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Y0da
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Interactive Brokers the best broker out there?

June 3rd, 2011, 6:00 pm

Let's say a man with $100,000 or so wishes to trade in the global financial markets. Stocks, futures, bonds, currencies, whatnots. He has to be able to go long and short.Are Interactive Brokers known to be the very best brokers out there? Is this the only good broker out there? What do the real deal, professional traders out there use? What do you recommend?
 
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Caesaria
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Interactive Brokers the best broker out there?

June 3rd, 2011, 7:08 pm

Guess who else is out there.
 
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falcon00
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Interactive Brokers the best broker out there?

June 3rd, 2011, 7:29 pm

IB is who we use and they were recommended to us by an equity trader that runs about $20MM; it's what he uses and it was recommended to him by his mentor. We looked at several other options and it was the best one to go with. They have well documented APIs. They are well known so a lot of 3rd party tools are written with them in mind. Most importantly their commission for trading are dirt nothing compared to like TD Ameritrade or some other retail place.
 
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Y0da
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Interactive Brokers the best broker out there?

June 5th, 2011, 11:59 am

QuoteOriginally posted by: CaesariaGuess who else is out there.I have no idea. Therefore, my question.
 
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Y0da
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Interactive Brokers the best broker out there?

June 5th, 2011, 11:59 am

QuoteOriginally posted by: falcon00IB is who we use and they were recommended to us by an equity trader that runs about $20MM; it's what he uses and it was recommended to him by his mentor. We looked at several other options and it was the best one to go with. They have well documented APIs. They are well known so a lot of 3rd party tools are written with them in mind. Most importantly their commission for trading are dirt nothing compared to like TD Ameritrade or some other retail place.Thanks for this info!
 
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mit
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Interactive Brokers the best broker out there?

June 7th, 2011, 6:39 am

agree.IB is good.If you just want pure execution and nothing else, can look at just2trade as well.
 
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PIsquared
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Interactive Brokers the best broker out there?

June 7th, 2011, 8:02 am

I have never used IB. If you intend to trade in the order of more than 4 or 5k lots in futures contracts per month for instance, you could look at MF Global, Marex or the Kyte Group. Their rates are lower than retail brokers, and they offer a range of trading platforms with api.
 
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lexington
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Interactive Brokers the best broker out there?

June 7th, 2011, 12:32 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: CaesariaGuess who else is out there.https://www.thinkorswim.com/https://www ... nster.com/
 
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mit
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Interactive Brokers the best broker out there?

June 8th, 2011, 7:13 am

they are more expensive
 
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lexington
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Interactive Brokers the best broker out there?

June 8th, 2011, 1:23 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: mitthey are more expensivethey have better software and support. also $.50 difference in commission does not make any difference if you are making $$$$.
 
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Y0da
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Interactive Brokers the best broker out there?

June 8th, 2011, 7:09 pm

But I won't have much more than $100,000 any time soon. So you'd suggest IB right?Also, IB has best access to WORLD markets right? I don't just want to trade in the US and Canada, but across the world. IB have a lot of exchanges all over the world it seems.
 
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mit
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Interactive Brokers the best broker out there?

June 9th, 2011, 3:21 am

cant go wrong with ib
 
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Fermion
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Interactive Brokers the best broker out there?

June 9th, 2011, 4:32 am

A lot depends on your strategy. If you are well-hedged and market-neutral then you will probably want to take advantage of portfolio margining since separate independent margining of each trade will eat up your account quickly.Most brokers require >$1m in an account for portfolio margining, but I think IB demand only $100K. When I enquired recently with a sample equity option portfolio, IB's portfolio margining apparently gave me leverage of 90:1!!! Of course it would be extremely risky to employ such leverage, but it is better to have that freedom than not.
Last edited by Fermion on June 8th, 2011, 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
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VolMaster
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Interactive Brokers the best broker out there?

June 9th, 2011, 5:38 pm

IB is, by far, the best broker out there. Just my 2c...
 
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VolMaster
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Interactive Brokers the best broker out there?

June 9th, 2011, 5:38 pm

Last edited by VolMaster on June 8th, 2011, 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.