Liquidation on low volume, high beta stocks

V

vzhig

IB has whipped out my account today. Here's how it happened:

I had a short position in KELYB. The stock has a very low float and due to manipulation has sky-rocketed from $26.8 to $90. Different share class of the same company - KELYA - didn't move at all. Which, to any normal broker, would indicate that the severe mispricing at $90 was a very temporary situation and would correct itself very quickly.

But IB is not a normal broker! They've auto-liquidated my position at $85, whipping out 90% of my account. I had money at my bank, but they gave me NO WARNING and NO TIME to post additional margin. They say it's their policy to always auto-liquidate, no matter what. If price of your position spikes erroneously, they'll auto-liquidate it. NO MATTER WHAT!

The very same minute they liquidated my position at $85, the stock dropped to $75 and kept dropping and dropping since then. It's now at $34. Mispricing was very short-lived and any reasonable broker would not have liquidated the position.

So before you open an IB account or if you already have one, think twice. Realize that it's not a broker, it's an automated farm of servers trading against you!
 
vzhig said:
IB has whipped out my account today. Here's how it happened:

I had a short position in KELYB. The stock has a very low float and due to manipulation has sky-rocketed from $26.8 to $90. Different share class of the same company - KELYA - didn't move at all. Which, to any normal broker, would indicate that the severe mispricing at $90 was a very temporary situation and would correct itself very quickly.

But IB is not a normal broker! They've auto-liquidated my position at $85, whipping out 90% of my account. I had money at my bank, but they gave me NO WARNING and NO TIME to post additional margin. They say it's their policy to always auto-liquidate, no matter what. If price of your position spikes erroneously, they'll auto-liquidate it. NO MATTER WHAT!

The very same minute they liquidated my position at $85, the stock dropped to $75 and kept dropping and dropping since then. It's now at $34. Mispricing was very short-lived and any reasonable broker would not have liquidated the position.

So before you open an IB account or if you already have one, think twice. Realize that it's not a broker, it's an automated farm of servers trading against you!
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You placed a very large bet relative to your account size on going short a low float stock. Sorry, but this mistake is on you, not IB.
 
I've been with IB for years. Overall I like them. Would consider TD or RobinHood if I was opening a new account and did not need an API.
 
ET180 said:
I've been with IB for years. Overall I like them. Would consider TD or RobinHood if I was opening a new account and did not need an API.
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Exactly! TD warned me and gave me HOURS to post additional margin
 
vzhig said:
it's an automated farm of servers trading against you!
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IB was most likely not the other side of the trade. They gained nothing from your lack of knowledge.
vzhig said:
. Which, to any normal broker, would indicate that the severe mispricing at $90 was a very temporary situation and would correct itself very quickly.
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nonsense. They are not in the business of predicting price movements. if it would have gone to 180 what would you say. Stop whining and move on.
 
Total Bummer!!!!

Perhaps the additional warning is stay away from:
Low volume stocks too. This happens.
Margin too. Margin calls are a "Bad Badness", IMO
Also Stop orders are there to use. Setting them WELL before a margin call is prudent.

Also it is not as if someone at IB "did this". It is all automated. So what happened, is part of a bigger system.

Perhaps shake it off and kick ass on some good trades!
 
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