Brokerage/platforms terrible in Oz

[gfresh]

Trades: 0.08% or minimum $6AUD.. This works out to be about $8 on a $10,000 trade.

Entry: Looks like you need a minimum of $5000USD or ~$5952AUD to begin an account

Account Fees: $10USD a month account fees = ~$11.91AUD

Market Data

"Market Data" (what exactly constitutes this? anybody know, basic financial info for each company? ASX annoucements? or is this more in depth)

Australian Stock Exchange Australia AUD 37.50 (nonpro) AUD 49.50 (pro)

Are there any other conditions people are aware of?

Will IB sponsor people into the CHESS system or not I wonder?

With this sort of service, I have a feeling Commsec, etrade, etc will start leveling minimum trades and/or monthly fees.. otherwise won't everybody just be using IB for the trade side, and say commsec, etrade for the research side? Basically, once they work it out, I'm sure they'll want to try and get rid of freeloaders just keeping an account open, but not actually trading through it. Just my thoughts on possible future effects.

 

[Damuzzdu]

Muzz,

they aren't a cfd provider, they are a broker.

Trading platform is stable and reliable.

Honestly haven't had to deal with IB's customer service in the near on year that I've been using them, so I can't comment on 4 yet.

Professor,

Thanks for yr quick replies. Much appreciated!!!

Has anyone placed a trade on ASX with IB as yet, and if so maybe you could do a screen capture on the screen. Do you get full market depth, (including individual market buy/sell orders)? Is the data steaming?

Per gfresh questions above will IB provide ASX announcements on the platform???

I've been thinking of going to Sanford-Pro as they are offering web-iress. Can anyone compare the two if you have used them?

Thanks
Muzz

 

[professor_frink]

Trades: 0.08% or minimum $6AUD.. This works out to be about $8 on a $10,000 trade.

Entry: Looks like you need a minimum of $5000USD or ~$5952AUD to begin an account

Account Fees: $10USD a month account fees = ~$11.91AUD

Market Data

"Market Data" (what exactly constitutes this? anybody know, basic financial info for each company? ASX annoucements? or is this more in depth)

Australian Stock Exchange Australia AUD 37.50 (nonpro) AUD 49.50 (pro)

Are there any other conditions people are aware of?

Will IB use the CHESS system or not I wonder?

With this sort of service, I have a feeling Commsec, etrade, etc will start leveling minimum trades and/or monthly fees.. otherwise won't everybody just be using IB for the trade side, and say commsec, etrade for the research side? Basically, once they work it out, I'm sure they'll want to try and get rid of freeloaders just keeping an account open, but not actually trading through it. Just my thoughts on possible future effects.

market data is an intraday data feed for charting. Account fees are waived if make a certain amount of trades each month(10 I think).

As far as I'm aware, you won't get any fundamental information from them. They aren't really set up for investors that want access to research, fundamental info, etc. They mainly cater for short term traders.

 

[professor_frink]

Professor,

Thanks for yr quick replies. Much appreciated!!!

Has anyone placed a trade on ASX with IB as yet, and if so maybe you could do a screen capture on the screen. Do you get full market depth, (including individual market buy/sell orders)? Is the data steaming?

Per gfresh questions above will IB provide ASX announcements on the platform???

I've been thinking of going to Sanford-Pro as they are offering web-iress. Can anyone compare the two if you have used them?

Thanks
Muzz

I couldn't get up any of the ASX stocks yesterday. Will try on Monday, and will post some screenshots if you want.

Data that comes in is live, but technically not streaming. Basically, the datafeed comes in in snapshots 5 times a second. Not tick by tick. There are reasons for this(which could almost take up an entire thread on it's own), but am about to go out for the night, so will explain in further detail tomorrow or Monday if you would like.

Market depth for the markets I currently trade have the basic depth, and don't break down the depth into individual orders. That's for the futures markets, I have no idea at this stage if stocks are any different.

If you are after things like ASX announcements, fundamental research offered by your broker, then IB may not be for you.

If you want dirt cheap brokerage, fast and extremely reliable access to our market, and do a fair bit of trading, then you'll probably find these guys to be pretty hard to overlook.

 

[professor_frink]

Is the data steaming?

sorry Muzz, I didn't answer that properly in my last post- I was talking about the data feed. The workstation is a stand alone software program that updates live.

 

[Aussiejeff]

hi aussiejeff,

margin trading 20c shares.....how do you do that?

OOPS!

