m_c_a,
Why wouldn't you want to go to a professional firm? It's like asking, I already drive a Ford Taurus, are you sure I'd rather have a Ferrari for the same price?
I have been pro for years, I would never go non-pro, to any firm.
Does IB have conversions? Pro firms do.
Does IB have bullets? Pro firms do.
Does IB have good software with level 2? Not from what I have heard.
Does IB have the ability to spray multiple orders? For example, you have $25K in your account and you are long 1000 shares of AOL, you put a sell limit at the bid and the bid disappears. You know you won't get filled, and want to enter a lower limit order. You are tapped on margin and must wait for the cancel to get processed, what, maybe 45 seconds with the AOL specialist, before you can enter another order. At a pro firm you can send the next order before your cancel comes back. And if you think it is going to keep going, say Greenspan is speaking and Spu's are tanking, with a pro firm you can get an electronic fill on 2000 bullets and send two market sell orders (short the downtick, can't do that at IB) and get short 2000 shares. All these orders can be placed at the same time, no waiting for margin to get calculated.
I don't know of anyone who has gone from trading professionally to going to an IB account. Trading pro is like a drug, once you see the difference it makes to your bottom line, you will be hooked. Pro traders, if they don't like the firm they are with, only shop for another pro firm. We don't even consider non-pro firms anymore.
Eddie
Why wouldn't you want to go to a professional firm? It's like asking, I already drive a Ford Taurus, are you sure I'd rather have a Ferrari for the same price?
I have been pro for years, I would never go non-pro, to any firm.
Does IB have conversions? Pro firms do.
Does IB have bullets? Pro firms do.
Does IB have good software with level 2? Not from what I have heard.
Does IB have the ability to spray multiple orders? For example, you have $25K in your account and you are long 1000 shares of AOL, you put a sell limit at the bid and the bid disappears. You know you won't get filled, and want to enter a lower limit order. You are tapped on margin and must wait for the cancel to get processed, what, maybe 45 seconds with the AOL specialist, before you can enter another order. At a pro firm you can send the next order before your cancel comes back. And if you think it is going to keep going, say Greenspan is speaking and Spu's are tanking, with a pro firm you can get an electronic fill on 2000 bullets and send two market sell orders (short the downtick, can't do that at IB) and get short 2000 shares. All these orders can be placed at the same time, no waiting for margin to get calculated.
I don't know of anyone who has gone from trading professionally to going to an IB account. Trading pro is like a drug, once you see the difference it makes to your bottom line, you will be hooked. Pro traders, if they don't like the firm they are with, only shop for another pro firm. We don't even consider non-pro firms anymore.
Eddie
point is pitfalls around earnings and pre-
).