IB: How to protect yourself from any unexpected execution or position

Sometimes things don't show up for hours. What can you do then?
I had a long ZF trade going one morning with a target price entered. about 11AM my target gets hit, I check the log, everything OK, I check my PL, A-OK, I go to work, get home 8 hours later, and my PL shows NEG $600. WHAT!
Make the calls, get the standard "you did it" did some research, called gain, called again, wrote an e-mail, called again, got a couple canned responses, finally, I get "physicals can not be delivered, your position was closed by us since you can not have a physical delivery." So my target turned into a sell(short) not 30 seconds after they closed my position, yet I double triple checked and it wasn't there.
Take a week and read the fine print, then realize you are screwed no mater what.
 
Quote from sellingrich:

Sometimes things don't show up for hours. What can you do then?
I had a long ZF trade going one morning with a target price entered. about 11AM my target gets hit, I check the log, everything OK, I check my PL, A-OK, I go to work, get home 8 hours later, and my PL shows NEG $600. WHAT!
Make the calls, get the standard "you did it" did some research, called gain, called again, wrote an e-mail, called again, got a couple canned responses, finally, I get "physicals can not be delivered, your position was closed by us since you can not have a physical delivery." So my target turned into a sell(short) not 30 seconds after they closed my position, yet I double triple checked and it wasn't there.
Take a week and read the fine print, then realize you are screwed no mater what.
More...
Ah, yet another satisfied IB customer. :p

Come on guys, what are any of you expecting at this point? :confused:

Good um luck,

JJ
 
Quote from sellingrich:

Sometimes things don't show up for hours. What can you do then?
I had a long ZF trade going one morning with a target price entered. about 11AM my target gets hit, I check the log, everything OK, I check my PL, A-OK, I go to work, get home 8 hours later, and my PL shows NEG $600. WHAT!
Make the calls, get the standard "you did it" did some research, called gain, called again, wrote an e-mail, called again, got a couple canned responses, finally, I get "physicals can not be delivered, your position was closed by us since you can not have a physical delivery." So my target turned into a sell(short) not 30 seconds after they closed my position, yet I double triple checked and it wasn't there.
Take a week and read the fine print, then realize you are screwed no mater what.
More...

OK, so bottomline is you didn't know the specifications of the contract you were trading. Evidently you owned it on first delivery date. So you were closed out.

Now, I would have had an argument with them if that were the case and then they allowed another opening trade to be made. When I try to trade a contract too late in the cycle the system blocks me.

But I'm wondering how they closed you out, and your log said "everything was OK".

OldTrader
 
Quote from Businessman:

If there was an unexpected position in my account then i would look for the execution report that created the positon. If it looked like that execution was a 'phantom' order based on someting i could have submitted then i would close out the position and look at my audit logs to see what happened.
If there was no execution report i would look at my account statement from yesterday. If i still could not find anything then i would not close the position myself before calling IB.

If it was a completely unknown position eg a symbol ive never traded. Then even with an execution report i would still not attempt to close it.
More...

Good ideas. Well-thought.
I think this is the best of what we can when we meet such a misfortune.
 
It happens all the time...

What usually happens is that a broker server loses its connection with the exchange servers (or whatever the techie terms is), then the orders that have left the broker but have not been received by the exchange have to be dealt with.

A customer may see this as a stuck trade. Or maybe a trade that vanishes into thin air. Sometime the broker may make the orders vanish from your screen, but it is still a live order. When the order fills they assign it to you (if it is a loser) and then they wait for you to protest.

If you want to be sure about trades, always call and status it if it is "stuck" or "vanishes" etc... If they give you an out on the trade you are good to go, just note the anme and time of the person you spoke with in case they have to pull the recording.

Hope it helps someone...
:)
 
very simple..just have a cash loss limit to not get hit too hard...I.E. can only lose $300 etc...can not get hit harder than that...easy...
 
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