Haha... I woz bit by the semantics bug!! ... what I should really have typed was "small margin trading of small cap stocks" ie: often taking profits on small margins (typically I'm happy to take profits - or losses - in the 3% to 6% range, dependent on the original BUY cost) then closing out positions and looking for other opportunities... which means commissions play a big part on the attainable nett profit from a trade for me.

Hehe.

Sorry for the garble....

AJ

 

[Aussiejeff]

....

If you are after things like ASX announcements, fundamental research offered by your broker, then IB may not be for you.

....

Then again, I already prefer to check company announcements direct on the ASX website (much faster response time) rather than the terrible delays that Commsuck often throw at clients with regards to posting company announcements on THEIR clunky website...

AJ

 

[Aussiejeff]

Trades: 0.08% or minimum $6AUD.. This works out to be about $8 on a $10,000 trade.

Entry: Looks like you need a minimum of $5000USD or ~$5952AUD to begin an account

Account Fees: $10USD a month account fees = ~$11.91AUD

Market Data

"Market Data" (what exactly constitutes this? anybody know, basic financial info for each company? ASX annoucements? or is this more in depth)

Australian Stock Exchange Australia AUD 37.50 (nonpro) AUD 49.50 (pro)

Are there any other conditions people are aware of?

Will IB sponsor people into the CHESS system or not I wonder?

With this sort of service, I have a feeling Commsec, etrade, etc will start leveling minimum trades and/or monthly fees.. otherwise won't everybody just be using IB for the trade side, and say commsec, etrade for the research side? Basically, once they work it out, I'm sure they'll want to try and get rid of freeloaders just keeping an account open, but not actually trading through it. Just my thoughts on possible future effects.

gfresh, I think US law means you are limited under IB's sytem to only 4 "day trades" per 5 consequetive trading days, if you open a 5,000 USD account. If you forget and try to make more than the 4 limit, your account can technically be "frozen" until the 5 day day trading limit again becomes unlocked - although they say they have algorithms to warn you first!!

AJ

 

[yonnie]

I think you`re referring to day trading in the US with capital under $ 25,000
and is US government law.

Has nothing to do with trading with IB in Australia.

The monthly fees of US$ 10 is only when the brokerage is less than US$ 30 a month.

I suppose IB will support shorting if it got enough positions from it clients in those shares........not sure though.
ASX might not allow that.

thanks prof for keeping us informed.
margin trading in the US is possible with IB and has changed from April 1st I think. If I remember right you can trade totally 3x your own capital so 50,000 own money = 150,000 trading capital.
Prof could you ask if that is for Aussie as well? thanks

no doubt IB will be using the CHESS system like any other broker and have a licence from the ASX.
the platform is far better than webiress with more than 30 different order types: set and forget
I`m thrilled they`re coming here

 

[professor_frink]

Professor,

Thanks for yr quick replies. Much appreciated!!!

Has anyone placed a trade on ASX with IB as yet, and if so maybe you could do a screen capture on the screen. Do you get full market depth, (including individual market buy/sell orders)? Is the data steaming?

Per gfresh questions above will IB provide ASX announcements on the platform???

I've been thinking of going to Sanford-Pro as they are offering web-iress. Can anyone compare the two if you have used them?

Thanks
Muzz

Ok Muzz, I have a screenshot for you. This what the main window looks like. Will post one showing the market depth after we open. Things like fundamental data, research and market scanning don't appear top be available for the ASX at this stage, although they are available for the U.S market(so I was wrong on the weekend) Not sure if they will be offering any of these at a later date, and I couldn't find anything on ASX announcements.

 

[professor_frink]

And here is the market depth screen, and booktrader. Can't figure out if you can break the depth down into individual orders. yonnie, do you know if you can do this?

 

[ajoz]

This is looking very promising both on the data side and the brokerage costs.

Have you had a look at Quotetrader software at all, which is free from esignal and integrates with Interactive Brokers. This software has a lot of features that look very promising and it would be interesting to see what it does differently/better from IB's platform. I've only had a look at IB's demo so it's a bit hard to judge.

http://www.esignal.com/quotetrader/

 

[professor_frink]

This is looking very promising both on the data side and the brokerage costs.

