Interactive Brokers - Pros and cons?

#1
I trade stocks and options frequently and am not happy with my current broker.
Does anyone here trade with IB? What do you think of them? Is the platform intuitive?
 
#2
I trade stocks and options frequently and am not happy with my current broker.
Does anyone here trade with IB? What do you think of them? Is the platform intuitive?
I trade through Interactive Brokers...their platform, back office, reports are very good.Dont expect any service from them as they have a very small India office....

Trading platform is fantastic...( but not clear what you meant by "intuitive") if you mean that trading platform intuitively take buy/sell trades ...then it is not intuitive.I have not used their algo trading facilities as I am pretty dumb in that area.

Another problem area is they keep their brokerage closed on foreign holidays like Good Friday even if Indian market is trading on these days....that is really irritating.

They are very safe to trade with large funds.

Smart_trade
 
#3
I meant to ask if their platform is easy to use or if it is confusing.

Their commissions look very good, I wonder why everyone isn't using them.
Perhaps because can't trade on foreign holidays?
 
#4
I meant to ask if their platform is easy to use or if it is confusing.

Their commissions look very good, I wonder why everyone isn't using them.
Perhaps because can't trade on foreign holidays?
High entry cost...they need min liquid assets ( bank FD, and bank balance of 25 Lakhs...they are very strict in KYC. Also they charge min brokerage of some 350 Rs per month ( not sure of this amount..but it is small) irrespective of you trade or not. Also they need a min free margin of 1 L ( meaning not stuck up in any position)
If the margin drops below that there is a penalty....they have a good call and trade facility but they charge heavy for that, some 250 Rs per order....

Platform is very easy...they have platforms as Chart Trader, Options trader etc....very good platform...bit heavy on our computer memory.

Smart_trade
 
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mastermind007

Well-Known Member
#5
I trade stocks and options frequently and am not happy with my current broker.
Does anyone here trade with IB? What do you think of them? Is the platform intuitive?
I would recommend to go with Sharekhan. Its Indian broker with very good terminal. Their brokerages are expensive relative to other brokers and you can negotiate down a bit but not too much.

On a plus point, their contract notes are generally error free; Access to equity in DP account is smooth and you can monitor portfolio value in real time without resorting to excel like stuff.

They do not penalize you for trading on BSE and they do not steal pennies like unnecessary rounding offs unlike most other brokers.
 
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#6
>>>They do not penalize you for trading on BSE and they do not steal pennies like unnecessary rounding offs unlike most other brokers.

Does Interactive Brokers penalize for trading on the BSE?

Can you negotiate with Interactive Brokers at all?
 
#7
I have been trading thro' IB since 2011 (used to live at Hong Kong and IB provided me with a seamless global platform). When i came back to India, I started with IB in early 2013 and its been good going.

IB - Its only NSE and limited to A group. Even if you hold a A group company and its gets transferred to B, then you cannot place orders.

Holidays - I have not found that as an issue. They do not let you trade on Saturdays when NSE runs those tests.

Monthly min broking is USD 5 (comes to Rs 300 now).

Platform is phenomenal. The TWS mosaic screen lets me group holdings the way I want to. The EoD report (available at around 11 AM the next day) is great.

Let me know if you have been able to negotiate (I did not).
 
#8
Had my first issue today with respect to the stock split on AXISBANK. The margin was blocked due to that. They have promised to clear it by tonight. Seems most of their database update happens during US hours and we are hit by that.
 
#9
ib is fantastic except for the liquidity position which is USD 2000 in indian currency

all the software is very good and the trading software can be amibroker & multicharts.net if you want.

which means that you can almost automate your trading if you want to go in that direction.

if you want to do manual trading you can do that also via that chart trader or option trader.
 

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