Interactive Brokers - SGD now available for funding

[dao]

For those who have done Futures, and Future options,
how do I get to Future Options?

I am using TWS Classic, and from the opening Trader Dashboard, to open OptionTraders. From Option Traders, I will enter the stock symbol at the top left corner, and the option chains will load up for me to buy and sell.
Have been doing that for a couple of months, and it works nicely for me in doing Stocks Options.

Futures on S&P, commodities, i decided to take a look.
But I tried ES, CL, GL, ZW, ZS, ZC, NG, ZN, it says no options available on this underlying.

I know there are options on futures, I tried asking the IB support, but the help is as useful as sending me their FAQ link. I searched through their FAQ and the "Future" index keeps bringing me to ComboTraders. No idea if their indexes are terrible, or I have a bad misunderstanding of ComboTraders....


Any help appreciated. My 1 day of messaging with their helpdesk is a joke. They replied with one-liner to answer the 1st part of my whole message and totally ignore everything. I thought Starhub had the worst CS in the world. Boy, am I sorry to have utter that....

Steps for using OptionTrader:
Step 1: Enter the Future symbol (eg ES, ZC, etc) at the top left corner.
Step 2: You will be prompt to select the Future contract month. Select accordingly

Step 3: Select the Exchange if there is more than 1 Exchange

The Option Chain will then load accordingly.

 

[archcherub]

Steps for using OptionTrader:
Step 1: Enter the Future symbol (eg ES, ZC, etc) at the top left corner.
Step 2: You will be prompt to select the Future contract month. Select accordingly

Step 3: Select the Exchange if there is more than 1 Exchange

The Option Chain will then load accordingly.

thanks for the help!
i really ought to use mosiac rather than classic... well.. next time

 

[codereverser]

This could be it. I never bothered to trade SGX stocks.

 

[fujitsu555]

May I know how is the monthly inactivity of $10 deducted from my account? Is it from my cash balance? What if I have less than $10 in my cash balance? Thanks.

 

[Shiny Things]

May I know how is the monthly inactivity of $10 deducted from my account? Is it from my cash balance? What if I have less than $10 in my cash balance? Thanks.

Yep. If you don't have $10 cash, and don't have a margin account (so it's cash-only, and you can't run a negative balance), they'll start liquidating your positions to cover the fee.

 

[highsulphur]

Is it necessary to subscribe to live feed if I'm only going to buy etf on a regular basis rather than stock pick?

Also I believe if your portfolio is above a certain threshold, the inactivity fees will be waived?

 

[Shiny Things]

Is it necessary to subscribe to live feed if I'm only going to buy etf on a regular basis rather than stock pick?

Yeah, it's a good idea. You don't ever, ever want to go around blindly trading with no price.

Also I believe if your portfolio is above a certain threshold, the inactivity fees will be waived?

Yep: $100k USD is the threshold.

 

[highsulphur]

I am in the process of setting up an account with IB and thinking of shutting down my Etrade account and transfer the balance to IB once it is set up.

However I am having second thoughts now as I foresee myself trading more ETFs or plain vanilla stocks/bonds rather than options and futures. Etrade charges $10/per trade regardless of volume which probably works for me as I will not trade frequently. Furthermore there is no inactivity fees or subscription fees for Etrade. The downside I see for Etrade is that the only way I can transfer money out is via wire which cost USD25 each time.

Is there any compelling reason for me to switch from Etrade to IB? Thanks guys.

 

[Mecisteus]

Is it necessary to subscribe to live feed if I'm only going to buy etf on a regular basis rather than stock pick?

Also I believe if your portfolio is above a certain threshold, the inactivity fees will be waived?

no it is not necessary to subscribe for live feed unless you are a day trader. you can use google finance for live prices and just make sure you put limit orders.

i think no fees for above 100k portfolio.

 

[Shiny Things]

Is there any compelling reason for me to switch from Etrade to IB? Thanks guys.

The ones I can think of are the tighter FX spreads - they don't get tighter than IB - and the one free outbound wire per month.

That all said, though, if you're just trading US stocks and options then you don't necessarily need IBKR over ETrade. IBKR comes into its own when you want to trade the LSE-listed ETFs, or if you want to do futures, cash bonds, and other more esoteric things.

 

[civicguy]

Etrade is much more expensive than IB ? No ?

Or even option express is more expensive too ?

 

[highsulphur]

Etrade is much more expensive than IB ? No ?

Or even option express is more expensive too ?

Not necessarily. I could be wrong. If I buy 500 lots of a share that cost $100, interactive is cheaper with brokerage of $2 vs etrade fixed rate of $10.

If I trade 5000 lots of shares that cost $10, ib brokerage is $20 vs etrade of $10 still...

 

[Shiny Things]

If I trade 5000 lots of shares that cost $10, ib brokerage is $20 vs etrade of $10 still...

IB costs half a cent per share flat rate - so above the 5000-share mark (not lots, shares: US shares don't have a fixed lot size), ETrade becomes cheaper. But then, if you're regularly trading clips of five thousand shares (and the average stock price in the S&P 500 is somewhere north of seventy bucks, so that's not small potatoes), you'll save more in improved executions on IB (about $7 per 5,000-share clip), compared to ETrade where they just flip your order straight to Citi or Susquehanna.

