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Interactive Brokers - experiences and opinions

  • #221
  • Jun 27, 2009 3:00am Jun 27, 2009 3:00am
Quoting johnlucas
Hi, I've used IB for forex for 7 months back in 2007. I had a bad experience with them mainly due to the 3 following elements:

1) TWS, their application, is buggy and not user friendly
2) the customer support is terrible
3) P&L for forex is reported in the various currencies traded and you have manually to convert them to your account base currency (paying commissions on those conversions).

The good thing is that their fx commissions are the among the lowest.

I don't know how the situation has become in 2009, but I wouldn't try to find out myself....
Sorry but i use IB every day for almost 3 years now, to trade forex only, with the exact opposite results.

1)TWS is VERY stable, never had a crash.
2)the customer service is very good recently, i had a fine experience yesterday on their live chat, the guy there spent half an hour with me, live, explaining the creation of custom buttons for specific trades.
3)P&L for forex is ALWAYS in traded currencies on ALL the serious ECN platforms. If you don't like that, there is also the MT4 thing and oanda....good luck with them..
  • #222
  • Jun 27, 2009 3:26am Jun 27, 2009 3:26am
Quoting shrike
They will never do it, but i guess they could attract additional business if they would offer f/x only accounts, and lease a simple but stable native win32 order-entry application (i.e. like this ), connecting via fix and not tws-api. But no, they keep going with what is effectively an endured beta-test with semi-working updates every week or two.

the internet is the place where anybody can write anything... The "beta" you mention has 10 years of development on the back (build 895 now), there are 7-10 updates per year, adding new tools always...And, sorry to say this, they are very stable and working...I don't work for them, i am not a software developper, i am a user, i traded hundreds of millions with them.. What can I say more?

IB is not mandatory for anybody, there is also the MT4 masterpiece and bucket shops for non-believers...
  • #223
  • Jun 27, 2009 4:10am Jun 27, 2009 4:10am
Quoting ikons8
the internet is the place where anybody can write anything... The "beta" you mention has 10 years of development on the back (build 895 now), there are 7-10 updates per year, adding new tools always...And, sorry to say this, they are very stable and working...I don't work for them, i am not a software developper, i am a user, i traded hundreds of millions with them.. What can I say more?

IB is not mandatory for anybody, there is also the MT4 masterpiece and bucket shops for non-believers...
Hi ikons8,

I would not be sure of saying that the alternative of IB is MT4 or the "bucket shops". I would accept hearing this statement from someone with a very little experience in spot fx trading...

That said, I am happy for you if your experience with IB is good, because, if your are not an IB introducing broker, nor am I an introducing broker for someone else so I have nothing aginst IB, apart my bad experience with them, that you cannot deny or justify.

cheers.
  • #224
  • Jun 27, 2009 4:50am Jun 27, 2009 4:50am
Quoting johnlucas

That said, I am happy for you if your experience with IB is good, because, if your are not an IB introducing broker, nor am I an introducing broker for someone else so I have nothing aginst IB, apart my bad experience with them, that you cannot deny or justify.

cheers.
I didn't want to offend you. I don't deny your experience, i only give mine here, which happens to be longer in duration. And I repeat, i don't have any kind of correlation with IB, i am only a (happy) client of them.
  • #225
  • Jun 27, 2009 5:15am Jun 27, 2009 5:15am
ib quotes in 0.5 pips, don't they?
  • #226
  • Jun 27, 2009 5:38am Jun 27, 2009 5:38am
Quoting blazespinnaker
ib quotes in 0.5 pips, don't they?
only on the platform, for viewing simplicity. The real trades have 6-10 decimals.
  • #227
  • Jun 27, 2009 11:28am Jun 27, 2009 11:28am
Can you tell me if i can trade on IB Ideal Pro with NinjaTrader or other software?

At moment i have an MB-Trading account and i'm scalping the eur/usd very much but their commission is too expensive and then the spread is overall 2,4 pips.
  • #228
  • Jun 28, 2009 4:17am Jun 28, 2009 4:17am
Quoting Mr-Forex
Can you tell me if i can trade on IB Ideal Pro with NinjaTrader or other software?

yes, you can. I do exactly this.
  • #229
  • Jun 29, 2009 5:23pm Jun 29, 2009 5:23pm
Quoting johnlucas
I agree with Levent 100%. Same bad experience with them. If customer service and a bit user friendly interface make sense to you (and they should, in my opinion) stay away from IB. As a side note: their commissions are among the lowest, but who cares when you have to convert "worthless pennies" to your base account and paying commissions on them (minimum is 2.5 USD for each conversion?).
happy trading.

The conversion is a matter of all non-base currency trades. If you think long and hard about it....it makes sense. If I buy stocks in Hong Kong, I can't do it with US Dollars, no matter how much I want to.

Plus.....if you don't convert right away, sometimes you gain more when you eventually do.

Also, someone was bitching about the currencies being shown in Yen, Pounds, or whatever you are trading.....

Go to Global Config>Display>(cant remember name, 3rd or 4th line....)>Show all balances in Local Currency.

Problem solved.

You have to realize it's not for everyone. If you are looking to trade small trades, then the $5 round turn will kill ya. But if it's saving you 7 pips on 2 full lots in a AUD/JPY trade - that's a whole different story.

