Migration to IB Australia Pty Ltd: Margin Restrictions for Retail Accounts

[Nick Radge]

No.

Its an administrative problem that stems back to my managed accounts. Not a trade execution issue. Been going on since October.

ASIC are about to charge me $6000 because of their incompetence. I told them if they don’t fix the issue by close of biz Monday I was going to make a formal complaint to the Ombudsman.

[RobGiles]

ahh that’s no good. Sorry to hear that

[Nick Radge]

Finally got my marching orders from IBKR LLC to transfer to Australia.

Email says transfer is easy, just click this link…and of course I go into a never ending world of sh*t .

Takes me to account management, then nothing. Go to Chat. Get’s logged out. Around and around…like a circus…

[MichaelRodwell]

One of the things that screwed me up is they changed my account numbers. Keep an eye out for that especially when you’re asking them to look at your account and they are telling you its all fine. ITS NOT ALL FINE!

[ScottMcNab]

Got marching orders issued today too…10 days to make it all happen and I head overseas in 3 days of course…

unfortunately my corporate entity will not satisfy wholesale or professional requirements….guess will bin the XAO MRV and use MRV on RUI only with 5 positions at 20%

[GlenPeake]

That’s a bugger Scott!

FYI: My 2x MRV systems on the RUI are also 5 positions @ 20%.

[ScottMcNab]

Thanks Glen. Will give it a go. Just tested XAO MRV on 10×10 and seems ok so will keep that going too I think.

[Nick Radge]

So I log into my trading accounts today and see I have new account numbers, yet nothing via email on the change.

I then notice I’ve lost all my margin facility, even though I’l a Professional & Wholesale investor. They say I’m going to get a margin call of > $500k, but the issue is it will trigger a major tax event.

I call Sydney. They say call Hong Kong. I call Hong Kong, who say they can see the issue and the account is not configured correctly. They’ll refer to Sydney. Nothing more heard from. I call IB Hong Kong again at 5pm AEST. Now I’m onto the Chicago night desk who starts lecturing me on the correct use of margin and around and around we go…until he tells me the conversation is not useful…FFS

I call Neil Swanson in Sydney. Tells me nothing can be done but will escalate it.

Total shit show.

[GlenPeake]

I very ordinary experience Nick….a total dog’s breakfast….

Hope it’s sorted out quickly for you.

[MichaelRodwell]

Guys this the exact issue faced…. less crucial as I wasn’t invested.

They continued to screw it up for a few days but I must have called them a dozen times.

[ScottMcNab]

Prob too good to be true but could this be solution for margin for Oz traders ?

https://www.tradestation-international.com/global/

Says in fine print not open to residents of US or Japan (no mention of Aussies)

In the FAQ, is a software section that states can use Tradestation platform or TWS…be nice for the API to keep TWS

[Nick Radge]

We’ve been in discussion with TradeStation for several months now. I’ll let Craig fill you in…

[Stephen James]

I opened a US account (denominated in USD – brokerage $0.01 per share – min $1) to get access to the TradeStation WebAPI, not a global account.

I tried to get a developer to create an API so I could use in the same manner as IB, but have just recently abandoned the project.

The developer was not impressed with the TS WebAPI and there were security issues that I was not happy with. The developer needed access to the account and order platform. We eventually solved the latter as it does not have links to account proper but I wasn’t happy with any solution to the account access. TS also wanted the developer to fill out paperwork as an authorised signatory for the account. I had a contact at TS who helped me get around that and the platform access but he has recently left the firm. He was very helpful, but otherwise support and service has been rather poor.

Seems to me that the TS WebAPI is mostly used by their in house team that will work with high volume corporate clients. TS are not set up well for external developers unless they are the account holder. External developers who have used it seem very scarce.

The actual order platform is quite good but there a couple of issues for manual order placement.

The MOC order for exits cannot be placed out of markets hours (30 mins before the open is possible from memory), however you can set a time for the exit order to trigger so I am exiting 5 seconds before the close as a testing base.

TS calculates the margin on all orders placed even though they are to buy at limit and does not allow more, so you cannot necessarily place 40 orders for example depending on each stocks margin.

Coding a system in EasyLanguage and automating can be done without the API but due to the above issues I have not investigated it. There seem to be plenty of developers around that do that.

I’ve retested my system around the above issues and have started a trial period to see if reality will match my results using manual orders (it is possible to setup a template with the order type so 40 orders takes me about 25-30 mins to process).

That’s the short version…..

[JulianCohen]

It does sound like IB, for all its faults, is a lot better than the other choices. However in Australia, the loss of the margin account is a massive problem. Tradestation calculating margin on all orders placed is a real issue for some systems I’m sure.

[ScottMcNab]

Lot of work. Is it worth trying Tradestation Global Craig? It seems they’re a means of getting access to a margin account using TWS (through IB UK) so don’t have to change anything except broker…things are rarely that simple tho

[Author]

Posts