys, IB can do no wrong. Just look at the brokerage reviews and you know who the fanboys are. Quite sad and pathetic although i'm starting to believe they're on the payroll or maybe IB only charges them .003/share in commissions.

Other than that, I can't figure out why anyone would go to great lengths to defend a broker. I love IB but only because they're the best out there for me but I sure as hell won't go around defending every negative post against IB. I'm too busy living a real life.
 
Quote from polpolik:


Other than that, I can't figure out why anyone would go to great lengths to defend a broker. I love IB but only because they're the best out there for me but I sure as hell won't go around defending every negative post against IB. I'm too busy living a real life.
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Maybe this will help you out. I've been trading for approximately 40 years. I've had accounts had a very large numbers of brokers. In fact, I started as a broker with one of the major investment firms at the time.

I believe that IB is the best broker I have dealt with. So I'm more than comfortable in coming to their defense when I read posts on here accusing IB of one thing or another, when in fact the problem has to do typically with the poster.

Several years back we used to get post after post regarding a stop not triggering in after hours. The IB Screwed me type of post. You know what the problem was? They hadn't checked the box in TWS that allowed triggering in after hours.

I've come to believe that it's all part of the lack of personal accountability that seems to be a factor in many of the younger traders that post here. They are quick to point the finger in a different direction when something doesn't work quite right, and often that is IB. When I see that I'm going to defend IB, because it's the right thing to do, and because if someone doesn't do it, these errant posts have the possibility of incorrectly costing IB business.

OldTrader
 
one guy paid $50 commission charged by IB to buy $3000 worth of stock via Amex.

that comission is more than retail bank.

IB makes a majority of it's profit via the SPREAD as a market maker.

when you sell to them they hike up the price
whey you buy from them they lower the price.

cause that is their 'business'

just remember that IB and most of brokers make markets as there source of revenue.

and one thing IB charting software and trading software doesn't work for some features...and they don't care if it doesn't work.

don't bother with automated features or programming trading with these clown market makers...

I had good impression of IB before but after dealing with these amateur brokers,,it's just a two broker mediocre at best and surely not for amateurs who can get ripped off easily.. trading against the client is how they make money and their computers are programmed to trade that way.

remember your broker knows your position it's all recorded for insider information purposes. the brokers have inisde information.







Quote from I$land:

Very long, I know, but trust me you will probably learn something very valuable that could save you lots of money. Read on...

I usually get good fills on my stop-losses but today I got horrible exit sell prices on both of my trades.

This is what happened on both of my trades :

I was watching price go below my stop-loss price and my order did not trigger. Prices where staying near and below my stop-loss price and then went further down without my stop-loss ever being filled. Eventually it did get filled a big 0.10-11$ cents below ! I usually get out at 0.01-0.03$ from my stop price. It's not like prices crashed and I got hurt because of slippage, no it's just seems the order was not being executed.

I contacted IB's tech support by chat and big surprise the guy said it was a normal execution (yeah, right...). I have looked at the T&S and noticed there was plenty of time for my order to get filled at a better price since prices stayed just below my stop price long enough. After more than an hour, the tech guy told me it was normal my stop was not triggered before because of the way the default stop trigger behavior is handled for NASDAQ stocks.

Default behavior :
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/php/webhelp/webhelp.htm#Making_Trades/trigger.htm

For NASDAQ stocks (NMS, Small Cap, OTC) and US options, the default trigger method is the double bid/ask method, where two consecutive ask price (bid price) values must be less than (greater than) or equal to the trigger price, and the second bid or ask must have greater size if it is at the same price level as the first bid or ask.

For CASH contracts, the default trigger method is bid/ask, where the ask price (bid price) value must be less than (greater than) or equal to the trigger price.

For all other contracts, the default trigger method is the Last method, described below.

----

Seems like LAST price was not used which would explain why my stop was not triggered !

This is all very fishy and I can't believe this happened for 2 trades today. What are the chances ?

How can I prove they were responsible for my losses because of the horrible & abnormal fills ?
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"it might not have been out of the realm of possiblity that you might have been expected to be informed of holidays and how your TWS system works. I mean, it is your business isn't it?

True, true, true, true and I must say that dealing with IB over the years has taught me the necessity of knowing every aspect of the trading game since I have hardly ever been able to get accurate information from them. And if I had been living back in states instead of here in Canada I probably would have known it was a US banking holiday. I didn't start the post and wouldn't have initiated one to complain about IB. But if they read these at all maybe they will see room for improvement. Maybe when I've been at it long enough to call myself "Old Trader" I won't need to ask them questions. But at this stage of the game, there are things I find I need to ask a broker about and getting correct answers is important, especially when sometimes I just don't understand the manual.

Hey at least I got a better undrestanding of how the stop loss system operates from this post.

Enough said.

What about them Patriots, Super Bowl champs again?
 
Quote from kiwi_trader:


I've been getting IB to fix a few little things recently but it involves an adult dialogue. This is a good board to start it from if its not getting answered from elsewhere but the extreme headlines don't help.
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Spare me you silly wanker, we all know that you work for IB did you send a little memo and ask then to change the font on the splash screen?

You seem to spend all your time posting comments to any question on IB. Get a life!
 
Baron told me that dont was a little boy who suffered obsessive delusions and a little paranoia ...

I guess he was right (seeing that I was removed from the negative one's ignore list :)).
 
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