Brokerage/platforms terrible in Oz

wayneL said:

Customer service is a cost. In fairness, those organizations that offer better customer service than IB also charge more commish.

On the other hand, how many employees of other firms take the trouble to answer questions on a public forum?

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that good customer service is more costly is not true at all.
I am with Choicetrade in the US as well and they will reply within 2 hours to my email and things are sorted out very fast. $5 a trade, no matter the value.

And that Steve comes onto this forum, is that a good excuse for IB to ignore their customers once they sign up?

Steve coming onto this forum just proves to me that IB is a very good marketing organisation, that dont want to spend much money on their mistakes.

yonnie,
That's the first time I've heard that we're a good marketing organisation! I don't know your issues with the Canadian data, however, I can tell you that we don't make a $ on data, in fact, we probably lose slightly. When you order market data, we report that number directly to the exchange. The exchange charges us. We pay them. If they mess the data up, or don't include particular orders, they are not going to reimburse us. If we went after them with legal action... well, we'd probably be shut out pretty quick, and maybe we'd win and we could refund everyone, then double commissions to cover the legal costs.

Regarding shutting traders accounts because they were too vocal. I can recall doing this twice since I have been here. The traders in question repeatedly verbally abused and threatened the staff - and this wasn't heat of the moment trade issues but for general mundane issues. So if you know anyone that had their account shut down for being "vocal"... don't leave your kids with them

Customer Service is the environment for which the expression "you can't please all the people all the time" was probably coined. IB's customer service is not perfect. But it's imperfection is not related to the fact that we don't spend time and $$ on it. Consider the following:

• the quantity of data each CSR must know is HUGE. We are not running a Sears appliance support where there may be 20 questions covering 99% of the inquiries. No other broker anywhere has the diversity we offer and must support. Our website, which has as much info as we can get out, itself only covers a fraction of the inquiries we get on a daily basis. Imagine you had to know everything about : 6 asset classes, 60 different exchanges in 17 countries, thousands of different products, 30+ order types, risk management, margin rules, SMA, all our account types, security issues, liquidation systems and practices, market data issues, all the functionality of the TWS, etc. And I haven't even touched on the banking items like ACATS, ATON, ACH, etc or the thousands of variations on trade problems. Not all of our CSRs are equally expert on all topics. We do have inquiry routing systems which attempt to optimize the pairing of the topic with the CSR who is both available and most knowledgeable on that topic.

• Traders want answers NOW, not in 15 minutes. sometimes a CSR who is 90% confident of his answer will give it because the delay to get that certainty up to 99.9% is unsatisfying to our clients. We try to give the best answers as fast as possible but how long are you willing to wait to get a more perfect one?

• Inquiry volume is not smooth. When something goes wrong, 10'000 people call all at the same time and 9900 of them will be upset because they have to wait. Then it will be quiet and we get to the answers in seconds. Suggestion: if the issue is not urgent, time your call to midday (1100-1400) in the time zone of the market you are trading, or IB desk you are calling.

• We have suggestions on how to contact us for various topics. http://www.interactivebrokers.com/e...bestService.php

• Feedback: at the end of every Web ticket or chat interaction, clients are given the opportunity to rate the service experience. We are sending emails asking clients to rate specific recent service experiences. Whether it was great, middling, or poor, tell us. That is the best way to improve things. Griping here on a forum will change little. Rating us from an emotional position is also not so useful. If it took too long but the answer was appropriate, make sure to distinguish what was good and bad. Rate us, good and bad.

Our entire business model is self-help, targeted to people who know are independent in both their trading and their support needs as much as possible:
* go first to our website for answers (the search is easy to use)
* check your own understanding of issues. Make sure you have all the facts and are prepared to be accurate with them and specific.
* THEN call/write us.

Lastly, We are open to suggestions. If you have ideas or suggestions about our service channels (web-ticket, chat, or phone), you can email me or even add them to the IB suggestion system on our web site.

auric said:

just want to know if shares are held in custodian, at Fortis Clearing Sydney's can these be transferred to a Chess Account

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Shares can not be transferred out at this time. However, this is something that we will add in the future.

I haven't traded with IB so I can't comment on any experience with their customer service but I will say that having a staff member come on here to answer questions and also volunteer to take personal ownership of any issues (through offering that people can contact him personally via pm or email) says a lot about the organisation. If only my current broker was that personable and open.

yonnie said:

that good customer service is more costly is not true at all.
I am with Choicetrade in the US as well and they will reply within 2 hours to my email and things are sorted out very fast. $5 a trade, no matter the value.

And that Steve comes onto this forum, is that a good excuse for IB to ignore their customers once they sign up?

Steve coming onto this forum just proves to me that IB is a very good marketing organisation, that dont want to spend much money on their mistakes.

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Sounds like your the one with the issue with IB, without going through every other post.

Well done Steve for fronting up here to answer all of these questions so promptly...you'll have my business soon.

Cheers,

and mine as well..

Steve-IB said:

Shares can not be transferred out at this time. However, this is something that we will add in the future.

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That's good to know, Steve!

BTW thanks a bunch for your forum advice. Most appreciated! I've opened my account and wired the opening deposit. I also e-mailed/posted the share transfer forms you directed me to. Fingers crossed for a hassle free portfolio transfer and subsequent dealings! Also, the IB account add-ons you have said you will look at instigating (including ability to Bpay, Netbank transfer and CHESS transfer etc - especially for those of us mainly into AU$ ASX stock trading) will be icing on the cake IMO.


Can't wait till next week to begin trading under IB... . Here's to a "rosier" bottom line under IB than with Commsuck!

