Is IBKR lite only for US residents?

[GotherL]

I just wanted to add that I decided to try out Interactive Brokers LITE and switched back to Pro almost immediately.

Honestly, I just tried it in the Simulator so I can't say for sure if my experience with it would carry over to live but if it does and your an active traders, avoid lite like the plague.

First of all in the pre-market I tried to buy into EKSO because it took off running like crazy. I placed my limit order in for 1000 shares at $4.15 and got no fill. Tried to again. No Fill. Tried 5 times, no fill. Using Pro I always got at least a partial fill and usually a full fill with the type of volume that was coming it. EKSO managed to get to around $5.75 per share in like 10 minutes so the "COST" of using Lite, since I couldn't get a fill due to the "simulated" poorer execution, was like $1600. My cost if I had been using pro would have been around $10 to make that $1600. Ouch.

Later after the market opened, I tried to get into EKSO again with a Stop Limit order set to buy at ASK with an offset of .05 cents and again I got no fill. That probably cost me another $500 give or take based on when I think I would have exited.

So if this had been live trading, I would have gave up around $2000 to save myself roughly $20 in commissions.

I called IB to discuss how big a different the execution was in the simulator comparing LITE to PRO and the person I spoke to said that they insured that the execution in the simulator was as close to realistic as possible. They also said, that yes, what I experienced was common when using LITE vs PRO due to the difference in direct routing vs sending everything to the MM. Of course what they say and what is real can be two different things.

To Conclude, again, I will say this was simulated so I can't be sure this massive difference in execution speed would carry over to live and it is possible IB set the simulator to purposefully give extraordinarily bad execution to encourage people to use Pro, but if what I experienced using Lite in the simulator is even close to realistic, there is no circumstances where I would use Lite as an active momentum trader.

With fast moving stocks even with good execution without at least 0.25 cent offset they can be hard to catch sometimes. 0.05 cents might not be enough but if you attempted it 5 times than that is more likely an execution issue.

In your case, I would just stick with pro. (That goes for me as well.)

Are you still using TWS for trading in your pro account or did you find something better yet?

 

[Midnitewolf]

Yeah it was beyond bad. I even had one limit with a .05 cent offset not fill after market.

To be honest though, it WAS the simulator so it is hard to say if the executions would be that bad in the live environment and I have seen a few people commenting that IBKR's simulator tends to function more toward the worst case scenario which I guess is a good thing for training.

I guess my take away though was if the simulator was giving me the worst case scenario, it shows me what could happen when a Broker is sending its orders to the MMs verses direct routing and it goes back to what I was speculating on earlier. If you miss one fill, it could cost you hundreds if not thousands and If your fills are experiencing even .01 cent worse fills or sells even half the time, there is a very good likelihood, that "Free" is costing you more than paying for commissions.

Also, I guess it makes sense as well. I mean these companies are losing a whole hell of a lot of revenue buy offering a free commission anything. It just makes sense that they would route in whatever way is that absolutely most profitable for them even if the execution was very poor.

Well if anyone ever fully tests IBKR Lite vs IBKR Pro in the live environment, I would love to hear about their experience.

 

[tonyf]

How much is DAStrader and isit worth ayment over TWS?

 

[Midnitewolf]

That is the million dollar question hehe. DAS trader with the recommended data package is I think $150 a month. That is quite a bit of money if your a small trader especially when your adding in things like maybe TradeIdeas Scanner, commissions, Tradingvue Journal a chat room membership, etc.

On the flip side, I hear that the execution is top notch and most professional traders seem to use it so kind of like the Lite vs Pro debate, it could be very well be worth the cost if it allows for more profitable trades.

For myself, I may try it at some point, but right now I am going to focus on being a consistently profitable trader while using TWS.

As far as TWS goes, so far I like it. It is missing a few critical hotkeys like the ability to sell your position by percentages, i.e. sell 50% or 25% of your position but I got around that by making a hotkey to sell different amounts that roughly equal out to about 1/2 the position sizes I usually take. I also like Charttrader to be honest. I love being able to just drag and drop my stops or other orders if I feel the need. I can also just drop a speculative order on the chart and delay the transmit of the order until I am ready. I don't think DAS Trader Pro has anything like that but I am unsure.

In any case, there are probably a ton of people much, much more experienced than me that can give you a better answer so don't take my response as gospel. Hopefully they will come on and provide their input as well.

 

[GotherL]

How much is DAStrader and isit worth ayment over TWS?

I am not sure what the difference between $150 or $175 but a youtuber who trades the same equities as me uses the $175 version.

Anyways, I bailed out. You need to printout and sign paper. (I don't have a printer or scanner.) Then you need to send a copy of your photo ID (Something I also don't have atm.)

Too much hassle and too expensive.

 

[tonyf]

why not just pay for the Credit Suisse algos in TWS for better execution?
How come a small firm can better execute than the largest retail broker in the world? Just look at their respective annual IT spend!
Are their any facts or data supporting better execution.... this smells like NinjaTrader back in 2010.

 

[Midnitewolf]

I am not sure what the difference between $150 or $175 but a youtuber who trades the same equities as me uses the $175 version.

Anyways, I bailed out. You need to printout and sign paper. (I don't have a printer or scanner.) Then you need to send a copy of your photo ID (Something I also don't have atm.)

Too much hassle and too expensive.

Yeah they have about 6-7 levels you can get starting at I think around $100. The difference is the data feeds your subscribing too. The $150 package is the first level that gives you Totalview.

As far as a copy of your photo ID, I think just about everyone needs that so I keep a copy saved on my PC.

I do agree about the price, at least for now. $150 a month just means I need to make $150 more profits to clear that expense. I am just starting out myself so that adds up especially with my trade volume equaling $100+ in commissions a day that I have to overcome. Overall trading is expensive. For an ideal set up you want to probably get TradeIdeas for scanning ($118/mo), TraderVue for your Journal ($49/mo), Benzinga Pro for News ($177/mo) and made a few other services. Your expenses can easily add up to over $1000 a month. If I was consistently making $1000 a day or more then no problem but I am not there yet so got to make do with ghetto scanners like TradingView and Yahoo Finance for news hehe.

 

[cortney302]

IBKR lite is available for US residents only. According to the news, these clients will be allowed to avail of the benefits from IBKR's Integrated Investment Management Account, which will help them to invest in options, forex, stocks, funds, and more across the globe from a single account.