Why IB ranked so low in 2006 US futures brokers list ?

Quote from joesan:

Thanks guys for your clarification.

Oldtrader, you mentioned T-bills. I have one further question about T-bills. Currently part of the money not used as margin exists as cash in my IB accounts. If I buy T-bills, will this bring me more interest gains than the interest that IB is paying to its customers.
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A quick look shows T bills currently yielding:

1 month: 4.98
3 months: 4.88
6 months 4.96

So yes, if you account for the state/local tax exemption, T bills do yield slightly more than the 5.051% (beyond 100k) earned on USD at IB, but not much more except maybe for NYC & Yonkers residents. :-)
 
Quote from Pa(b)st Prime:

Hey OT! My Chinese comprehension is only so-so :p but that's a list of top FCM's ranked by customer funds. I don't know if "most people" are shifting money back and forth but certainly others are doing as you.

Two things keep IB relatively low on the list. One they're primarily a retail shop. A customer of PIMCO's ilk can elevate a firm pretty high. Also IB really isn't in the CTA game.

Frankly I'm surprised IB is so low but also keep in mind futures are leveraged and retail account sizes are typically small.
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Hi Pabst. Not only are they shifting money as I am.....none of even have a choice. LOL! It's automatic. The money is held in the securities side, and only shifted for overnight trades, automatically shifted back when the overnight trade is closed. That's it. These "shifts" are all handled within the Universal account. And excellent innovation by the way since your unused funds are insured by SIPC (unlike regular commodity accounts) as per the SIPC rules, and meanwhile, your funds are earning interest at IB rates, which I think are pretty good.

Hard to estimate the size of this excess funds thing, since I don't exactly know who the customers are. But put it this way: if you're a guy with $25K, daytrading a few ES per day, the whole $25K sits on the securities side. If you hold 2 overnight...they're going to shift approx $8K to the commodity side, leaving approx $17K in the securities side.

IF IB's typical customer is this mythical daytrader, then the equity on the commodity side is WAY, WAY understated. I don't know where that puts them on the list....but I know it puts them higher than they are.

OldTrader
 
Quote from joesan:

Thanks guys for your clarification.

Oldtrader, you mentioned T-bills. I have one further question about T-bills. Currently part of the money not used as margin exists as cash in my IB accounts. If I buy T-bills, will this bring me more interest gains than the interest that IB is paying to its customers.
More...

My understanding is that IB only permits T-Bill purchase in 1MM amounts. But check it out on their website. But my opinion is that IB pays a competitive rate. While they don't pay on the first $10K, that problem is minimized depending on the size of your account. And too, if you were to buy T-Bills, you're not going to be able to put all your funds in Bills since you have to have excess cash in case some of your trades are losers, such that whatever this amount is ameliorates the first $10K issue.

OldTrader
 
Thanks for the information. I never know IB give customer's cash a 5.051% annual rate. ( In China, usually you get close to zero interest for any money in your futures trading account) I will search IB site for the related details. Now I have some idea why every morning I find some more bucks in my IB account. :-)






Quote from rayl:

A quick look shows T bills currently yielding:

1 month: 4.98
3 months: 4.88
6 months 4.96

So yes, if you account for the state/local tax exemption, T bills do yield slightly more than the 5.051% (beyond 100k) earned on USD at IB, but not much more except maybe for NYC & Yonkers residents. :-)
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:D
 
Thanks Oldtrader, I'll check the site.



Quote from OldTrader:

My understanding is that IB only permits T-Bill purchase in 1MM amounts. But check it out on their website. But my opinion is that IB pays a competitive rate. While they don't pay on the first $10K, that problem is minimized depending on the size of your account. And too, if you were to buy T-Bills, you're not going to be able to put all your funds in Bills since you have to have excess cash in case some of your trades are losers, such that whatever this amount is ameliorates the first $10K issue.

OldTrader
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<<<Two things keep IB relatively low on the list. One they're primarily a retail shop. A customer of PIMCO's ilk can elevate a firm pretty high. Also IB really isn't in the CTA game. >>>

What does "IB really isn't in the CTA game." mean?

Does IB support CTA?
 
<<<Hard to estimate the size of this excess funds thing, since I don't exactly know who the customers are. But put it this way: if you're a guy with $25K, daytrading a few ES per day, the whole $25K sits on the securities side. If you hold 2 overnight...they're going to shift approx $8K to the commodity side, leaving approx $17K in the securities side.>>>


In above example, do you recevie interest for such $8K in the commodity side?
 
more interested in the total equity held by customers.... IB only a measely 450m???

i would figure someone on this board had that much PP lol
 
Quote from OTCkrak:

more interested in the total equity held by customers.... IB only a measely 450m???

i would figure someone on this board had that much PP lol
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The 10Q lists customer equity at 6.9B at the end of Q1/2007 across 82k customers, so the avg. account size is ~84k equity.
 
Quote from dabao91:

<<<Hard to estimate the size of this excess funds thing, since I don't exactly know who the customers are. But put it this way: if you're a guy with $25K, daytrading a few ES per day, the whole $25K sits on the securities side. If you hold 2 overnight...they're going to shift approx $8K to the commodity side, leaving approx $17K in the securities side.>>>


In above example, do you recevie interest for such $8K in the commodity side?
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I would like to know that too
 
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