Interactive Brokers customer support totally broken

[lawrence-lugar]

Any other brilliant theories?

Nothing ...just ...totally randomly, breaks down; I think someone got rich. (or hurt) on purpose,

This is a billion dollar brokerage...not an 80's Jaguar. Hiccups don't just happen.

But I could care less, I don't use them. Enjoy some good Breakdown music from 1993,..the year IB incorporated electronic trading.

 

[Overnight]

If you guys are doing just futures, try AMP. I'll vouch for them.

Stop the madness.

 

[Visaria]

Maintain another account at a different firm.

That said I don't actually have a back up account for options...must look into doing that.

 

[ET180]

No, not many bears left. At least not rich ones. All forging the steaks and are on ham sandwich diets.

Some people can't even log on. Others claim market data feed has problems, which isn't the end of the world as you can still transmit trade orders and find out data elsewhere, Google finance if you have to. For those in the former camp, the only option would be to call in to do trades over the phone.

But the problem with that is if you have very complex options combo positions. Or you don't even fully know exactly what positions you have on because you can't see it. Really cumbersome explaining that to the agent.

"Yeah I'd like to open a 2700-2740-2760-2800 iron condor expiring next week, what price can you get me? Oh but lets close out the 2740 Feb & March calendar spread early. And now sell another 2700-2600 march put spread to replace the one expiring today. Oh and...."

Also, some people put on a new trade, or close a trade, right near the market close within the last 5 minutes to maintain continuity. You can't do that over the phone effectively.

I was able to see all my positions. I even had a daily P&L update in the IB mobile app. In that situation though, you wouldn't be opening new positions. One would just be closing out risk that cannot wait until Monday.

Maintain another account at a different firm.

That said I don't actually have a back up account for options...must look into doing that.

That's less than ideal. For example, someone might be able to meet the portfolio margin requirements if they had all their capital in one account. However, if they split it across two accounts, they might not have portfolio margin. May also get better interest rates, breaks on data fees, and lower commissions via more trades in one account vs. spread across two. Ideally, I'd like to have everything in one account.

I haven't seen an outage like this before at IB. Hopefully this will be rare going forward.

 

[Visaria]

Open an acct elsewhere which only requires a small deposit to maintain or preferably none. Only use in case of emergency.

That's less than ideal. For example, someone might be able to meet the portfolio margin requirements if they had all their capital in one account. However, if they split it across two accounts, they might not have portfolio margin. May also get better interest rates, breaks on data fees, and lower commissions via more trades in one account vs. spread across two. Ideally, I'd like to have everything in one account.

 

[themickey]

95% of all moaning regarding broker issues is IB, rarely hear anything negative re other brokers, but y' gets wots y' pays for, that's it in a nutshell, pay in peanuts and y' get monkeys.
What were you hoping for, a Rolls Royce?
You've bought into is a vagina nose Ford Edsel.
http://time.com/4723114/50-worst-cars-of-all-time/

 

[Visaria]

The reality is that IB is the most popular broker out there and you're gonna hear more complaints than you do with other less popular brokers.

 

[ET180]

Open an acct elsewhere which only requires a small deposit to maintain or preferably none. Only use in case of emergency.

How would that work? Say I have $10,000 with one broker and I'm short volatility. It's been a profitable trade for a while, but one day volatility explodes and that broker goes offline. I have $1000 with another broker that is online. How the hell do I offset the $10,000 short volatility position with only $1000 at the another broker? It's not practical. Meanwhile, if I had an $11,000 account with the first broker instead of a $10,000 account, I'd be less likely to get liquidated on a margin call.

 

[FSU]

How would that work? Say I have $10,000 with one broker and I'm short volatility. It's been a profitable trade for a while, but one day volatility explodes and that broker goes offline. I have $1000 with another broker that is online. How the hell do I offset the $10,000 short volatility position with only $1000 at the another broker? It's not practical. Meanwhile, if I had an $11,000 account with the first broker instead of a $10,000 account, I'd be less likely to get liquidated on a margin call.

Exactly. And if you had the opposite positon it would be even harder. Say you had 10,000 with your main broker and bought 10 SPX calls/puts for 1. To hedge them with another broker you would have to go short them which would require about $300,000 worth of equity in the other account.

 

[Visaria]

First of all, surely u aren't putting all your assets with a single broker? I mean, you should only keep the minimum that you need for margin plus a cushion so you don't face auto liq if it came to it. I sure as hell don't stick my entire net worth into IB!

Assuming that's the case, then with the emergency broker, you should be able to upload funds from your bank acct if required.