 

[Shiny Things]

Etrade is much more expensive than IB ? No ?

Or even option express is more expensive too ?

There's another bonus to Interactive Brokers that doesn't rate a lot of mentions: the Stock Yield Enhancement Program. If you switch this on, IB will (try to) lend your US shares out, and if they lend the shares they split the fee income with you 50-50.

On liquid shares like SPY or VWO, the borrow rate is a couple of bips and this doesn't make too much diff. But if you've got some hard-to-borrow shares in your portfolio (certain heavily-shorted ETFs, or popular day-trader shares), you can make some not-insignificant fee income from it. In my case, it pays for my brokerage fees every month and still leaves enough left over for a steak.

At ETrade or OX, though, they'll just lend those shares out and keep the fee revenue for themselves.

 

[codereverser]

IB costs half a cent per share flat rate - so above the 5000-share mark (not lots, shares: US shares don't have a fixed lot size), ETrade becomes cheaper. But then, if you're regularly trading clips of five thousand shares (and the average stock price in the S&P 500 is somewhere north of seventy bucks, so that's not small potatoes), you'll save more in improved executions on IB (about $7 per 5,000-share clip), compared to ETrade where they just flip your order straight to Citi or Susquehanna.

Etrade also charges what is called ECN fee. Am not sure if it's charged only for the Elite Pro account. But sneaky fineprint imho.

Fineprint : An ECN fee of $0.005 per share will be added to all trades executed during the Extended Hours trading sessions and on trades executed through E*TRADE Pro at an ECN during regular market and Extended Hours sessions.

There's another bonus to Interactive Brokers that doesn't rate a lot of mentions: the Stock Yield Enhancement Program. If you switch this on, IB will (try to) lend your US shares out, and if they lend the shares they split the fee income with you 50-50.

On liquid shares like SPY or VWO, the borrow rate is a couple of bips and this doesn't make too much diff. But if you've got some hard-to-borrow shares in your portfolio (certain heavily-shorted ETFs, or popular day-trader shares), you can make some not-insignificant fee income from it. In my case, it pays for my brokerage fees every month and still leaves enough left over for a steak.

At ETrade or OX, though, they'll just lend those shares out and keep the fee revenue for themselves.

The fee on non etfs should be even better. I remember in 2008 crisis fees for stock like C/BAC were through the roof. (in 50%/60% range at peak of crisis). Ofcourse the stocks were tanking at much faster rate than the fee, so it wasn't wise to just buy the stock for lending it out.

 

[archcherub]

There's another bonus to Interactive Brokers that doesn't rate a lot of mentions: the Stock Yield Enhancement Program. If you switch this on, IB will (try to) lend your US shares out, and if they lend the shares they split the fee income with you 50-50.

On liquid shares like SPY or VWO, the borrow rate is a couple of bips and this doesn't make too much diff. But if you've got some hard-to-borrow shares in your portfolio (certain heavily-shorted ETFs, or popular day-trader shares), you can make some not-insignificant fee income from it. In my case, it pays for my brokerage fees every month and still leaves enough left over for a steak.

At ETrade or OX, though, they'll just lend those shares out and keep the fee revenue for themselves.

Hey Shiny Thing, any example of those hard-to-borrow shares or heavily shorted ETFs, or popular day-trader shares?

didnt know IB will share the fees... good of them!

 

[klarklar]

The ones I can think of are the tighter FX spreads - they don't get tighter than IB - and the one free outbound wire per month.

That all said, though, if you're just trading US stocks and options then you don't necessarily need IBKR over ETrade. IBKR comes into its own when you want to trade the LSE-listed ETFs, or if you want to do futures, cash bonds, and other more esoteric things.

LSE charges a stamp fee of 0.5%. This is the highest in the world. Not a good idea to buy ETFs or anything in LSE if you can buy similar stuff elsewhere. I am not sure how high is the withdrawal tax on dividends. Is it also 30% like US?

 

[w1rbelw1nd]

LSE charges a stamp fee of 0.5%. This is the highest in the world. Not a good idea to buy ETFs or anything in LSE if you can buy similar stuff elsewhere. I am not sure how high is the withdrawal tax on dividends. Is it also 30% like US?

Nope they dont charge a stamp fee. I have bought VWRD on IB, and there is no stamp duty at all.

There is no direct dividend tax. I think when dividends is received from the US-listed shares (eg Apple) to the investment vehicle, dividends might have been taxed. But what is meant as dividends for us is not taxed.

 

[klarklar]

Nope they dont charge a stamp fee. I have bought VWRD on IB, and there is no stamp duty at all.

There is no direct dividend tax. I think when dividends is received from the US-listed shares (eg Apple) to the investment vehicle, dividends might have been taxed. But what is meant as dividends for us is not taxed.

I am afraid you are wrong. Please check the link below.
https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=commission&p=stocks1

You need to see the tax column to see the stamp duty fee. It is not reflected in the commission column. You can confirm this with IB customer service. I am pretty sure of this.

 

[highsulphur]

So who is right? 0.5% is not small and I'm sure people won't miss that in the contract note.