Brokerage/platforms terrible in Oz

[elbee]

This is getting quite silly.
The unequivocal legal position is that the client is the beneficial owner and entitled to all benefits.
IB's model is not unusual for large clients/institutions with other brokers.
Look at the largest shareholder listing for any big company and you will see they are mostly nominee companies - ie they are shares held on behalf of someone else.
As has been stated before, if this is of concern to you then you should not be trading with IB. There are plenty of retail oriented brokers to choose from.

 

[RichKid]

This is getting quite silly.
The unequivocal legal position is that the client is the beneficial owner and entitled to all benefits.
IB's model is not unusual for large clients/institutions with other brokers.
Look at the largest shareholder listing for any big company and you will see they are mostly nominee companies - ie they are shares held on behalf of someone else.
As has been stated before, if this is of concern to you then you should not be trading with IB. There are plenty of retail oriented brokers to choose from.

Here, we are looking at an international broker holding retail client stock (rather than nominee companies investing in other companies) in comparison to the direct and more transparent holding structure of CHESS.

Another point of distinction is that larger instos would have more influence and clout when it comes to protecting their holdings and enforcing their rights than a small retail investor. Presumably, they would know the exact financial and ownership structure of the company concerned and how their legal title has been affected as they would be well advised by laywers and accountants. Retail investors rely more on public documentation and representations from retail customer service staff. Here on ASF, we have been fortunate to have a senior IB representative's direct input (Steve-IB) so our better informed than otherwise would be the case.

On the whole it appears that the clarification we've received so far is the full extent of the explanation as to the holding structure. As it is different to the CHESS structure there is always going to be some level of discomfort to some.

As elbee points out, potential clients are now free to choose from the range of brokers with the information at hand in mind.
I'm sure that IB is constantly working at improving and refining communicating information about itself to clients. More detailed information may be forthcoming in future.

This issue may have to be laid to rest for the time being.

PS: Steve, if you want to discuss some of the tax forms and get member feedback here on ASF you are most welcome. You may start a new thread and post attachments as examples.

 

[Steve-IB]

Interactive Brokers Group first quarter results were announced last week, the press release is here:
http://investors.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/about/mediaRelations/04-24-08.php?ib_entity=llc

 

[cutz]

Hi Guys

What is the process involved for transfering money from an Australian bank account to the IB account and vice versa, is a bank account also set up when creating an IB account and is it a matter of doing BPay/Pay Anyone transfers?
I am looking at setting up an IB account in the future.

Thanks in advance,

Cutz.

 

[oldpos]

Personally, I am finding that IB is not suitable for small traders, so I have decided to transfer my holdings to a local broker. I find them much more managable and really no more expensive. IB doesn't pay any interest on cash held up to $15,000 and to my dismay, when I requested to transfer my stock over to my new broker, they stated:

"Please be advised that the service charges for transferring out will be USD 100.00 for the first stock and USD 25.00 per stock thereafter."

What a pathetic situation. All brokers that I know of will allow free transfers of currently held stock to IB but when the tables are turned IB comes out with this crap. While with IB I have made many, many trades as well as parking large amounts of cash with them for little return. The problem now is that I don't wish to sell my current stock at this time because of the flat prices. This is definitely not good enough, IB should be ashamed!

All you thinking about IB being better than "Brokerage/platforms terrible in Oz" - Don't say I didn't warn you ......

 

[amy997]

Did everyone whose money went into IB as unidentified funds get their money back? NAB left the critical details off my deposit last week and it looks like its going to be a tough job to get it back

 

[cutz]

Hi

Does anybody use webiress for trading aussie options ? what are your thoughts, i have tried to download a demo but i havn't had to much success getting it up and running.

Thanks,

Cutz.

 

[sails]

Hi

Does anybody use webiress for trading aussie options ? what are your thoughts, i have tried to download a demo but i havn't had to much success getting it up and running.

Thanks,

Cutz.

Yes, I have used it for option trading for a few years. I've found it's good and fast for single option trades - unfortunately WebIress haven't yet made spread trading available so these usually have to be phoned or emailed to a broker. However, once the the broker sets the spread order into the system, that particular spread then is assigned a unique code. I can then modify the order quickly online as much as I like without contacting the broker again.

I like the fact that WI updates dynamically and has quite a few features useful to option trading.

Have a look at this link for system requirements for WI: http://web.iress.com.au/info/requirements.htm and this one for troubleshooting: http://web.iress.com.au/info/troubleshooting.htm

Hope this helps!

 

[cutz]

sails,

thanks for the info.

 

[Seneca60BC]

Can someone please confirm this -

Do I need the ASX datafeed to trade aussie shares? I will be using the web trader platform and I am not looking for live streaming data - only the highest bid ask spread?

For example, I want to short AMP, I can look at my commsec account, and then place a trade in IB.

So the question is do i or dont i need the live ASX datafeed to trade aussie shares via Interactive Brokers ?

Thanks

 

[IFocus]

Seneca60BC you do not need to have ASX data turned on to place trades on the IB plateform.

During the application stage you get asked to select the data feeds you require and at this point it shows the price for each feed. You can just select the free data feeds and ignore all the rest.

I don't use ASX data through IB but place trades using TWS on both the ASX and the US equities markets

 

[Seneca60BC]

Seneca60BC you do not need to have ASX data turned on to place trades on the IB plateform.

During the application stage you get asked to select the data feeds you require and at this point it shows the price for each feed. You can just select the free data feeds and ignore all the rest.

I don't use ASX data through IB but place trades using TWS on both the ASX and the US equities markets

Hi IFocus -

Thankyou very much for answering my question - so does this also apply for trading options as well - which is I do not need to have the ASX data feed turned on?

Thanks!