why are there no other brokers compete directly with IB?

trend2009 said:
lightspeed's margin rate is 5-6%, IB is 1.5%. lightspeed also has a higher commission rate than ib. lightspeed is certainly closest to meeting my needs among other brokers, but still a few miles away if compared with IB. I will park some of trades at lightspeed in the near future when my new model is ready. I have paid IB close to 2 million commission so far, but did not feel IB appreciate my business.
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Wait what? How did you pay 2m in comm?
 
terr said:
IB's API is horrible. No one in their right mind would copy it.
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Compared to the competition it's fantastic. Which competitor can provide as much information for so many asset classes? I don't mean some basic web socket crap of "give me the last close".
 
tonyf said:
I like their Excel DDE actually....not so much the ActiveX. It does what it says.
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If found the Excel DDE to be buggy garbage but it's not the fault of IB but the technology itself.
 
def said:
Running a global brokerage is a huge undertaking. Anyone can route an order but there are serious costs involved - not just on the routing side but increasingly legal and compliance as well as operations (corp actions, stock loan, settlement), treasury, regulations and financial reporting which differ and often contradict each other from jurisdiction to jurisdiction - especially in regards to how client money is handled. Then there is treasury, client service, tech support, languages, financial audits, software updates and maintenance. Street wide testing, Contract updates, Data re-distribution and more. Frankly, it isn't as simple as it seems. And don't forget capital requirements which are critical. What many may not know is that a large number of brokers utilize our services to route into their foreign markets as we can do it at a much cheaper cost relative to them doing it themselves. We are unique in that we have been doing this a long time, have been fortunate to have great stability with senior management and personnel and have the ability to think long term.
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One thing I've asked IB about is some sort of customer loyalty value. Most brokers offer tiers that stick, meaning if I've done 300k shares per month for multiple months in a row, I will not start off at the lowest tier the following month. Lightspeed offers this and some others, why not IB? It's not an unreasonable ask.
 
d08 said:
One thing I've asked IB about is some sort of customer loyalty value. Most brokers offer tiers that stick, meaning if I've done 300k shares per month for multiple months in a row, I will not start off at the lowest tier the following month. Lightspeed offers this and some others, why not IB? It's not an unreasonable ask.
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I have asked for the same and been told no. I have since cut down significantly the amount I volume I trade.
Have you tried that with IB Prime (institutional)?
 
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