Subject: Re: OT: Interactive Broker question
I am not a fan of IB and have found them to be a PITA from day one.

I am a fan of IB. And I agree they can be a PITA.

I have a cheese grater, that is by far the best design I've ever seen. It has the flaw that it is very badly made and breaks after 5-18 months and I have to buy another one. But...until then, it's the best I can find. So I just suck it up and buy them regularly. (I think I might 3D print one just like it that lasts longer)

I think of IB much the same way. They are really annoying in some ways, and I lost a huge amount of money due to one of their quirks, but I don't know of another place that offers anything like what they do. For forex, they simply plug you directly into the global market and it's essentially free. Half my option trades have negative commission costs since I'm using limits and providing liquidity, and they pass the trading costs (positive or negative) straight to the trader. So I stick with them.

But the account management stuff is sometimes Kafkaesque. I have two accounts, and the address information is copied from the documents I provide into the system by them, not by me. On one account, the person entering it didn't put in the apostrophe, so the addresses don't match character for character even from the same document, so their computer doesn't recognize me as the same client, so I can't transfer money between the two, and I can't get it fixed no matter how many times I raise a ticket. I tried providing a different proof of address document from my electricity company, but that had the electrical box number as part of the address, and the IB systems nearly had a heart attack because I couldn't prove my address...

More seriously, I was considering using their CFD (contracts for difference) capability a while back. I don't think Americans are allowed to use them, but it's basically a total return swap, turning any stock into a never expiring futures contract between you and IB as the counterparty. This has the effect of offering leverage if you want it, and also of turning dividends into capital gains--very useful for stocks in countries with dividend withholding tax. So I said, great, can you send me the contract that this uses? They said that the C in CFD couldn't be provided...they said the terms of the contract were the aggregate of all their web pages on the subject, that could change at any time. There is no identifiable set of terms for the contract you're entering into. So I have never used the facility. You get more certainty with the mafia.

And yet...like the cheese grater, I enjoy the good stuff and stick with them.

Jim