Hi RichKid,
Yes, there was a major problem with one of my orders – there was a bit posted on it in this thread:
www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7303. While that left me somewhat unnerved in using their software, these were some of my other concerns for IB and Aus options market:
1. The lack of specialized help during Aus trading hours on live chat. “General” help was the only one available when ever I accessed it. “Trading” help never was available whenever I used their live help during our trading hours - perhaps I was just unlucky.
2. The apparent lack of filters in their trading software - human error is possible and would be nicer to know that obvious credit trades cannot be wrongly taken as a debit – Ouch – still hurts… Even an error message would have been useful – but the faulty order just went straight through. I once made a similar mistake with OptionsXpress with Aus options, but their software came up with an error message and prevented the mistaken trade going through.
3. As per their options agreement, IB, who is not an ASX participant, routes Aus option orders direct to their affiliate, Timber Hill Australia who is an ASX participant. Not sure if this is the same Timber Hill who is one of several Aus options market makers. If so, I have wondered if they get first bite of the cherry. Hopefully, this is not so - Steve may wish to clarify this.
4. Although funds are apparently held in Citibank, Sydney, there were never any bank statements from Citibank - only IB's internal statements. Personally, I prefer to have bank statements.
5. I found the paper trading for Aus options worked only if there were active quotes in market depth. This made it extremely limiting, IMO as many Aus options do not have continuous quotes.
6. I don’t like the IB policy if one is assigned on a short option. They give the first ten minutes in the morning to deal with it before they start liquidating other positions – and, I believe, not necessarily the one that needs liquidating. To close the assigned shares without simultaneously trading any covering long option (or a synthetic version) is taking on huge directional risk. Very difficult in Aus to even think about getting a reasonable price on options much before 10.30 – 11am due to the underlying often being very jumpy during that time. I was never planning to use them as my main broker mainly due to the risk of their assignment policy, but it would have been useful for some of my smaller trades that don’t require front month short selling.
7. I found the TWS very slow to load – guess I have been spoilt by Iress – it is so quick and easy to manage.
Anyway, there are also lots of people satisfied with IB, so perhaps I was just unlucky with them. However, due the unnerving effect of having lost a significant amount of our IB account in less than a second - it was time to move on...
Cheers