Cheers,

AJ

wayneL said:

Steve,

Any news about electro Grain, NYMEX, NYBOT options? That would round it off perfectly.

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Steve?

Aussiejeff said:

I also e-mailed/posted the share transfer forms you directed me to. Fingers crossed for a hassle free portfolio transfer and subsequent dealings! Also, the IB account add-ons you have said you will look at instigating (including ability to Bpay, Netbank transfer and CHESS transfer etc - especially for those of us mainly into AU$ ASX stock trading) will be icing on the cake IMO.


Can't wait till next week to begin trading under IB... . Here's to a "rosier" bottom line under IB than with Commsuck!

Cheers,

AJ

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AJ - Please can you send a copy of the transfer form to me. I haven't trained anyone on what to do with this yet! I'm open to all suggestions on add-ons that anyone here thinks maybe useful. Once we have launched the short stock and stock options, we'll spend some time focussing on "add-ons".

Wayne
"Grain, NYMEX, NYBOT options?"
I believe these are still predominantly pit traded.

Steve-IB said:

Wayne
"Grain, NYMEX, NYBOT options?"
I believe these are still predominantly pit traded.

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Steve,

I can pull up CBOT options chains for corn, soybeans etc, but no quotes appear, whereas the NYMEX and NYBOT don't. (I understand these are pit traded)

My question is: Do you know if there are there any plans by the exchanges to offer electronic contracts in the future? I heard a rumour that the grains will be offered soon. (The option chains seem to indicate this could be so)

Cheers

Hey I'm getting quotes now on grain options. When did this happen?

wayneL said:

Steve,

I can pull up CBOT options chains for corn, soybeans etc, but no quotes appear, whereas the NYMEX and NYBOT don't. (I understand these are pit traded)

My question is: Do you know if there are there any plans by the exchanges to offer electronic contracts in the future? I heard a rumour that the grains will be offered soon. (The option chains seem to indicate this could be so)

Cheers

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ICE appear determined to bring all NYBOT products to the electronic platform, but they haven't set a date, that I know of, for the options to move across.
For NYMEX, who have been moving their futures to trade on the GLOBEX platform, I haven't heard any news about moving the options. They were dragged kicking and screaming to electronic futures, so I guess they'll try hold out as soon as possible.
CBOT, trade on the floor during US day, and then trade electronic. Electronic volumes are tiny. You can trade the electronic versions on IB now. However, the electronic volume is almost non-existent. I can see August corn there appears to be one market maker trading the ATM and one strike either side.

hello folks,

What I was trying to achieve here is to give a balanced view of IB.

If you read my posts I said I was thrilled IB coming here and I mean that,
but I thought it was only fair to point out some other stuff.

That IB does not have a good record for customer service in the US compared to other brokers (just read the remarks on elitetrader.com) and to tell you guys of my own experiences.

In that way I would have thought you would have a more balanced view of Interactive Brokers.

What you guys do with that info is up to you.

I applied for a SMSF account with them last weekend, so no hard feelings

Steve-IB said:

ICE appear determined to bring all NYBOT products to the electronic platform, but they haven't set a date, that I know of, for the options to move across.
For NYMEX, who have been moving their futures to trade on the GLOBEX platform, I haven't heard any news about moving the options. They were dragged kicking and screaming to electronic futures, so I guess they'll try hold out as soon as possible.
CBOT, trade on the floor during US day, and then trade electronic. Electronic volumes are tiny. You can trade the electronic versions on IB now. However, the electronic volume is almost non-existent. I can see August corn there appears to be one market maker trading the ATM and one strike either side.

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Thanks for the info.

Cheers

Steve-IB said:

... I'm open to all suggestions on add-ons that anyone here thinks maybe useful. Once we have launched the short stock and stock options, we'll spend some time focussing on "add-ons".....

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Hi Steve,

Do you mean IB are planning to add stock options as in Aussie ETO's, company options or something entirely different???

Cheers

sails said:

Hi Steve,

Do you mean IB are planning to add stock options as in Aussie ETO's, company options or something entirely different???

Cheers

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Aussie ETO's..

Steve-IB said:

Aussie ETO's..

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Thanks Steve - any idea yet of ETO commissions - and when they might be available for trading through IB?

I'm not familiar with IB trading software, but will it be able give information on the greeks for Aus ETO's and perhaps intraday charts on the underlying??

The reason I ask is that one US options brokerage operating here has many bells and whistles on their website for US options, but it's not available for the Aus market.

sails said:

Thanks Steve - any idea yet of ETO commissions - and when they might be available for trading through IB?

I'm not familiar with IB trading software, but will it be able give information on the greeks for Aus ETO's and perhaps intraday charts on the underlying??

The reason I ask is that one US options brokerage operating here has many bells and whistles on their website for US options, but it's not available for the Aus market.

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I'd rather wait until we launch before we disclose the ETO commissions - but it will be very competitive - at least compared to the rates that I've seen available in the market. You'll be able to chart the underlying and will be able to see the greeks. I anticipate being able to launch in August.
(fyi.. we currently execute around 19% of US ETO volume)

Margaret,

FYI Here is a screen shot my IB setup for options. You can select what columns you want shown etc

This is ES options 5.44AM NY time.

Steve,

In Oz money from trades are deducted or deposited into the trader`s account by brokers 3 days after the trade.
what is IB`s position?

I trade under different account names (my wife`s, my son`s etc). Could I transfer shares from those accounts in different names to the clearing house with my IB account number and sell the shares through my IB account?

thanks