Is IB really that bad?

dhpar · Feb 18, 2007

Quote from Bitstream:

i know i am right. there's no disputing it.
first time i noticed it was on an otcbb non-marginable position and negative accrued interested kept accumulating...same later and now with intc and c; both positions cost fully covered by what i have in my acct yet negative accrued interests keep accumulating day by day. just for this month it shows around -70 bucks for 400 shares and that's insane: around .4% a month in rates repayments for no reason.

tell u what, give it a try and buy a stock of your choice without using margins and keep it for a week or more and see what happens to your accrued interests.

Well, that looks very unlikely - do you think you could have a chat with IB and ask them to investigate your account problem + let us know your result if it relates to us as well? My bet is that negative accrued is coming from somewhere else in your account.

JackR · Feb 18, 2007

Quote from Bitstream:

both positions and all previous held overnite are long.

both postions are paid for in full [not margin] and still mucho money is available in the acct.

never held anything overnite besides the 2 original positions.

Bitstream:

Perhaps IB has a glitch in their software. Please follow-up in this thread when you get an explanation (and hopefully a refund).

Jack

Bitstream · Feb 18, 2007

Quote from JackR:

Bitstream:

Perhaps IB has a glitch in their software. Please follow-up in this thread when you get an explanation (and hopefully a refund).

Jack

dunno, i dont think it is the case. i am astounded nobody has noticed anything strange...maybe that's because nobody carry trades overnite @ib but i've been charged interests many months ago as well in a similar non-marginable position, infact it was almost a yr ago. how can it be a glitch?

Bitstream · Feb 18, 2007

Quote from dhpar:

Well, that looks very unlikely - do you think you could have a chat with IB and ask them to investigate your account problem + let us know your result if it relates to us as well? My bet is that negative accrued is coming from somewhere else in your account.

as i said those are the only 2 positions i have been carrying, rest of my acct is used intraday only.

tomorrow i will ring 'em up and i then get back to u all asap.

WD40 · Feb 18, 2007

BS: what is your base currency?
what stock exchange did you buy your stocks from?

if the 2 currencies are not the same, you will in fact activated a loan in the currency of the exchange to buy your stock, thus you will be paying interest charges even though you have sufficient "money" to cover the purchase.

Bitstream · Feb 18, 2007

Quote from WD40:

BS: what is your base currency?
what stock exchange did you buy your stocks from?

if the 2 currencies are not the same, you will in fact activated a loan in the currency of the exchange to buy your stock, thus you will be paying interest charges even though you have sufficient "money" to cover the purchase.

my acct is euro/pound denominated but my base is $ therefore i should be charged the conversion and when i pull my money out, not the loan on every transaction.

stocks on naz and nyse.

SethArb · Feb 18, 2007

yes ... IB is terrible ...

excuse me while I count some more hundred $$$ bills
in profits from trading

before I deposit them into my bank account

all this mind you from having the forsight to have opened up an account with IB

thanks IB !!!

scriabinop23 · Feb 18, 2007

Quote from Bitstream:

my acct is euro/pound denominated but my base is $ therefore i should be charged the conversion and when i pull my money out, not the loan on every transaction.

stocks on naz and nyse.

Which is which? your base is either $ or euro/pound ...

the euro has a -2% rate differential to the dollar, so any items held in euros (ie long euro, long euro stock, etc) will show negative interest accrual if your base currency is dollar.

furthermore, lack of positive interest accrual on the 1st 10k may have something to do with this as well.

remember that being short the usd and long euro for example will cost you -2% to carry annually. even long the gbp against usd is something like -.5% -- -1% (don't remember the differential that IB charges on this pair).

ids · Feb 18, 2007

Bitstream,

You keep euros and pounds and buy paying dollars. IB loans you these dollars and you are paying interest on this loan. Base currency is irrelevant. It is just a way to calculate in one scale. If you want to avoid a loan, you can buy dollars on IDEAL or IDEALPRO and use them for purchase of stocks. Of course, you will take a risk of changing currency rates. Now you are avoiding this risk. You cannot do it for free. Reference: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/universalAccount.php

Bitstream · Feb 18, 2007

Quote from ids:

Bitstream,

You keep euros and pounds and buy paying dollars. IB loans you these dollars and you are paying interest on this loan. Base currency is irrelevant. It is just a way to calculate in one scale. If you want to avoid a loan, you can buy dollars on IDEAL or IDEALPRO and use them for purchase of stocks. Of course, you will take a risk of changing currency rates. Now you are avoiding this risk. You cannot do it for free. Reference: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/universalAccount.php

k, and how do i do that, the conversion.