Yeah, first pass over the IB materials; seems built for real dudes. Desktop and mobile looks good, on big money the commission and margin rates are WAY lower, access to global exchanges, plus they have advanced stuff like API and such. Fees are more complex and account minimum is higher, which probably turns off the noobs (a good thing).
I think the account minimum is like $10K right? I funded it with that much just to try it out.
I haven’t tried the mobile app but the desktop app is very intuitive and I had it up and running within 2 minutes. It’s much easier to set limit orders and other types of trading setups than the web-based interfaces I’ve seen (TD and Fidelity in particular). You just get a lot more control and real-time feedback about what is happening. You can also buy level 2 order data for a low cost if that is important to you. I like to see the depth of the market when I am putting positions on, in particular on the short side. I always feel like I am about to get my face ripped off by an algo with the web-based interfaces.
I don’t have a table of commission schedules but given the ease of trading using the application, I wouldn’t be surprised if IB ends up being lower even if the rates are the same as elsewhere because you can just control the trading a lot better. IB is known for having somewhat higher rebate rates compared to some other brokers but that’s the cost to play – you can get borrow at IB that you can’t find anywhere else.
That’s all you need.
Regarding leverage using Interactive Brokers… So while waiting for my new IB account, I played with their Portfolio Margin Simulation. Started with $500K and went long US equities, it allowed me to buy $2.5M, 5X before I started getting warning messages “you are approaching margin requirement, asshole”. At 6.7X it officially started selling my securities when the market dropped (they don’t do margin calls). Dudes, that’s enough leverage to blow yourself into oblivion, I like it. Also, on a $1M AAPL trade the simulated transaction fee was only like $3. Also ran a simulation long/short using broad market ETFs. This one allowed me to buy infinite securities…it never seemed to increase my margin requirement as long as I kept everything hedged (I went to 20X). So I question the accuracy of the simulation. The margin rates are fantastic; on $1M the blended rate is 1.12% vs 6.75% for Schwab. With cheap money and low transaction fees it seems like it opens up all sorts of possibilities with options/hedging.
Yep, it’s for power users. I definitely prefer IB to everything else. Don’t blow up though, lol.
But if you do blow up, please post it first on AF.
Sorry, incoherent rant coming… Dudes, WTF is going on with the USA and being in control of our own money? It seems like it’s nearly impossible to move around large amounts these days. Not only internationally but domestically. My bank won’t let me wire more than a fairly small amount at a time, it would take a dozen wires, with fees each time. IB’s ACH policies also has limits, you need 100K for a portfolio margin account, yet their own limits make it difficult to get that money in there! Just got off the phone with the bank, basically there is no way to do it period, without me going into a branch (which means a $2K plane ticket to the states). I’m like “so obviously there are customers will millions, and they need to move that to/from their stock account, what do these customers do?”. High school drop out chick is like “don’t know, you would have to go to a branch and apply for a different account, but there will be fees/limits on those too, and it can’t be done over the phone”. So again, check mate unless I actually fly there. I think I can have IB send me an electronic device (to Asia) that displays some code that allows me to do unlimited ACH, maybe, although my bank might still get in the way with monthly movement limits. Change bank? W…T…F…
Lol wait until you see their decoder ring security setup, you will love that. Very difficult to move money in the US…
+1 
It’s unlikely I’ll blow myself up, but if it happens will certainly share first thing on AF.
Now back to researching banks, hmm “CitiGold International”, golly that sure sounds fancy! Perhaps they allow fucking wires?!
It’s money laundering and patroit act stuff.
how many transactions are you plannning on doing to justify the free ETF trades?
that said, i use Schwab daily for the last 5 years and have no complaints. In fact i like them better than the other big players (Pershing/Fidelity) I have never used Scotttrade so I can’t speak for them. But I am happy with Schwab and will continue to do the majority of my business there if possible.
you should :squint:
i wouldn’t be going to a discount broker at all if you’re looking for anything complex or unique
If you’re trading for your own account, you really have no other choice. The only party that should be using a full service brokerage is an institution to get institutional pricing and service. Other than that, for your own account, you really can only be going through a discount brokerage.
noob question - how can you tell?
lol no
I have Fidelity and Schwab at the moment. I had IB and loved it when I traded more frequently.
I’ve only had the Schwab account for about a year and it hasn’t given me any problems so far. Decent customer service.
Fidelity I’ve had forever for my brokerage and Roth.
Here are some Fidelity stories:
I once put in a limit buy order for 250 shares of a fairly liquid stock. On day one, they executed ONE share of my order, as I apparently caught the low tick of the day, and some computer was willing to sell me a single share. The next day, the stock sold off over night, and opened about $0.05 below my limit price. Yet somehow my order executed at my limit price. I paid commission twice for this outstanding service.
The other day I tried to buy an international stock that trades in Greece. Of course I can not do this online since I do not have adequate permissions. So after 3 phone calls, I was finally given permission to trade international stocks. BUT NO, not in my tax exempt account. That required additional phone calls and manual overrides, and paying not only the international commission, but the broker assisted commission.
You must have a much bigger account than me or many of the HNW clients I have worked with, because dealing with a full sevice brokerage even at the HNW level is not economical. What do you propose then? LOL HEHE
if you are looking for margin, shorts and/or best fills…discount brokers are not for you
small vanilla trades? sure