Question about IB please?

[FSU]

So it sounds like you are locked into IB and just want to know the plus/minuses?

Lots of good and bad with them.

Since you mention you are trading 1256 contracts, I assume you may be trading SPX. Be aware that you will pay exchange fees here with IB, that can be as high as an additional .77 per contract. This is the case with most brokers, except Think or Swim, which generally quotes an "all in" price, so they can be substantially less in single listed products such as SPX.

If you are trading options spreads, IB might "hold" them internally until they feel they are marketable. Big disadvantage here as they are often wrong here.

IB makes it difficult to direct a spread to a specific exchange, all though it can be done. This can be useful as your fills on certain exchanges may be better than others.

IB gives you access to almost every product, which is great. They are the only retail broker that gives you access to the overnight session in SPX and VIX options.

Overall their commissions are very competitive.

There customer service is hit or miss. Long potential wait times and you may or may not get a competent rep.

To me their biggest knock is their auto liquidation program. Since it is not done manually, the computer makes decisions that can be extremely negative, on what, when and how they liquidate.

 

[MotiveWave]

Right on! Exactly what I was looking for.

Any suggestions for chart pkg and/or analytics

We have a lot of users on MotiveWave connecting to IB, but using MotiveWave charts/trading through the charts back to their IB account because they don't like the TWS interface/platform.

 

[actualfuturestrader]

anyone who talks the talk and wants to ask people on a public board what they think of IB again is hilarity. the hiys just keep on coming. lightspeed is way better than IB. ru kidding about all that stuff you wrote. all that and you are going to base your business on 1 persons opinion on ET. wow.

 

[GrowleyMonster]

TBH I am sold on LS. Except they don't support Linux users. My only choices are IB and TDA. LS appears to be the better brokerage for day traders. Except for the WinDOHs thing.

 

[GRULSTMRNN]

Are you just chipping in 250k+ or is that the size of the accounts being traded? Just wondering as you speak of "tech dudes". How much do you pay them to work with a 250k account?

Thanks for that @RobertMorse

As an aside...strange that ET's saves certain pages that were deleted ....as "drafts" then displays them again when they should be long gone.

I wrote the "any suggestions for charting..." part before I left the office last night but then never posted it. Was waiting to hear from our Tech dudes to see if I could use our Firm's data pkg - Thomas.Reuters.Eikon.com ....or....Refinitiv.Eikon.com ....as they like to be known as now.

Alas, no way to mix and match. But now that I hear from @destriero ...and read from others, I see it's IB for trades...then other stuff for other stuff.

 

[GRULSTMRNN]

Does LS and the broker behind it offer execution in cash fx, global futures, global stock markets, CFDs, bonds (treasuries and corporate), global options? Cause that is what IB offers and that very consistently across the board. But I do see issues with margin calculations and PM accounts.

TBH I am sold on LS. Except they don't support Linux users. My only choices are IB and TDA. LS appears to be the better brokerage for day traders. Except for the WinDOHs thing.

 

[HobbyTrading]

As an aside...strange that ET's saves certain pages that were deleted ....as "drafts" then displays them again when they should be long gone.

Do you refer to the text box at the bottom of the page? This box stores your draft text until you post it. Or until you select/highlight that text and delete it. Closing the tab of your web browser will not make it delete the draft text which you wrote.

 

[Robert Morse]

Does LS and the broker behind it offer execution in cash fx, global futures, global stock markets, CFDs, bonds (treasuries and corporate), global options? Cause that is what IB offers and that very consistently across the board. But I do see issues with margin calculations and PM accounts.

No and we do not want to. We are in comparison to these online brokers a small introducing broker and Wedbush is a family owned clearing firm with about $200mm in net capital. We only focus on US listed Equities, Options and Futures with choice of software. I find that when a broker tries to do "everything" they excel at nothing, We provide a variety of solutions for small and medium-sized Hedge Funds, Trading Groups and Active Traders. We try and do just that the best we can.

Bob

 

[qlai]

My only choices are IB and TDA.

While I would love to get off Windows, I find that it's easier to have a Windows box than aggravation. Have you tried running on Linux? Have you tried getting customer support to help you with issues? ToS does not run well on Linux in my experience. IB/TWS ran ok, but given that their support is hit or miss, I don't want to introduce yet another complication when I call.
BTW, if you want to day trade, I don't think web platform is something you want to get used to. I n my opinion, you are being a bit silly about the whole Windows thing. You will come across tools which will only run on Windows sooner or later. Dual boot maybe if you don't want to pay for new box?

 

[GrowleyMonster]

While I would love to get off Windows, I find that it's easier to have a Windows box than aggravation. Have you tried running on Linux? Have you tried getting customer support to help you with issues? ToS does not run well on Linux in my experience. IB/TWS ran ok, but given that their support is hit or miss, I don't want to introduce yet another complication when I call.
BTW, if you want to day trade, I don't think web platform is something you want to get used to. I n my opinion, you are being a bit silly about the whole Windows thing. You will come across tools which will only run on Windows sooner or later. Dual boot maybe if you don't want to pay for new box?

Windows is just too insecure, too buggy, too prone to catastrophic failure, too vulnerable to malware, too bloated, too much in the unseen hands of the priesthood that has access to the top secret source code. Like all corporations, Microsoft sometimes relies on dishonesty and deception to keep things going. I can afford to buy more computers and will definitely do so, but they will not have WinDOHs aboard. No Duel Boot, either. I switched to Linux and stayed here for a lot of very good reasons. Not going back and putting up with all the worries and hassles. Tools that won't run on a grownup operating system obviously won't be used by me. AFAIC they won't exist. I don't HAVE to trade. I HAVE to have safe and reliable computers with transparency in the operating systems. I WILL trade if possible, if it can be done on Ubuntu or another trustworthy operating system. That means open source. It means definitely not WinDOHs or Mac. I don't see what is silly about that approach. Not as silly as running an OS with such a dismal track record that insists on obsoleting the few relative successes they have had.

Yes I hear you on the web interface and I think you are probably correct. I just wanted to hear it from an actual user before I dismiss it as a non starter. Otherwise I might try it, maybe with multiple computers and a browser with no plugins or addons, set up specifically for one purpose, displaying and accessing a trading platform and stock scanner/screener. So meanwhile I am watching IB and TWS, and of course TDA and TOS, as well as DAS web version. I doubt that the mainstream will ever adopt Linux and force providers to offer Linux ported versions of software. Linux is basically unmarketed and MS is a ginormous self serving marketing juggernaut with a tight grip on the testicles of PC makers. The sheeple buy what they are told to buy, and providers go where the action is and don't concern themselves with the minority too much. I can accept that but I won't rejoin the bleating herd just because it is big.