WHAT is the main reason to use interactive brokers?

Quote from rwk:
IB has always been mostly unsupportive of autotrading, but I sometimes I wonder if they are deliberately sabotaging us?
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I'd be thinking about changing if it got to that point.
My first attempts at automation where though IB and it was about as much fun as chinese water torture.
Switched to another brokers FIX interface and it was like night and day, they even answer my questions like I'm not a complete pain in the arse.
 
FELLOW TRADERS.....thank you for reminding me about safety of my money... I have a six figure account, and yes I am being forgetful of how happy I was with IB back in march 2009.............true be known i pulled sizeable amounts of cash out of citbank then and it will never return there as that organization is "dead man walking" in my opinion... Again guys thanks for the candid feedback.... why cant IB just try to make their customer service get a great improvement
 
Safety? Bah. Just do it the old school way of having more than one account at different brokerages.

For instance, I have several accounts spread among various futures brokerages that use different clearing houses. (that last bit is important.)

I used to have an account at IB. Don't get me wrong, they are a fine brokerage. But if you trade only one class of product, you'd be better off using a broker that specializes in that class than using a jack-of-all-trades (pun intended) type of broker like IB.
 
Quote from PrimeX:

Safety? Bah. Just do it the old school way of having more than one account at different brokerages.
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Wow. Okay. Is that what 'old school' is? Does that make sense when the rules have changed? And when I say changed, I mean that the current rules for risk profiling and assessment at futures brokerages are to those at yesterday's $120/trade houses what the Wright brother's first effort is to an F-22?

Hmmm...
 
#1 Product availability. I trade US equity, forex, 60 global futures markets all from 1 master account.
#2 Rock solid commissions. Last month I paid an avg. of 0.19 cents per share.
#3 IB algo orders for stocks. Why sit there all day managing orders when the bot can hammer through the orders for me throughout the day? My slippage is lower than ever as I don't "move" smaller stocks as much thanks to the software algorithm.
 
#1: Safety Safety Safety
#2: Back Office and Order Handling
#3: TWS Platform
#4: Commissions
#5: Number of available products
 
Quote from rwk:

I posted on another ET thread about a recent cock-up in autotrading through IB. I got lucky and didn't lose any money, but I am still fuming about it. They introduced a new "feature" a while back that pops up a message dialog and blocks autotrading. They buried a very brief mention of it in one of the release notes, and now they're doing another forced upgrade which will likely break customers' apps, as it did mine. IB has always been mostly unsupportive of autotrading, but I sometimes I wonder if they are deliberately sabotaging us?
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Hopefully you noticed the recent post by mikesmithv who had both simulated account and his real account automated. When he upgraded he tested it first on the simulated account to unearth any problems before he went real money with it. It seemed like a sensible approach, and enables you to control your future instead of rolling the dice and then blaming IB for it.

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showt...perpage=6&highlight=ib automated&pagenumber=8

OldTrader
 
Why do you need customer support? Rarely TWS data feed goes away. Just wait and check out Elite Trader. You would see many tarders have the same problem. Don't call them. It will be fixed soon. I had an account with them since 2003 and I have been happy. I had accounts with 10 other brokers and I was trotured.
 
not to be redundant, but the safety of Lloyd's insurance lets me sleep easy. i also have a prop/arcade account and they have zero $ insurance. LLC and all, they close their doors and i am without a paddle in a sewage polluted creek, nothing but floaters between me and the safety of shore. needless to say, i have more money with IB for that and the relative lack of intraday leverage.
also, the commissions can be great, me averaging about $2 per 1000 and as low as $1 on the good days when i am rarely stopped out.
i have had no issues with the customer service as it is all via online chat and they get to me quickly and at least ask if they have resoved the issue(or something like that). this is said after having to wait 20 minutes just to get someone online with esignal today, so...IB is good by me:D
 
I've been an IB customer twice. Most recently since about 2000. I have had a number of other brokers during that period (and still have 3 others) but IB gets all my activity.

Why IB?
- they are technically advanced, automating as much as possible which has always supported my needs.
- they are economically attractive (combining lowish costs, safety of funds, conservative (remember all the "the margins are criminally high" stuff)
- they support markets across the world (who isn't thinking about trading India then? I am)

I've got a number of degrees including an MBA with a dual Marketing/Finance major and always recall the importance of focus. Someone said "you can be cheap, good, and fast - but only two out of three." Well you can focus on Speed through automation, Cost effectiveness, and Customer Service - but only two out of three.

IB has the lowest proportion of CS people of any of my brokers ... but I do my business with them. Through relationships here on ET I've received excellent support from IB - hell they've changed their automation to meet my (/our) needs. I amuse them by kicking sand (and other stuff) in the face of some of the fools here and I'm sure that helped (haven't you ever worked for a company and wished you could tell some of the customers or prospects what fwits they really were?) But we have to remember that they are a company trying to be good at something and "it" doesn't always match our needs.

Although I haven't always felt love towards a CS person who lacks my education and can't understand why they simply shouldn't just believe me I have received excellent service from IB.
 
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