Quote from cscott:
Jesus! InteractiveBrokers TWS platform goes out more often than a Vegas call girl!... and I'm not kidding.
Can anyone recommend another broker that:
1) handles similar products
2) answers phones 24 hours
3) has a reliable platform and server
4) has an easy-to-understand profit and loss statement (unlike IB's)
Suggestions are appreciated. (No IB shills, please)
First of all, my experience has been that IB's platform has been very highly reliable, with very rare exceptions, and other IB customers routinely acknowledge this fact on EliteTrader.
Second, IB, unlike so many other brokers, doesn't use shills. IB doesn't need shills. This is because IB has employees who directly communicate with the public on EliteTrader, instead of masquerading as happy customers. IB's reputation also benefits from genuine customers, like myself, who are willing to share their positive and negative experiences.
Third, I believe that the starter of this thread had a hidden agenda. If his agenda were truly as stated, to find info on brokers other than IB, then he would have entitled the thread in such a way as to focus attention on his inquiry. The thread title, and the first sentence of its first post, are instead focused on damaging IB's reputation, in a way which does nothing to promote the pretended agenda of finding information about other brokers. I submit that the sole purpose of this thread was to damage IB's reputation, and that the request for information about alternatives was nothing more than a cover story.
If this person had been knowledgeable enough to evaluate IB's quality and to render any sort of opinion about it, then he wouldn't have needed to start this thread to request info about IB's competitors, since he would have already known what was available. The person who started this thread made only one other EliteTrader post, prior to starting this thread, and that post was completely devoid of any substantial content which might suggest that this person was actually a trader. I think this person's first post was actually made for the purpose of establishing his cover as a pretended IB customer, so that he could then damage the company's reputation with bogus criticism.
I think it was also entirely unfair for him to use this thread, and it's title, in order to criticize IB, while simultaneously requesting that nobody attempt to respond with an opposing viewpoint.
Experienced EliteTrader members have seen hundreds of threads like this one, coming from obvious shills who have no substantial prior history of contributing to ET, and who start their thread by knocking a particular company, usually IB, and then camouflage their motives and loyalties by asking for info about competitors.
My conclusion is that this person was never a customer of IB, and that this person is actually shilling for an IB competitor. If he disputes this accusation, then I would challenge him to provide proof that he is an IB customer. If he does provide proof, then I would apologize for jumping to the wrong conclusion. It would not be the first time I was wrong.
