My Experience With Interactive Brokers

the customer service reps dont have authority to refund any money from complaint trades like yours.

slippage is the 'cost of trading'.....


Quote from dimmi:

I used to be a fan. Not anymore.

Firstly, the slippage on entry and exits has been too great. I have had a stoploss on wheat get slipped over 10 whole points which was an additional USD$500+; I have had one whole point on Coffee which was $375 and a silver trade which was slipped $427.

My entries have been slipped too. I wanted to short Gold .. I still made good profit, but it put me in $6 lower than where I wanted to get in. So that is $600 less than what I wanted. Same with Copper.. it put me in 2 points or $500 higher than where I wanted to.. so I got $500 less profit in the end.

I knew people who took the same trade on a different broker, and they had almost no slippage on those trades.

I have tried using TWS, I have also tried using ZeroLineTrader to control my trading. When I asked IB about it they just said that where I got slipped to at the time was a valid quote.

IB is probably good if you can use Limit orders 100% of the time.. but if you can't.. it just costs you money to use it. Either adds to your loss.. or can subtract from your gain.

I have another gripe with their customer service which we all know is below par. They have made it very difficult to close the account.. I followed their steps to the letter.. but apparently something else needed doing. Did they contact me and say 'by the way we would like you to do this so we can finalise it..' No. They just left the account as normal until I had to contact them to say 'Hey where is my money?'

Then I get an email saying I need to call IB to confirm I am wanting to close the account. I call the closest IB location which is open (and pay per minute to call them) and wait patiently for 30mins on hold and then the phone just went engaged. What kind of operation are you running IB?

I then did a customer service chat and explained I was on the phone and it went engaged after 30mins and I was not happy. The response was totally unacceptable and sometimes I feel that they are not even listening to what I am saying.. or cannot even comprehend basic English. They just kept telling me I need to call the IB office I was just calling. I kept saying I have called them and I waited 30mins. Argh. I told them I did not want to speak to them anymore.. to get someone more senior. After this, they said someone will call me.

Someone from Hong Kong (I was calling Sydney previously) then called 5mins later and confirmed some of the wire details and I am glad to say I am almost rid of this horrible company.

I have now closed my account and am looking to go somewhere else.. perhaps Alaron.
 
Bad fills I have gotten are usually from my own stupidity.

Best stupid move done when I was relatively new to retail equities - few hundred share market order around noon in an OTC BB stock. Filled $0.60 away from where I thought the market was. Immediately realized myself for the chump I played, and nobody to blame but myself since I asked for it!!! Good learning experience.

Anecdotally I notice that those entities that clear through pershing seem to give worse fills than those who do not. No idea if that is relevant or not - just a personal observation.

Curiously, some of the best fills I have gotten have been through FIDO for the retirement account. Probably no rhyme or reason there either.
 
Quote from SethArb:


can you give more details on how you got such a bad price other than you did not pull the
trigger and watched the market cascade down at some point in time ?

Hi.. orders were entered hours ahead of time.
 
Quote from supertraders:

the customer service reps dont have authority to refund any money from complaint trades like yours.

slippage is the 'cost of trading'.....

Not asking for a refund. Some of you seem to think I am here because I want a refund? ;)

I never in my life would have asked IB to refund any of this.. don't be silly.

I am just sharing my experience trading the markets I am.
 
worst slippage I've had on gold (ZG) was about a buck when news was released. this is to be expected. market can actually gap much larger than that. i prefer to be flat at such times.
 
This thread doesn't give enough information to determine whether this complainer's bad fills were the broker's fault or his own fault.

If he won't give more info, then I am going to assume it was the complainer's own fault.

He says "I am just sharing my experience...". I would put it differently. I would say he is just blaming others for his own shortcomings, and unfairly smearing the reputation of a good broker, to the detriment of its employees and customers.
 
Quote from dimmi:

I am just sharing my experience trading the markets I am. [/B]


sam1.gif



"It's not the slippage that hurts, it's the hard landing" - J. Bustmeyer
 
Quote from jimrockford:

If he won't give more info, then I am going to assume it was the complainer's own fault.

IB reps respond regularly to posts concerning IB.

I was hoping they could respond here.. I would quite gladly give them some details and they can confirm that I have had the 10point slippage on Wheat.. etc etc.

I only posted yesterday so a little leeway is appropriate.
 
Quote from dimmi:
IB reps respond regularly to posts concerning IB.
I was hoping they could respond here.. I would quite gladly give them some details and they can confirm that I have had the 10point slippage on Wheat.. etc etc.
I only posted yesterday so a little leeway is appropriate.

IB response to problem solving, not slanders. LOL
 
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