The issue of Interactive Brokers' credibility

There was a real sicko that had a web site bashing IB in the most juvenile way.

They forced that site to close, so that disturbed individual may well be lurking here, creating new nicks, and posting idiocy?

Whaddya think?
 
I see the "IB can do no harm" brigade has arrived...

Btw, did you know that IB does not off 24/5 access to the kiwi, one of the most liquid pairs out there. Professional? Well not when it comes to forex.
 
I've been an IB customer for many years now. The question really shouldn't be, "does IB suck?" It should be, "who doesn't suck worse?"
 
It surprises me how much attention a humble post like mine can get. But then, I haven't posted in forums since 2001, much must have changed since then. Now, your overall reply is probably what I wanted to hear, although upon hearing it I am amused.

Just some basic math to support my post. At $14 commission and $1,000 in the account you have to anticipate this much percentage change to stay in the green:

$14/ ($1,000/100%) = 1.4%

With $500 in the account you have to anticipate a 2.8% change. Suppose you read a news article that you think would cause a stock to go up. If you buy that stock and it moves 0.8% that same day, you're still at a loss. Two possible conclusions from this: (1) You should switch to a cheaper stating system; (2) what you are trying to achieve is impossible. For 1st, I am considering IB; for second, I am reading the Intelligent Investor by B. Graham.

Now I've heard many things from many sources, casual as well as professional, some I understand and some I do not. But making a fool of myself is the least I can do to learn something useful before spending money in an exciting and reckless fashion, so I gladly be a fool if that I must be.

Finally, I thank you all for constructive criticism and a reality check. ;-)
 
Quote from piousbox:

Just some basic math to support my post. At $14 commission and $1,000 in the account you have to anticipate this much percentage change to stay in the green:

$14/ ($1,000/100%) = 1.4%

With $500 in the account you have to anticipate a 2.8% change.
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No one with only $500 or $1000 should even be trading. Wait until you have at least $10,000 and try again. Better yet, wait until you have more than $25,000 and can avoid the PDT rule for stock traders. Undercapitalized traders have zero chance of making money.

What kind of straightforward expression is:

$14/ ($1,000/100%) = 1.4% ?

Any clear thinking person would express it as:

($14/$1000) * 100% = 1.4%
 
Quote from piousbox:

I started my trading/investing activities about one year ago. I registered on Scottrade because they provide a relatively cheap way of trading common stocks, and because the initial deposit could be as little at $500. However, it turned out that even if I anticipate a trend correctly, the $14 commision (to enter and exit a trade) all but annihilated my profits. I am looking to trade, not invest. That is why I started looking for another trading platform, and naturally I considered Interactive Brokers. However, in online-broker reviews on Elite Trader I've read the following argument: a lot of amateurs, people who do not know how to trade and who only lose money doing it, people like that would deposit $5,000 into IB and get none out. Since there is a constant supply of "suckers," IB stays in business still. My question is for people who have been trading on IB extensively: is it possible at all to make profit using that platform? I'm looking specifically for a case of an individual who has put in $5,000 and has already gotten out more than $5,000. Basically it boils down to this: if IB are somewhat unreliable but offer amazingly cheap prices and do not outright cheat their every customer, I would switch to IB. But if there has not been an individual who actually trades on IB successfully, I would stick to Scottrade.
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The majority of the posters told you to stay away from IB, so you should do the opposite and open an account at IB. You do know that the majority of traders lose money? They are a contrarian indicator.

:)
 
I once started with the Scottrade.
two problems with scottrade:
1) commission is too high, the best solution is trade penny stocks (1k or 3k shares per trade), the bad thing to trade penny stocks in scottrade is in 9 of 10 cases, you are not able to short those pumpie/dumpie (often they are the best short sale). in IB you can!
2) scottrade lies, they cheat their customers with false execution report (elite II), in the morning rush hour, they intentionally delay/freeze your order, if you try to cancel an order, and they may freeze it and you lose opportunity to lock your profit or run out of the gate. you can not day trade in this kind of execution traps.

I do did very successfully on penny stock trading with scottrade, normally that is not day trades, often overnight trades. I did lots of trades with VXEP, OSCI, VPHM, ELTK, EDGR, FUEL, ABLE,BDCO... made lots of money. I did not see commission is a problem, I just hate their execution.

currently I am with IB,
also three problems with IB:
1) commission is too little if you trade small lot, but the bad thing is you will get bad trading habit: you may tempt to average down or blindly trade too many and end up losing lot!
2) their TWS is full of shit bugs, like ask/bid price freeze, chart slow popup, no clear margin call rules, I do not know whether it is purposely or no fixing tech problem, I suspect IB is doing it purposely since in the account contract, its client must admit it is not their fault!

my experience with IB is you will become a sucker, you will lose your discipline. I did not make much after I changed into IB. IB killed my BSC (bought it from 35 to 30) without my permission on march 14, 2008 at the exact bottom price, I lost 60% of my account value, I get pissed by IB.

the good thing with scottrade is you will get good trading habit. with IB, most likely you will be busy with trading and get nothing and lose your account!
 
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