Interactive Brokers Group Bids For Refco's Futures Business

I'll bet (and I hope) that IB is not so much bidding for Refco as using a 'bid' as part of an aggressive push to attract fleeing Refco accounts.

Having the bid out there in the press generates a lot of free publicity - gets IB mentioned next to more well known names like GS, and serves to give the impression it has $$ to throw around.

In fact I would be concerned if IB actually won a bid. Think about it. IB has been tremendously successul building their business from the ground up. Seems they have 0.000% experience or expertise taking over and merging another, very different operation. Could lead to problems ...

Now as to being aggressive about attracting new customers well, that's all good, I guess.

Still, it would be kind of cool if IB could find a way to finagle a small desk for floor trades, that somehow could be entered/comingled with the universal accounts. Now that would be something ...
 
Quote from FredBloggs:

i think this speaks volumes about ib's approach to broking.

when will they learn that there is MUCH MUCH more to brokerage than low fees.

sure, we all want as low fees as possible, but whats the point if you cant get a reliable platform in the first place (notice another thread started today about ib bom not working on eurex)? poor customer service and an unreliable platform can cost you a lot more than the savings gained on low fees.

when will ib learn that the reason refco had 250k accounts was because they focused on reliability and service as well as competitive fees.
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Refco probably had a ton of dead accounts on their books from years of biz. Refco is an old school legacy biz that was headed for the rocks for years.
 
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