Have you had a look at Quotetrader software at all, which is free from esignal and integrates with Interactive Brokers. This software has a lot of features that look very promising and it would be interesting to see what it does differently/better from IB's platform. I've only had a look at IB's demo so it's a bit hard to judge.

http://www.esignal.com/quotetrader/

No haven't looked at it before, though some of the screenshots of it on the site looked pretty good. There are quite a few different programs out there that integrate with IB's platform. Basically, you don't really need to use IB's platform to trade- I have 2 different charting packages that are fed with IB's data, and use a front end program to place and manage orders during the day. Once I've opened up the workstation in the morning, I rarely look at it

 

[Aussiejeff]

I looked up the ASX participating brokers today and Interactive Brokers is on their SFE Full and Clearing Participant Directory As at 4 JULY 2007

• Full Participants (undertaking futures business as principal and/or on behalf of clients)

• Clearing Participants
Full Participants NCFM = Non-clearing Full Participant CM = Clearing Participant

Fortis Clearing Sydney Pty Ltd
CM
Mr Barry Parker
Ph: 8221 3000
Fax: 9216 3000
GPO Box 3562
SYDNEY NSW 1043

INTERACTIVE BROKERS LLC
NCFM cleared by FCS [*see above listing]
Mr Bradford Jacobowitz
Ph: 203 618 5710
Fax: 203 618 5770
Two Pickwick Plaza
GREENWICH CT 06830

Obviously, the IB contact is US, so I phoned Fortis Clearing. They confirmed they settle and clear trades for IB and are trying to find out the local contact for IB - said they will phone me back today. The contact I spoke to also suggested there shouldn't be a problem transferring my Commsec CHESS holdings across to IB.

So, I phoned Commsec. The contact there suggested transfer would not be a problem as long as IB had arranged for CHESS holdings to be transferred to their system and that they shoul provide a transfer form to allow this.

I phoned IB's direct line (Australian listed number) and was re-directed to their Hong Kong centre - of course, the phone contact there knew little about how any of this could proceed! She suggested that maybe IB would include CHESS holding transfers "sometime in the future".

Hoping to get a quicker response, I have just shot an e-mail direct to IB in the US to see what the story is re: my transferring CHESS holdings into their services. Stay tuned.....


AJ

 

[Damuzzdu]

Professor,

Thanks so much for those screen shots....all loooks very good.

Maybe after 1-2 days you might let us know how things go, any problems or something that even surprised you???

Cheers
Muzz

 

[yonnie]

And here is the market depth screen, and booktrader. Can't figure out if you can break the depth down into individual orders. yonnie, do you know if you can do this?

sorry prof I wouldn`t know

opened another IB account yesterday for my superfund.........its going internationalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

IB has around 1815 codes in the ASX on its books and all the small stuff is in there.
however ASX got over 2000 issues, so whats not on IB might be the company options.

 

[boxon]

Trader dealer suits me as it is not $33 a trade but $33 on all your trades on the one stock up to $200000 over the trading day.I can pick up stock in small numbers all day without having to be on the board.
Now I can do lower value orders of say $ 10,000 at 4 cents and another one at 3.8 cents and I pay totally 16 bucks for those 2 orders.

For people trading say $ 5,000 a pop, IB is a godsend with $6 brokerage.

IB will change the broker landscape!

Sorry, no traderdealer for me

and you wont find a better platform than IB`s.

thank you IB[/QUOTE]

 

[yonnie]

Trader dealer suits me as it is not $33 a trade but $33 on all your trades on the one stock up to $200000 over the trading day.I can pick up stock in small numbers all day without having to be on the board.
Now I can do lower value orders of say $ 10,000 at 4 cents and another one at 3.8 cents and I pay totally 16 bucks for those 2 orders.

For people trading say $ 5,000 a pop, IB is a godsend with $6 brokerage.

IB will change the broker landscape!

Sorry, no traderdealer for me

and you wont find a better platform than IB`s.

thank you IB

[/QUOTE]

yes boxon, traderdealer might be better for you for high value trades and indeed you can have up to 6 trades in the one stock and it costs only $33 for that day.

for my $ 20,000 deals IB will be better because often that order wont be filled in 1 day and I still pay IB $16 for the total order, even if its filled in 2 days.

So you`re happy with traderdealer and I`m happy with IB.

It might even be that the arrival of IB will bring down your broking costs at Traderdealer, so you might still cheer IB on

 

[yonnie]

Do we still have to deal with IB from OS or are they going to have an agent / office in Australia ?

Pain in the B... opening accounts OS, what with ID theft I am nervous about sending ID overseas.

hey macca, I found out over the weekend by applying for my superfund account that you wont need to send ID overseas at all.

You fill in all your details online and send your ID by fax.

Doesn`t get any easier

 

[macca]

Thanks for that yonnie, I will have another look.