Interactive Brokers fails Risk Management 101

sprstpd · Jan 30, 2017

Sig said:
You're right, fire all your customers who nicely request that you explain your incoherent policies instead of perhaps looking at if the policies make sense. Great idea, if they dare point out that his royal highness is wearing no clothes they clearly have a less than ideal "attitude". While you're right, there are clearly a few good employees at IB, my impression is that most of them would be relieved if all their customers "went elsewhere", that's certainly the "attitude" I get from them.

I highly doubt you "nicely requested" anything given how you post on ET.

It is nice that you admitted there are some decent employees at IB though.

Sig · Jan 30, 2017

sprstpd said:
Amazing that you are such a prick. Sig is just spouting off calling people morons left and right. And then I say I wouldn't want him as a customer and then you call me demeaning. Please shove off.

I never said IB was perfect but IB's service is a major reason that I am profitable. And its customer service is not as bad as Sig makes it out to be.

I call IB's staff incompetent, and list two examples of that. I'm still waiting on your explanation for those two examples, by the way?

So far you've called me "retarded" and InfoTech a "prick", while studiously ignoring the very real issues that were brought up. Apparently we deserve this name calling because we pointed out your emperor has no clothes on? Again, don't you dare ask a company to explain a policy that doesn't make sense, that would be "attitude" and any good company would be better off without customers who ask hard questions, right?

Stay with IB, no one is trying to convert you to anything! If you're trading AAPL back and forth all day on a Reg-T account and never hit a glitch that requires you to interact with their "customer service" then it's probably great for you. By all means continue. "The lady doth protest too much, methinks"

sprstpd · Jan 30, 2017

Sig said:
So far you've called me "retarded" and InfoTech a "prick", while studiously ignoring the very real issues that were brought up.

Never called you retarded.

InfoTech is a prick for calling me demeaning when you were the one being demeaning. I call them as I see them

Not ignoring any issues, just giving my perspective on IB.

Chubbly · Jan 30, 2017

Zzzz1 said:
will you let go Mr MBA?

Just to put an end to your endless IB hate speech, your point on debit spreads is already wrong. What if the options are American-style? Are you still claiming that risk is ALWAYS limited?

Sounds like we need to send Sig with his special MBA in to re-structure the company. Goodness, MBA fart trying to piss in the shoes of a market veteran like Peterffy (you even spelled his name wrong, moron).

I had the same problem as Sig with IB charging more in margin than I could possibly lose on a debit spread. It wasn't a small amount either it was like 2-3x the amount. I was so baffled by it's stupidity.

I have called support a few times and I swore I would rather have my feet dipped in acid than call them again.

Zzzz1 · Jan 30, 2017

They are not a spreader's dream, i admit that.

Chubbly said:
I had the same problem as Sig with IB charging more in margin than I could possibly lose on a debit spread. It wasn't a small amount either it was like 2-3x the amount. I was so baffled by it's stupidity.

I have called support a few times and I swore I would rather have my feet dipped in acid than call them again.

Chubbly · Jan 31, 2017

Zzzz1 said:
They are not a spreader's dream, i admit that.

I only use IB for futures trading because I live in Canada. ToS Canada doesn't allow futures trading (or portfolio margin).
I tried RJO Canada but they wanted $15 per contract..... yes per contract! So 30$ commission to just get a spread on, $60 to do a IC. That is their way to discourage people selling deep OTM options I suppose.
I tried Advantage and they put me on a trading platform that was in beta and didn't tell me till I started finding weird bugs. Then when I tried to get my money out they wouldn't give it to me. I had to threaten them that I was going to SEC with a complaint before they would give me money. That was incredibly stressful.
I tried Tradestation and their customer service made IB's look good just to give you an comparison.......
So if anyone knows another futures broker for Canadians let me know

Zzzz1 · Jan 31, 2017

What does "I only use IB for futures trading because I live in Canada"? So you cannot trade currencies, stocks, options, ... with IB out of Canada?

Chubbly said:
I only use IB for futures trading because I live in Canada. ToS Canada doesn't allow futures trading (or portfolio margin).
I tried RJO Canada but they wanted $15 per contract..... yes per contract! So 30$ commission to just get a spread on, $60 to do a IC. That is their way to discourage people selling deep OTM options I suppose.
I tried Advantage and they put me on a trading platform that was in beta and didn't tell me till I started finding weird bugs. Then when I tried to get my money out they wouldn't give it to me. I had to threaten them that I was going to SEC with a complaint before they would give me money. That was incredibly stressful.
I tried Tradestation and their customer service made IB's look good just to give you an comparison.......
So if anyone knows another futures broker for Canadians let me know

Butterball · Jan 31, 2017

Happy to hear this. Feels good to have fewer leveraged volatility sellers endangering my broker.

luisHK · Jan 31, 2017

Chubbly said:
I tried Advantage and they put me on a trading platform that was in beta and didn't tell me till I started finding weird bugs. Then when I tried to get my money out they wouldn't give it to me. I had to threaten them that I was going to SEC with a complaint before they would give me money. That was incredibly stressful.

That's a serious issue, what was the reason they gave to hold on your money ?
Many overseas customers have had troubles getting withdrawals from TDameritrade btw, there are several complaints on the net.
As of IB's service, Hong Kong's service has a better name than other hotlines and they have a direct number for IB HK corporate accounts where I found the person on the line always very helpful, although his knowledge might be limited (no idea who and how is the back up if you have API issues ). Anyway no surprise the posters based in HK (Voly/Zzzz1 for one) are satisfied with IB's service, I was overall, although IB HK doesn't work too good for me as they don't allow CFDs.
Even if trading under a different IB entity than IB HK, one can still call the HK hotline during their opening hours.

Zzzz1 · Jan 31, 2017

I found their HK staff outstanding, not that they are the most knowledgeable but each time they promised to follow up they did and called me back after checking on certain issues with their US staff. Funny that they required me to personally come to their offices for ID check and "get to know your customer bs". Not sure this also applies to retail accounts as I opened an institutional one.

luisHK said:
That's a serious issue, what was the reason they gave to hold on your money ?
Many overseas customers have had troubles getting withdrawals from TDameritrade btw, there are several complaints on the net.
As of IB's service, Hong Kong's service has a better name than other hotlines and they have a direct number for IB HK corporate accounts where I found the person on the line always very helpful, although his knowledge might be limited (no idea who and how is the back up if you have API issues ). Anyway no surprise the posters based in HK (Voly/Zzzz1 for one) are satisfied with IB's service, I was overall, although IB HK doesn't work too good for me as they don't allow CFDs.
Even if trading under a different IB entity than IB HK, one can still call the HK hotline during their opening hours.