Why I Opened An Account With Interactive Brokers (IBKR) & My Experience So Far

Posted by Timothy Sykes on Fri 6th of Mar, 2009 08:20:35 AM
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UPDATE: I’ve done 1 trade with Interactive Brokers so far, yes, they had shares to short of JSDA while Thinkorswim didn’t, but they screwed up the executions–I put in limit orders to short sell at $1.18, $1.15, $1.10, but all were canceled…I tried their chat window, but after 30 minutes, nobody answered…I tried calling in, but no new orders can be placed on the phone….LOL…almost magically, I tried again on the web with a limit order to short at $1 and it was accepted…pathetic, cost me $500+ on a poor execution…but I still made $400 on the trade so IB is a gift and a curse.

To find more shares to short of hard-to-borrow-names of course!

I actually had been meaning to open an account for a very long time, but no matter how many times I emailed or called to get some sort of affiliate business together–as I do with the customer-support/helpfulness/tools superior broker I still use and recommend Thinkorswim (TOS)–I never heard anything back. Perhaps more importantly, IBKR doesn’t work with Covestor due to some extra security precautions.

So screw it–you guys know I’ll tell the truth about my trades (and just in case I’ll probly suck up taking screenshots to prove it) and I’ll get that affiliate deal working eventually (so don’t sign up yet!), but for now, I just need another source for hard-to-borrow shares.

I’m still obsessed with TOS, but as I’ve said repeatedly, it’s best to have accounts with multiple brokers if you’re going to try to short these hyped up/manipulated Penny Stocks.

And unlike TOS’s handy chat function (the process which I detail HERE) for which I awake early each morning, IBKR doesn’t even have reserving shares to short, you just gotta check their availability list–they either have it when you want to short or they don’t.

So, now I’ve got $30,000ish with TOS and $12,000 even with IBKR. Let’s see which one grows faster…to infinity and beyond! One small gain from piece of crap companies at a time…

UPDATE2: My IB account is now $12,405 after my gain on JSDA and I’m up 243% since I started TIM in November 07…I’m finally up in 2009 after being in the hole 3% in early February…

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  • Hey Tim,

    Does Covestor recognize IBKR? Wouldn't want to spoil my eventual victory:)
    See you at 1pm!
  • Gee
    TOS and TD management said on the Trader Lounge chat on Wednesday they believe TD will have better execution and more HTB shares. We'll see.
  • Danny
    hey i was trying to put in a BUY limit order above the market price in TOS but it only executes at the current market price, does anybody know what the problem is or am i doing something wrong....thanks.
  • Btw
    I have had really good sucess with ameritrade on a lot of hard to borrow shares. Had no problem getting a 1000 on jsda the other day and made 15% wasn't able to get any at tos.
  • congrats on turning 09' around.
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Date Stock Buy Sell Net
Nov 19 AENY $2.80 $3.02 $1148
Nov 18 NLST $4.16 $4.40 $947
Nov 18 IMGG $1.42 $1.64 $2094
Nov 17 NLST $5.04 $5.59 $2195
Nov 13 VRMLQ $21.50 $22.97 $2901
Nov 11 EONC $2.61 $2.80 $687
Nov 10 EONC $2.74 $3.36 $9784
Nov 6 QXM $4.31 $4.80 $1936
Nov 4 COT $8.66 $8.88 $642
Nov 4 QXM $4.61 $4.89 $822
Oct 30 DDRX $25.70 $26.53 $812
Oct 29 CTDC $4.00 $4.42 $781
Oct 26 AWSL $3.24 $4.10 $2516
Oct 23 RODM $5.27 $5.23 $301
Oct 22 AMLM $2.69 $2.97 $820
Oct 22 USEG $6.12 $6.09 $85
Oct 20 CBOU $8.93 $9.06 $243
Oct 16 VRMLQ $16.79 $18.65 $2773
Oct 13 YONG $11.05 $11.66 $1202
Oct 13 NPHC $0.59 $0.71 $583
Oct 12 IMGG $0.60 $0.70 $682
Oct 9 ZAGG $5.50 $6.10 $2380
Oct 7 GVBP $0.03 $0.27 $702
Oct 1 NPHC $0.70 $0.85 $1482

Total: $98,094 (681%)