Def,
I responded hastily to your post earlier without doing any due diligence. If I had read the previous posts in another forum I would have known that the info you mentioned was previously made public. I am sorry.
Originally posted by nusrat
The same goes for my O-X acct (the only other options acct I've used since I started trading options in my Schwab acct in 1994), even though I've had my O-X acct for much longer than my IB acct.
I intend to wait a good deal longer before finalizing any conclusions. But at the moment it's difficult for me to have complete confidence in a broker which can't even properly recognize and accept an order to close (as a *credit* transaction) an ITM spread of laughably puny size -- a situation for which the broker's only solution is that I "must deposit more funds". (Described in excruciating detail here.) Such confidence is made even less likely when the broker's reps respond to said incident in unofficial venues with nothing but scorn and repeated exhortations to "close your account".
Small wonder that I've been so stingy with my IB acct.
Some of my accounts at places other than IB have experienced similar issues. My guess is that most of these vendors are tyring to cut costs to such a degree that are not upgrading their IS systems and policies: they are just patching things as problems are discovered. Most of these firms seem to have the goal of zero human touch on customer service. IMHO these type of firms will go out of business before they realize the foolishness of no-touch customer service. It cost MUCH more to obtain new customers than hold on to existing ones.... Hope none of the folks driving or running these types of initiatives apply at my firms for jobs: they will get the no-touch HR analogue ....
CalTrader,
Just in case my comparison was ambiguous: the "unclosable spread" is at IB. My customer-service experience at O-X has been completely unblemished.