The customer service sucks ass though. I agree 150%

The slippage that was referred to is because you were using IDEAL...which is for non-leveraged conversions.....just like that damn manual says.


CW
  • #230
  • Jul 21, 2009 8:38am Jul 21, 2009 8:38am
can someone explain to me how to put in a buy or sell stop?

god mt4 is so much more straight forward...

say mt4 price is currently at say $10.00 , I want to sell(short) at $9.50 (so i use a sell stop) with a stop loss at $10.50 and a take profit at $8.00.... how on earth do I do this in IB?
Grabbing the bull by the horns!
  • #231
  • Jul 21, 2009 8:42am Jul 21, 2009 8:42am
Quoting whitegoodman
can someone explain to me how to put in a buy or sell stop?

god mt4 is so much more straight forward...

say mt4 price is currently at say $10.00 , I want to sell(short) at $9.50 (so i use a sell stop) with a stop loss at $10.50 and a take profit at $8.00.... how on earth do I do this in IB?
I am scared by you guys so I have not yet deposit to IntBrker yet

is it so hard to handle the software? they don't allow demo before deposit.
  • #232
  • Jul 21, 2009 8:54am Jul 21, 2009 8:54am
Quoting billye
I am scared by you guys so I have not yet deposit to IntBrker yet

is it so hard to handle the software? they don't allow demo before deposit.
to get a demo you have to have an account, in which you need to deposit.... though you can deposit than withdraw and still have the account open i think...

im not placing a trade live till ive worked out how to work their amateur platform
Grabbing the bull by the horns!
  • #233
  • Jul 21, 2009 9:19am Jul 21, 2009 9:19am
Quoting whitegoodman
to get a demo you have to have an account, in which you need to deposit.... though you can deposit than withdraw and still have the account open i think...

im not placing a trade live till ive worked out how to work their amateur platform

I am live with them now best broker I have have used.

.5 spreads on cable tonight with lowest retail coms for ecn on a 10K deposit.

No complaints from me, never leaving EVER!

may plug into paid Ninja in future.

White go on the site watch the webinars if still no good call them. But explain you could not find it on the webinar.

CS can get touchy I hear!
  • #234
  • Jul 21, 2009 9:19am Jul 21, 2009 9:19am
Quoting billye
I am scared by you guys so I have not yet deposit to IntBrker yet

is it so hard to handle the software? they don't allow demo before deposit.
keep-on enjoying the bucket shops Billy......
  • #235
  • Jul 21, 2009 10:03am Jul 21, 2009 10:03am
Quoting whitegoodman
can someone explain to me how to put in a buy or sell stop?

god mt4 is so much more straight forward...

say mt4 price is currently at say $10.00 , I want to sell(short) at $9.50 (so i use a sell stop) with a stop loss at $10.50 and a take profit at $8.00.... how on earth do I do this in IB?
Its easy and well explained in the manual, actually its too easy. I normally setup the following BreakOut order:

If price ABOVE breakout value ( high + 15 pips) buy , set take profit at... stoploss at.... or if time 4:55 get out at market

BUT if price BELOW breakout value (low - 10)) sell,..............

If ONE is done CANCEL the other

Its an easy to do OCA-group order.

The other point is, you can define the character of a stop loss price, for example that price must be touched 6 times, before it is triggered.....

The funny thing is, although the TWS is a rather complicated powerful engine, it can be handled rather easily (and quickly) ...if you study the manuals, watch the webinars, movies etc.

Yes IB is notoriously unwilling in handhelding newbies (and crybabies) but they are most competent and helpful at real problems of real traders.

Likewise the charting part is rather poor compared to todays standards, but its just an add on (poor mans solution) if you can`t afford a decent charting software (or excellent free quotetracker software utilising the api) which even wasn`t available when I started trading with IB.

BUt you get the best prices, executions, "quality of an industrial strength product", which really earns you pips, whilst with any MT4 dealer your still on the wrong side of the spread.

Regards

Forex37
  • #236
  • Jul 22, 2009 12:31am Jul 22, 2009 12:31am
didnt know there was a manual, ill go have a look tonight at that and the webinars, cheers for the help guys
Grabbing the bull by the horns!
  • #237
  • Jul 22, 2009 2:26am Jul 22, 2009 2:26am
Here you will find the manuals and guides:

http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en...?ib_entity=llc

Regards

Forex37
  • #238
  • Jul 22, 2009 7:42pm Jul 22, 2009 7:42pm
get into em White there are heaps....

on FX Trader the preset stops are amazing. plus we have depth and a trade book for FX how good is that!
  • #239
  • Jul 22, 2009 8:11pm Jul 22, 2009 8:11pm
looks the goods, i worked out how to do what I wanted for my first stock trade last night...

did a MIT order with a bracket for stop loss and take profit...

i'll be looking more into its functionality etc tonight... like putting 2 trades in, and having one cancelled when one gets triggered.
Grabbing the bull by the horns!
  • #240
  • Jul 23, 2009 1:38pm Jul 23, 2009 1:38pm
It appears that IBs platform takes a long time to master. It's a new skill all in itself. The question is if the benefit of mastering the platform pays for the considerable amount of time lost? Does it have so many functions that it definitely gives the trader an edge over others with simpler platforms?
freedom
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