Problems trading futures in IRA accounts at IB?

J.P. said:
First of all I never said, "go find an old thread." You lied. You either don't know enough English to ascertain that if you put quotes around something alleging what someone else said, it better be accurate, or you are a liar.

Regardless, now I see what you are talking about. You're worried about a possible tax penalty if you pay your debt within, rather than outside of the retirement account. Well, you didn't say that before.

Now back to the issue at hand and the topic of this thread: It's best to go with a broker that does not portend to be an overbearing mother by artificially restricting trading in a retirement account just to keep you from losing your retirement funds (and possibly incurring a tax penalty). Period.
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Wow, such anger over a post on tax law!
 
J.P. said:
A portion of this is because it looks bad when a large broker goes after some unfortunate guy who just blew through his entire retirement account for even more money. But mostly it's because some like to impersonate other people's mothers thinking they are protecting them. And even though they'll proffer other rationalizations, they think they know what's best for them. You can see this same thought process in other places: jurisdictions that don't allow sales of alcohol on Sundays, a bill to allow blackjack at Florida racinos but with a $5 maximum bet, not allowing Internet sales of lottery tickets, denying abortions to women unless they wait some period of time first, etc. All from those righteous folks that know better than you what's best for you. And that's why some firms restrict futures trading in retirement accounts and others don't.
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Well put.
 
Trader13 said:
Really? So you think the executives at IB are sitting in a meeting room talking about how to be protective mothers? It might surprise you that businesses usually impose restrictions to protect themselves, not their customers.
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Quite true, of course. The operable word being "usually."
 
Pricechange said:
All these actions seem to add up to retail brokers trying to prevent selling.
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In that situation, call in your orders. Any broker will waive the commish if online access is down.

As to futures margin issues -- wrap up your trading in an LLC and put that inside the IRA.
 
debitspread said:
In that situation, call in your orders. Any broker will waive the commish if online access is down.

As to futures margin issues -- wrap up your trading in an LLC and put that inside the IRA.
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yea agree...

and, for me, much of the problems are related to relying too much on very low cost real time market info and low cost trading (within retail brokers... market/quote/charting info nor brokerage services are really low cost, you will pay in other ways). The lesson learned is 1) pay for a quality charting/news/quoting system, its well worth it 2) use the LLC and a good direct access platform with broker for clearing only
 
I traded with IB for 15 years but kept having trouble with 25 K and Pattern Day Trading rules........... got pissed and closed my account. Then after a few weeks I decided to reopen a new account. I did and found the new platform just wasn't as good....a lot of difficulty with OCO orders. Then after a week of trading I got a $265 bill.....as they said I had checked something when I opened the account that enabled 100 symbol lines on the TWS. They wouldn't talk to be about it at all..........I had checked it and the money was deducted from my account......even though I had a rep. at the time assisting me and the call was supposedly taped..................So I said goodbye to them .....this time it's permanent. And I am glad as I am now working with Ninja and their Dome platform for entries is truly much better. And for a day trader that is so very important.
 
I don't know what is wrong with all this people. Just because IB offers cheap commission and that's why we have to fall in love with such an unpredictable broker ? IB has stone age platform, the trade doesn't execute on time, I mean slippage . So why fall in love with IB come on guys . This is called Greed. Go and span out, I moved to TD-ameritrade. commission is expensive so what. If you make 1 tick or 2 ticks then stay with Ib. when you make 20 ticks just paying 8 bucks commission is ok. you get great programmable platform with TOS. F**? and forget about IB. I will never go back to IB.
 
rmorse said:
TD allows futures. They might have an API but their pricing is not geared toward active traders. If you are an active trader and willing to use a self directed plan, I might be able to help.
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TD is expensive for sure, but it depends how much trade you make per month. IF you trade 3-4 trades/day I would recommend self directed IRA.
 
I was forced to switch from IB due to a new employer and preclearance restrictions (I can't use IB easily because they allow stock trading -- I can only use futures only brokers). I ended up at Gain futures (daniels introducing broker) trading an IRA through a self-directed custodian (Millennium Trust). Gain doesn't increase margins for IRAs so I am able to trade without dealing with margin problems which became a problem for me at IB a few times a month (briefly, but not fun to deal with).

Side note I had used Equity Trust as a custodian in the past but they so messed up my account I am dealing with it over a year later -- despite closing the account AND them transferring the money to another custodian they STILL are billing me, and still think they have some of my money and no amount of explaining and showing them proof can convince them.

Gain also uses the Openecry API so you can automate trading similar to IB.
 
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