Best Thread Interactive Brokers

[m_grindy]

Hi, I'm just getting into day trading and would like some advice on setting up interactive brokers.

As far as I can tell it is one of only 2 interactive brokers in the UK as well as iDealing. However, with IB you get access to US markets, can Short and it can provide data for other charting software.

However, i notice it says you must spend ~$2000 dollars a month in commissions or it will be deducted from the initial £5000 deposit. This isn't particularl appropriate if you want to just get used to the software or are away for a month. Does this mean you will pay £1000 for being away for a month?

I currently use BARX (pretty bad) and iDealing, but don't have a charting software yet, or the ability to short or access to US equities.

Any suggestions?

 

[gilligullu]

You can experiment in the papertrading platform, that way you can get a good handle of the functions without making costly mistakes.

Best to check out the TWS User's Guide page 229.

Thanks! Shall have a good read at this!

 

[peto]

Hi, I'm just getting into day trading and would like some advice on setting up interactive brokers.

As far as I can tell it is one of only 2 interactive brokers in the UK as well as iDealing. However, with IB you get access to US markets, can Short and it can provide data for other charting software.

However, i notice it says you must spend ~$2000 dollars a month in commissions or it will be deducted from the initial £5000 deposit. This isn't particularl appropriate if you want to just get used to the software or are away for a month. Does this mean you will pay £1000 for being away for a month?

I currently use BARX (pretty bad) and iDealing, but don't have a charting software yet, or the ability to short or access to US equities.

Any suggestions?

Quote from IB website..."
IB caters to professional traders and investors and requires its customers to spend a monthly activity fee minimum which may include commissions, market data fees, special connection minimums and other fees. Those customers spending less than the activity fee minimums ($10) in any given month will be charged the difference between the minimum and the amount spent in a month.

In addition to monthly fee minimums we pass through market data fees from the exchanges for any real-time market data service in which a customer subscribes. Customers choosing to subscribe to US non-professional real-time market data will have the USD 10 (or USD equivalent) monthly fee waived if they spend USD 30 (or USD equivalent) or more in activity fees for the month. "

So 10 or 20 per month is all you pay for inactivity unless you subscribe to additional market data.

 

[m_grindy]

Thanks. I saw that on the website as well. However, I then saw this paragraph just after which confused me. Would anyone be able to clarify what it means?

Introducing Brokers Commissions Minimums:

A commission minimum of USD 2,000 (or equivalent) per month will be applied. In addition, a USD 10,000 (or equivalent) upfront deposit will be required that will be applied against commissions during the first five months of business. The USD 2,000 (or equivalent) monthly minimum will be waived during this period.

Does this mean you have to pay at least $2000 a month in commissions and fees? Surely not?

Thanks

 

[peto]

Thanks. I saw that on the website as well. However, I then saw this paragraph just after which confused me. Would anyone be able to clarify what it means?

Introducing Brokers Commissions Minimums:

A commission minimum of USD 2,000 (or equivalent) per month will be applied. In addition, a USD 10,000 (or equivalent) upfront deposit will be required that will be applied against commissions during the first five months of business. The USD 2,000 (or equivalent) monthly minimum will be waived during this period.

Does this mean you have to pay at least $2000 a month in commissions and fees? Surely not?

Thanks

This is a fee to an Introducing Broker. I assumed that you are a private individual, not a broker? An Introducing Broker (unfortunately also abbreviated to IB) is one who has his own clients, and earns a fee each time one of his clients places a trade through Interactive Brokers (possibly through a 'White Label' set-up where it appears to the client that the broker has his own branded platform).

 

[laminad123]

Can I trade TSE JGBs thru Interactive?
I have no set up atm. What would the costs be?
I see that commission including execution an clearing is JPY750 per side.

 

[Phil Mibbutz]

Pity IB's site is so confusing, with some of the links apparently leading in circles or to unavailable pages.

For a UK resident, trading mainly US indices, what are the costs: minimum initial deposit (in £), whether that has to be maintained, etc?

 

[firewalker99]

Pity IB's site is so confusing, with some of the links apparently leading in circles or to unavailable pages.

For a UK resident, trading mainly US indices, what are the costs: minimum initial deposit (in £), whether that has to be maintained, etc?

