IBKR - Interactive Brokers

[Jurgis]

You have never used IB right? If there is a broker where almost everything almost always works and is processed correctly it is IB.

Wrong. I have an account with IBKR. Like I said before: awful.

I only have it because it's managed by someone else and they rely on IBKR's platform to do this (this was covered in the thread about separately managed accounts).
To be honest, even though performance of person managing it is great, I have periodic thoughts to close the account because of IBKRs horribleness.
So far I endure.
Edit: Ask me again at tax time - I expect the online Turbo Tax nightmare. Perhaps I will be surprised on the bright side. This does not apply to you as you are not in USA.
Perhaps this also answers to Liberty regarding the pain threshold of delta compounding.

[thepupil]

Jurgis, can you be more specific?

I'm an IBKR fanboy and don't understand how one can come to your conclusion. Everything seems very cheap and easy on IB.

[Jurgis]

thepupil: I'd have to sit down with you and show the stuff that grates me on their website. I don't think I can express it easily with text. Sorry.

The tax worries are still in the future. This is right now second-hand info. AFAIK they support Turbo Tax, but not Turbo Tax Online. I'd be very happy to hear differently. (Also I am concerned about the foreign currency tax importing, but this would be the same for any broker).

I did not call their customer service - as I said, I don't have my main account there - so this is only second-hand info. Perhaps they are comparable to Fido. From what I hear, they are not.

I am pretty sure they don't support solo 401(k)s like Fido.

Edit: Do they allow buying individual bonds? I do that on Fido. Not a huge deal possibly.

I agree that their two-factor authentication is great and that commissions are great if you manage to setup things in the right way and you don't fall into one of their "beware" holes (so far I only saw "minimal monthly fee" because of too few trades or something like that).

Hope this helps.

[benhacker]

Edit: Do they allow buying individual bonds? I do that on Fido. Not a huge deal possibly.

Yes, they do (both US and globally)... limitation exists still on convertible bonds generally, so that is a problem.

On the upside, they allow you to place limits that are exposed on Bonddesk unlike FoK orders for bonds at Fido and all other retail brokers that I'm aware of.  This exists at IB because their model isn't to profit by being a dealer in bonds, only on transaction volume / commish.

As said before, I think there probably should be two brokers - Fido (SCHW is good too) and IBKR.  It's telling that everyone is arguing over those two, not whether the literally dozens of other mediocre brokers should exist.  Lots of consolidation is going to happen in this industry.

[Hielko]

I guess that's a good point, I'm very happy with IB, but since I'm not based in the US I can't use Fido (or SCHW).

[kirkomi]

Based in Switzerland. IB is hands down the best. Have had several interactions with the customer service, was always satisfied.

Don't like the web platform, use their TraderWorkStation (TWS) client in the simple form. Quite effective.

[theasiareport]

I've used IB since 2014, and have no complaints. Its the best broker I've used by far - although the interface takes a little time to get used to. Still, it isn't harder then using a Bloomberg terminal.

[frommi]

I've used IB since 2014, and have no complaints. Its the best broker I've used by far - although the interface takes a little time to get used to. Still, it isn't harder then using a Bloomberg terminal.

Same here, and after calling the support i was pleasantly surprised. When someone has problems with the interface i can only advise to use the iphone or ipad apps, they are very easy to use.
In europe there is nothing that comes even close to IB`s stability, security and pricing.

[ABM]

Anyone consider the credit risk embedded on the margin loans ?  My thesis relies on continued margin debt growth but as a % of net equity capital it is already the highest amoung peers.  It posted a 34% CAGR (2011-2014) vs. peer average of 14% growth.  I believe they want to hold excess capital  to absorb ST losses on its loan book in the events of severe market turmoil similar to the Swiss surprise revaluation in January. 

I compared them to SCHW, AMTD, and ETFC.  As of Q2 2015, it looks like for every dollar of capital they 3.63 dollars of loans compared to 1.77 at their peers.  I understand everyone's mix is a bit different as SCHW has a banking business but in terms of margin loans it still interesting.

Margin Loans - % of Equity Capital                
                     

2012      2013      2014    Q2 2015 Schwab                140%   134%   133%   130% TD Ameritrade       195%   192%   245%   258% Etrade                 118%   131%   143%   142% IBKR                  205%   267%   329%   363% Average               165%   181%   212%   223%

Anyone worried ?

[rpadebet]

Look up what IB does when customers hit margin limit and compare that to what others do...
I think that limits credit risk and that's why they can afford to have capacity to lend more...risk management.

The more I dig into this company, the more I like it. It is potentially the geico of our investing careers. All we need now is a regulation requiring everyone own a brokerage account and trade stocks. That would be perfect.