Brokerage/platforms terrible in Oz

[Steve-IB]

Somebodyhere –
-Most of your questions can be answered via the user guide. Look at the Account Window section. On the TWS, you can also go to the context sensitive help, and but your mouse over the terminology that you don’t know and it will show you the formula.
-If you have the full cash in your account to pay for the stock, then there will be no margin charged.
-Initial margin is what you need to establish a position.
-Maintenance margin is what you need to keep a position. If your account drops below the maintenance margin we will cut your positions. We are quite strict – but don’t use it as a stop loss!
-We have a web based platform, mobile platform, and the java based TWS.
-All interest rates are on our website. We use spot-next A$ LIBOR as our benchmark rate. Interest charged on borrowing under A$130k is 8.075% (6.24% for US$). This goes down to 7.075% for amounts over A$1.3m

Rub92me-
-Volumes may not be accurate at this time. For the volume and high/low data we are reading it in 5x a second. This will affect the volume calculations, and occasionally a high/low reading. It will not affect the trading or order handling in any way. Later we will backfill data.

Magaret,
Auto-liq. I will have to monitor it. Generally we have a 10 minute window for all markets. But yes, we wouldn’t want to liquidate when markets were too thin. I may be able to recommend adding an extra 10, to say 10:20am.

 

[rub92me]

Somebodyhere –
Rub92me-
-Volumes may not be accurate at this time. For the volume and high/low data we are reading it in 5x a second. This will affect the volume calculations, and occasionally a high/low reading. It will not affect the trading or order handling in any way. Later we will backfill data.

Thanks for your response Steve, much appreciated. Your response partly explains the difference, however as for the example I provided for FAR (which is a thinly traded stock) I think the process occasionally skips a reading as well, which doesn't get backfilled until the end of the day. The concern I have (especially for thinly traded stocks) is that I could be making a trading decision based on a last price (which could trigger a setup) that is incorrect..

 

[Steve-IB]

Thanks for your response Steve, much appreciated. Your response partly explains the difference, however as for the example I provided for FAR (which is a thinly traded stock) I think the process occasionally skips a reading as well, which doesn't get backfilled until the end of the day. The concern I have (especially for thinly traded stocks) is that I could be making a trading decision based on a last price (which could trigger a setup) that is incorrect..

Please can you call the CS desk when you see this happen in a thin stock. If you do this in real-time and ask them to report it to me, I will check it. If it's a standard trade then I don't see why it would be missed by our feed, so I would need to take a closer look. (FYI.. this wouldn't affect your triggering of IB orders, such as stops etc).

 

[yonnie]

why cant I access TWS in the weekend to amend orders etc.?

 

[juw177]

TWS is closed for the weekends.

 

[yonnie]

juw, thanks.

strange though......I can amend orders with all my ozzie brokers in the weekend. not everybody is a full time trader and these people would like to place orders in the weekend before going to work on Monday. maybe they want to make sure that we`re not working on a Sunday?

now I like to know if I got this right about the account.

suppose I am trading in stocks on the ASX and I have cash of 50k and stock positions of 150k.

on a margin account: could I place limit orders to the tune of 400k?

thanks

 

[juw177]

yonnie you can place a limit order such that when that limit order executes, you are still within margin requirements. eg, in your example you can do a buy order for a maximum of 250k worth of stock.

You can place as many 250k buy limit orders as you want. But once you fall under the margin required for a pending order, the order is automatically canceled (unless the order closes a currently open position).

 

[Sir Burr]

TWS is closed for the weekends.

hmmm
What time exactly can you start entering orders on Monday then?

Thanks SB

 

[Sir Burr]

eg, in your example you can do a buy order for a maximum of 250k worth of stock.

Thanks for explaining but why 250k? Could you show how this is worked out please.

Thanks SB

 

[yonnie]

yeah I would like to know too why 250k.

also are you suggesting I can place total limit orders to the tune of $100million or whatever?

 

[juw177]

yeah I would like to know too why 250k.

also are you suggesting I can place total limit orders to the tune of $100million or whatever?

I said 250k because in your example I assumed you were not using any margin when you said you had 150k worth of shares and 50k worth of cash. So then you can hold another 250k more shares.

Still using your example above, you can place as many limit orders as you like as long as each limit order is less than 250k.

As your margin requirements increase, orders that dont meet the requirement will automatically be canceled. Eg, Say you have placed 2 limit orders: first one to buy 150k worth of shares and the second to buy 200k of shares. If the order for 150k gets executed, then you no longer have the margin requirement to take on your other order of 200k order so that will automatically get canceled.

 

[yonnie]

thanks you juw, I understand now.

with the 50k cash I`ll buy another 50k of shares = 200k of shares altogether and as the margin is 50% I can purchase 200k of shares on top of that so that`s 250k as you said.

with most brokers you got to have the cash when you place an order or at best they add cash + stock value.

with IB I can "fish" the market: with my cash + stock value of 53k I already have orders in above 300k.

 

[yonnie]

hi Steve,

I find that account statements are coming in very late.
the statement for last Friday 21st came in early this morning Tuesday 25th.
is there a way to speed this up?

I noticed that IB place the overnight orders into the market around 9 `o clock am, while ozzie
brokers do this between 7-8 `o clock. could this also be done earlier?

really rapt how its going: a platform with great order possibilities; for instance I have a sell order @ 2.2 cents and at the same time a stop sell order that if the price hits 1.8 cents, my sell order will be changed to 1.9 cents.
great peace of mind.

also the brokerage is great. wouldn`t be surprised if I now pay only half my usual outlay, mainly because of the low minimum of $ 6 a trade.

thanks Steve.

 

[Trembling Hand]

Hi Steve

A while back you said you were getting some info together for setting up an account with IB for a Self Managed Super Fund. Any progress? If none what account type should I select?

Thanks,

 

[yonnie]

trembling hand,

my SMSF account is already up and running for a month.

you select the individual account/trust account.

 

[Trembling Hand]

trembling hand,

my SMSF account is already up and running for a month.

you select the individual account/trust account.

Thanks yonnie. I remember someone posting about having trouble convincing IB about the legitimacy of their SMSF Trust Deed. Did you have any problems?

 

[yonnie]

yes, that was me.

dont know if Steve put the right word in in the right area, but suddenly there was no problem at all and my application was accepted.

you can always state as I did that a trust deed like that is acceptable and refer them to Steve Kelsey/HongKong if there are any problems.

 

[Steve-IB]

yes, that was me.

dont know if Steve put the right word in in the right area, but suddenly there was no problem at all and my application was accepted.

you can always state as I did that a trust deed like that is acceptable and refer them to Steve Kelsey/HongKong if there are any problems.

You can also select my name during the application process in the "Marketing Questions" section.


Statements- Fridays' statements normally come out on Saturday. Mid-week statements will tend to be late by Australian standards, as the cut-off time is the US trading day. Thus, you would receive Monday's statement at around 4pm Sydney time on Tuesday. (Not such a big deal as you can see all your account in real-time from the TWS).

I noticed that IB place the overnight orders into the market around 9 `o clock am, while ozzie brokers do this between 7-8 `o clock. could this also be done earlier?
Yes- we don't switch on the exchange connection to later. I presume you want this so you can get to the front of the bid/ask queue. (Let me know if there is any other reason?). I'll see if we can offer the full pre-open.

 

[yonnie]

Steve,

yeah, you`re right.......for me it is to be in front of the queu. thanks.

 

[Trembling Hand]

Steve,
How do you remove expired Futures contracts from the Book Trader Underlying drop down menu. Its driving me mad. Have removed the old contracts from TWS but they still show up in the quote panel and I can not get the new ones.