How Safe are Interactive Brokers?

L

LordMelbury

I have been using IB (UK) for 4 years, i have tried many brokers over the years but i have found IB are the best in all departments, even customer services are very helpful since i moved from the US to the UK version.

I have an average of $250,000 lodged with them which i need for my trading.

Following the Bankruptcy of Refco and talk of maybe some big banks collapsing in the future i am starting to get worried.

Do i have anything to worry about re the safety of my money with Interactive Brokers?
 
Quote from LordMelbury:

I have been using IB (UK) for 4 years, i have tried many brokers over the years but i have found IB are the best in all departments, even customer services are very helpful since i moved from the US to the UK version.

I have an average of $250,000 lodged with them which i need for my trading.

Following the Bankruptcy of Refco and talk of maybe some big banks collapsing in the future i am starting to get worried.

Do i have anything to worry about re the safety of my money with Interactive Brokers?
More...

The first $70K is safe as they are FSA regulated in the UK. If your account is in joint names you will get double protection.

If you read the latest news on the IB website they claim to have client funds spread across various banks, so as to reduce risks of anyone bank failing..

http://individuals.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/about/ibgStrength.php?ib_entity=llc

There are no garantees except the first $70K, but at worst we get $70K back to reseed our trading accounts :p
 
IB is ranked number one almost every year for financial soundness by the NFA. They take cash on hand vs customer funds or something like that.

Anyway, futures aren't insured (at least here in the States), but one reason I have my funds with IB is for the security. I lost an account when another firm went under several years ago (Futureswise).
 
Quote from LordMelbury:

Do i have anything to worry about re the safety of my money with Interactive Brokers?
More...

How big was Refco? How many people would have said that Refco would go down?

If Refco could go down, is there another broker that couldn't? No.

Is IB the least likely to go down? Close enough.

Do you have anything to worry about? Yes. You have to worry about IB going down. Is it likely? No.

I finally switched to IB because I wanted to go to sleep knowing my funds up to $100K were protected by the Canadian government (CIPF). Businessman mentioned 'FSA' up to $70K in the U.K. Certainly no such protection exists in the U.S., as we saw during the Refco debacle.
 
Hi, traderNik, would you mind if I ask you a question?
Do you associate with IB in any way (except as a customer)?
You do not have to answer if you don’t want to.
Thanks.
 

IB is ranked number one almost every year for financial soundness by the NFA.


It is nice to know that.

Would you mind to post a URL link (or some thin else) to support your statement?
 
Quote from dabao91:

Hi, traderNik, would you mind if I ask you a question?
Do you associate with IB in any way (except as a customer)?
You do not have to answer if you don’t want to.
Thanks.
More...

No I don't mind at all. I have absolutely no association with IB in any way, other than as a customer. Furthermore, I hesitated to open an account with IB for at least 2 years, based (somewhat illogically) on what I read here.

I know that IB has its problems, mainly with their constant upgrades to TWS and the stability of the platform, and with the reactivity of customer service. My biggest fear is that an IB mistake or programming error will cost me money and it will be a 3 month process to get it back, if in fact I ever can, because I signed away the right to claim it. Having said that, I opened an account at IB because I started to realize that 8 times out of 10, the guys who post the IB bashing threads are actually incompetent and their problems were the result of their own errors.

Their data feed is not reliable enough to trade off of (IMO). The charting is not good. It is also free. If you can't afford a data feed for intraday trading, don't trade.

I am in Canada and my CS is located in Montreal. As I have said before, if you know how to talk to them, there is no problem at all. I have held in queue for a maximum of about 8 - 10 minutes for a CS rep. Not great but better than my telco. They aren't there to make you feel all warm inside. They don't give a f**k how you feel.

A quick search of my posts here will confirm (for anyone who cares, although I don't know why they would) that I have nothing to do with IB except as a customer.

I notice, after a search of your posts, that you spend a lot of time posting about IB. That's a bit odd. Do you work for a brokerage?
 
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