Professional or Non Professional Investor - Data Fees

Z

ZZ Trader

Good morning to everyone,

I am writing to see if any of you has encountered a similar problem as mine with Interactive Brokers and what the solution could be.

I have been a Professional Investor until 2 years ago, I was registered with the NFA, but my fund did not launch and so we closed down operations, I signed out of the NFA 2 years ago, I am no more "active", and since that date I have been acting as a Private/Individual Investor, i.e. I am currently not working in any capacity as a manager or trader or anything else.

After reading all the definition of Professional and Individual Investor on the IBKR website, I am 100% that I do match the Individual Investor category.

However, Interactive Broker has decided (based on unknown criteria that they will not reveal to me) that I am a Professional Investor and require me to pay Professional Investor data fees.

As any of you encountered this issue with Interactive Brokers?

What solutions are possible?
 
ZZ Trader said:
Good morning to everyone,

I am writing to see if any of you has encountered a similar problem as mine with Interactive Brokers and what the solution could be.

I have been a Professional Investor until 2 years ago, I was registered with the NFA, but my fund did not launch and so we closed down operations, I signed out of the NFA 2 years ago, I am no more "active", and since that date I have been acting as a Private/Individual Investor, i.e. I am currently not working in any capacity as a manager or trader or anything else.

After reading all the definition of Professional and Individual Investor on the IBKR website, I am 100% that I do match the Individual Investor category.

However, Interactive Broker has decided (based on unknown criteria that they will not reveal to me) that I am a Professional Investor and require me to pay Professional Investor data fees.

As any of you encountered this issue with Interactive Brokers?

What solutions are possible?
More...
Check your survey questions. They're not in TWS; log in through the Web site. They ask a lot of stuff about you, your trading, if you're trading others' money, if you're licensed, do you work for a broker/dealer, etc. If just one of those is considered "Professional," you'll be categorized as such. Especially someone like you, who is trying to move from Professional to Non- status. I specifically remember a question asking if you are a d/b/a, LLC, or an individual. Check them carefully.

Consider a clean fresh start with a Non-Professional account. Going from Pro to Non is kinda sus, and I expect you to have more problems in the future. There's a lot of red tape, regulatory, and reporting around this Pro/Non-pro stuff: KYC laws, Patriot Act, anti-money-laundering, Tax, Non-Display fees. It's so bad that some employers will form a separate LLC to keep a clear wall between Pros and Non--they're paid by entirely separate companies.

They're going to err on the abundance-of-caution side, cover their @$$, and label you as Pro if there's any doubt. That's what you're getting.

Just from reading your post, I think you're a Pro. You're too saavy... Non-Pros are supposed to be "buy-and-hold" people, iykwim.
 
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Well, just to be clear: the account I am talking about was opened as a Individual, Non Professional account, in my personal name, AFTER I closed the fund account, which was in fact an LLC.

I had no more relationship whatsoever with that Professional Account.

I find it ridiculous that just because one HAS BEEN a professional investor he's labeled like that for life.

What if I never work again as a Professional Investor? Do I have to pay Professional fees for life?
 
Thank you Robert, this is very helpful.

I was planning in fact to contact the exchanges and see if they could help with my case.

One question, since you seem more familiar than me with this, on the form it says: "Subscribers who qualify as Non-Professionals should sign below and return this Self-Certification form to Distributor.",
is Distributor the CME Group?
Because I can't see any email to send to, in the document.
I can find it, I just wanted to make sure this form must be sent to CME.
Thanks.
 
If your account were with Lightspeed, which uses Wedbush Futures as the FCM, we would file that with WB futures. Then, they would provide a copy to the data provider. As an example, if your used CQG Desktop, they would give a copy to CQG as CQG is the Data provider or in this case, "Distributor".
 
Well, I may end up switching to Lightspeed if IBKR continues to treat me the way they are treating me.

IBKR uses GFIS for data, are you saying I should submit a copy of the form to GFIS?
or better send it directly to IBKR?
 
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