IB feedback

V

VicBee

I'm a Singapore resident trading US stocks (only). At this time I have accounts with TDA and Webull but looking for an alternative to at least Webull and maybe TDA if IB (for example) offers a better solution.

I don't do anything sophisticated - stocks only- and at this time only one that I day trade several times during trading and extended hours. The point is, my needs are ultra simple, yet I find unacceptable flaws with my existing platforms. What I'm looking for:
  1. 4:00 am to 8:00 pm trading
  2. The lowest cost to trade solution on the basis of high share price (USD500+) and relatively small numbers of shares traded (25-300), 2-3x a day.
  3. An easy to transfer interface with TradeLog, which I use for my US taxes
  4. An easy to use, intuitive platform interface
 
IB's UI is not intuitive at all. It's terrible actually. (You've to supplement it with a 3rd party platform.)
Their commission of 0.0035 is misleading. The actual price can range from 0.0035-0.01 per share.

For example, I was charged 0.97 and $1 for the buy/sell for 5 shares of CARV. But on DLPN, it was .37 & .55 on the buy/sell . It's pretty confusing how exactly they calculate other fees. But it seems to be much higher on some stocks than others.

The only good thing I can say about their commission structure is their 35 cents minimum order. If you have a small account or take very small size (100 shares or less) than it's much cheaper than brokers like tradezero that have a $1 minimum order.
 
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GotherL said:
IB's UI is not intuitive at all. It's terrible actually. (You've to supplement it with a 3rd party platform.)
Their commission of 0.0035 is misleading. The actual price can range from 0.0035-0.01 per share.

For example, I was charged 0.97 and $1 for the buy & sell side for 5 shares of CARV. But on DLPN, I bought 70 shares the commissions were only .37 & .55 on the buy/sell side. It's pretty confusing how they calculate other fees. But it seems to be much higher on some stocks than others.

The only good thing I can say about their commission structure is their 35 cents minimum order. If you have a small account or take very small size (100 shares or less) than it's much cheaper than brokers like tradezero that have a $1 minimum order.
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Depends on exchange and much more on whether you add or take liquidity.

Commissions are tiered, however with your small sizes you probably stay at the most expensive tier.

Trading is possible from 4am to 8pm on all the main ecns.

Personally i like the plattform tws, but i've been trading on it for 15 years. It hasnt changed much in that time. So if you grew up using nice looking, easy usable websites/apps you might have a hard time with tws.

But afaik you can also trade through their website.
 
Trading is possible from 4am to 8pm on all the main ecns.
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Actually I found it's not. TDA is 7 am to 8 pm, same with Fidelity or IB unless you get their Pro package for $10 a month.

Trading is often free if a US resident but TDA charges $7 per trade here in Singapore, which is pretty outrageous for a day trader.

What I mean by user friendliness and intuitive design is, for example, the ability on Webull's chart to click/hold the mouse button to move the chart right/left, up/down and use the wheel to increase/decrease size, something that TOS on TDA can't do. It's all "old school" buttons, sliders and pop-ups. On the other hand, Webull has no solution against spikes which compress and make the chart useless. I see that IB has a chart set up option that resolves these. Adding/removing/modifying alarms directly on the chart without having to go through menus and submenus is not something common either. Of course everyone gets used to a platform but it gets confusing and sometimes frustrating when using more than one.
 
VicBee said:
Actually I found it's not. TDA is 7 am to 8 pm, same with Fidelity or IB unless you get their Pro package for $10 a month.

Trading is often free if a US resident but TDA charges $7 per trade here in Singapore, which is pretty outrageous for a day trader.

What I mean by user friendliness and intuitive design is, for example, the ability on Webull's chart to click/hold the mouse button to move the chart right/left, up/down and use the wheel to increase/decrease size, something that TOS on TDA can't do. It's all "old school" buttons, sliders and pop-ups. On the other hand, Webull has no solution against spikes which compress and make the chart useless. I see that IB has a chart set up option that resolves these. Adding/removing/modifying alarms directly on the chart without having to go through menus and submenus is not something common either. Of course everyone gets used to a platform but it gets confusing and sometimes frustrating when using more than one.
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You just have to download the demo and see for yourself. Personally, I found IB charts to be of no use. They're ugly and difficult to handle. I liked webull charts way better. But nothing beats Tradingview charts.
 
Just looked at Tradingview...It looks great but wow, not cheap. $150 for basic account and $50/year for real-time NYSE and NASDAQ even with the free account... I do feel like I'm in a candy store and will try out the free account first to see what I'm really missing out!
 
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VicBee said:
Just looked at Tradingview...It looks great but wow, not cheap. $150 for basic account and $50/year for real-time NYSE and NASDAQ even with the free account...
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You can try out their monthly plan first? I believe they have a free trial for each plan.

https://www.tradingview.com/gopro/?share_your_love=Gotherl
I don't actually use tradingview myself but if you signup for a paid plan using my referral we both get $30 for tradingview. Might as well if you do that's like 2 months free.
 
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VicBee said:
will try out the free account first to see what I'm really missing out!
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Free account is just missing full data when you switch to a shorter timeframe all you see is a bunch of flat doji lines and no premarket data. It's ok if you just wanna trade off the 1h or daily.
 
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GotherL said:
You can try out their monthly plan first? I believe they have a free trial for each plan.

https://www.tradingview.com/gopro/?share_your_love=Gotherl
I don't actually use tradingview myself but if you signup for a paid plan using my referral we both get $30 for tradingview. Might as well if you do.
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Np, I will use your referral if I buy into it. I just spent the last hour on their free trial and yes, it's the best graphical interface I've seen so far, Webull on steroids. However, I have concerns about their Extended Hours data, which somehow doesn't show all the trades and looking at their various plans, it doesn't seem like it's any different regardless of the chosen plan.
 
VicBee said:
Np, I will use your referral if I buy into it. I just spent the last hour on their free trial and yes, it's the best graphical interface I've seen so far, Webull on steroids. However, I have concerns about their Extended Hours data, which somehow doesn't show all the trades and looking at their various plans, it doesn't seem like it's any different regardless of the chosen plan.
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Yes, I am not sure if it shows premarket in the early wee hrs 4am-6am. If that's what you need you should try their free trial first or confirm with someone who has a pro+ plan.

Did you turn on the option for extended hours in the settings?
 
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