Required Minimums

Minimum 10000 USD initial deposit.
After that you can withdraw money, but you must have at least USD 2000 in your account to trade a margin account.

 

[molojo]

Can someone tell me what the smallest amounts are that I can trade on dow and main euro futures with interactive, I want to trade quite often per day but I only want to start in small sizes so I'm just weighing up the pros and cons of direct access with spread betting, many thanks

 

[peto]

Can someone tell me what the smallest amounts are that I can trade on dow and main euro futures with interactive, I want to trade quite often per day but I only want to start in small sizes so I'm just weighing up the pros and cons of direct access with spread betting, many thanks

The smallest contract will be the YM or mini Dow, one contract of which is worth $5 per point, and trades with a one point spread most of the time. The DAX is E12.50 per half-point, averages a 1 point spread (2 half points). Eurostox50 E10 per point, 1p spread.
Obviously these contracts are a fixed size regardless of which DA broker you choose.

 

[Hittfeld]

No, no, no

the EStx50 is € 10,00 per point only!!!!! So is the BUND! Both are recommended for starters, although moving slowly only. Faster ones that are small are IBEX and CAC40.

Kind regards

Hittfeld

 

[peto]

Thanx Hittfeld, E10 per point it is for the for the Eurostox ... oops. Original post now corrected

 

[cando22]

HI ALL,

i just opened a euro account with IB,im trading us equities and i was under the impression that when a trade was closed the profit or loss was automatically changed into the base currency, so imagine my surprise and horror when i discovered today that i was unknowingly holding a negitive dollar balance all bloody weekend!!

IB are very good but TWS is the work of satan and i dont think even einstein could figure it all out.

can someone please tell me if i need to manually convert back to base currency after every trade, im very greatfull for any advice, thanks.:smart:

 

[nine]

Leave your balance alone. You will accumulate positive or negative balances in various currencies and pay or be paid interest at the appropriate rate (you are only paid when over 10,000). Most of us just let it run and convert when there is a reason.

I wouldn't worry about a negative balance (calculate the interest to figure out if it concerns you) but if you are then just convert a larger amount of money to that currency now so that you can cover any negative USD balance. On the other hand, you can just make a few good trades

 

[cando22]

HI NINE,

Thanks for the advice,but am i not leaving myself open to currency exchange risks by having loads of loose ends hanging around so to speak.

 

[nine]

You will pay a lot for small adjustments but its your choice.

FWIW you have a 50% chance that currency will fluctuate in your favour.

 

[gc1]

Or, write yourself a spreadsheet to recalculate the offsetting position to avoid small currency amounts (only works for those pairs where one side is your main currency).

E.g. if your main currency is EUR and you are trading EUR/USD, as an example:

A 500,000 buy at say 1.5900 could be offset with a sell of 499,058 at 1.5930 or 500,945 at 1.5870 (or other figures in between), realising a P/L in EUR instead of USD.

Similarly for USD/JPY or USD/CHF etc. if you want to realise the P/L in USD instead of JPY or CHF recalculate the appropriate offsetting position.

Gets more complicated for scaling-in and scaling out etc. but still relatively easy to do.

 

[belflan]

Margin relief

my understanding is that IB have a margin requirement of 25% on US stocks


Do IB give margin relief if a customer holds a balanced portfolio of longs and shorts?

If IB do give margin relief on US stocks (for long/short portfolios), how much? and how is it calculated?


cheers
belflan

 

[dcraig1]

50% for overnight hold. 25% intraday. Which I believe is Reg T margin.

For accounts > 100K (or something like that) they offer "portfolio margin". The rules are complicated and I don't pretend to understand them, but do not necessarily give lower margin requirements on mixed long/short portfolios - it depends on instrument volatility I think.

 

[belflan]

50% for overnight hold. 25% intraday. Which I believe is Reg T margin.

thanks dc,

didn't actually realise it was 50% for overnight, hmmm

what do mean by reg T margin?

volatility of the stock traded should make quite a bit of a difference. I would think. A large underlining positions in a large cap dow stock would be hugely different to the same sized position in a aapl or rimm the that swing about alot more.

really makes you think about all the stuff Grey1 talks about an instruments volatility etc

cheers
belflan