I have my trading account with IB. Given the current market volatility and liquidity crunch I'm thinking whether there is any reason that I should be worried about the safety of my money.
From my understanding:
1) IB is ruthless in dumping positions that doesn't meet margin requirement and there is no such thing as a margin call. I believe they do it by the second and thus my believe is that it is highly unlikely IB would be stucked with losing customer positions.
2) IB does not engage in any fund management business and has nothing to do with this whole subprime thing.
Given 1) and 2) I should feel quite comfortable with my broker, maybe even more so than some investment banks such as bear sterns or even gs under the current condition...
What slightly worries me is that IB is also a market maker especially in the options market. Selling liquidity in such market condition could incurr unexpectable losses. I wonder if anyone has a view on this issue? In case timber hill goes down, just in case, would this affect IB customer accounts? Anyone from IB?
What I really want to hear is someone from IB saying "Timber Hill has sepearte books from IB brokerage and it's totally seperated.... yada yada..." but I'm not really sure about this...
Many thanks!
From my understanding:
1) IB is ruthless in dumping positions that doesn't meet margin requirement and there is no such thing as a margin call. I believe they do it by the second and thus my believe is that it is highly unlikely IB would be stucked with losing customer positions.
2) IB does not engage in any fund management business and has nothing to do with this whole subprime thing.
Given 1) and 2) I should feel quite comfortable with my broker, maybe even more so than some investment banks such as bear sterns or even gs under the current condition...
What slightly worries me is that IB is also a market maker especially in the options market. Selling liquidity in such market condition could incurr unexpectable losses. I wonder if anyone has a view on this issue? In case timber hill goes down, just in case, would this affect IB customer accounts? Anyone from IB?
What I really want to hear is someone from IB saying "Timber Hill has sepearte books from IB brokerage and it's totally seperated.... yada yada..." but I'm not really sure about this...
Many thanks!
