Interactive Brokers (IBKR)

[shoryuke]

Hi all
I have some questions on IB and hope someone could help me with them:

1) Is there any fee if I transfer money out from IB to SCB account directly?
Normally, does the receiving bank charge any fee?

2) If I empty IB account, will I still be charged minimum $10 per month for maintenance? I have not traded yet because of the min $10 per month charge if account is less than USD $100k. I only did SGD to USD forex so far.

3) Has anyone use IB purely to change SGD to other currencies before? Then, transfer them back to own trading account, e.g. SCB?

2) If your IB account is empty, you won't be charge a minimum fee of $10. Have done that before

 

[crystalnox]

2) If your IB account is empty, you won't be charge a minimum fee of $10. Have done that before

If you leave it at $0 long enough, they'll probably close your account.
https://www.interactivebrokers.com/lib/cstools/faq/#/content/25477861?articleId=28225558

 

[shoryuke]

If you leave it at $0 long enough, they'll probably close your account.
https://www.interactivebrokers.com/lib/cstools/faq/#/content/25477861?articleId=28225558

I see. Have not logged in to my dormant account for quite some time.

 

[reddevil0728]

Hi all
I have some questions on IB and hope someone could help me with them:

1) Is there any fee if I transfer money out from IB to SCB account directly?
Normally, does the receiving bank charge any fee?

2) If I empty IB account, will I still be charged minimum $10 per month for maintenance? I have not traded yet because of the min $10 per month charge if account is less than USD $100k. I only did SGD to USD forex so far.

3) Has anyone use IB purely to change SGD to other currencies before? Then, transfer them back to own trading account, e.g. SCB?

1) They give 1 free transfer each month. But whether ur bank charges any inward receipt of money, need to check with your bank.

DBS charges $10 for inward remittance of foreign currency. but no charge for SGD. so currency matters also.

2) this has been addressed by others

3) sure there are ppl who does that, but it probably has to be big enough of an amount to make any charges worthwhile

 

[icoolboy123]

By default, fixed rate is set, it takes a day (from experience) for tier rate to be effective after you have changed from fixed to tier.

Yes you are right. It takes 1 day to change from fixed to tiered T_T No wonder the commission was so expensive.

Would also like to ask you guys if you think it is a good idea to buy SGX-listed stocks on IBKR so that you can hit the US$100k faster. IBKR has a minimum fee for SG stocks of S$2.50. I understand there is now tiger brokers that has waived its minimum fee (but I wonder if that is sustainable). Thoughts guys?

 

[wutawa]

@icoolboy123

I would prefer to consolidate all my shares into 1 broker. To me, S$2.50 is cheap enough (unless u like to trade on 1 lot or penny stocks often).

 

[fyeebiyd]

You are looking at US listed securities.

But poster is talking about U.K. listed

i just caught the IWDA part.

I was about to ask the same thing. Seems like min charge per trade for IWDA listed on LSE is going to be quite hefty for fixed rate which is USD$5 per trade.

I am looking at the tiered rate, it is min USD$1,70 but monthly need to do EUR$50k trade. If not hitting that amount, does it means the fixed rate will be charged?

 

[reddevil0728]

i just caught the IWDA part.

I was about to ask the same thing. Seems like min charge per trade for IWDA listed on LSE is going to be quite hefty for fixed rate which is USD$5 per trade.

I am looking at the tiered rate, it is min USD$1,70 but monthly need to do EUR$50k trade. If not hitting that amount, does it means the fixed rate will be charged?

it's LESS THAN. not at least.

agaration ah:
tiered will be cheaper if the trade is less than ~usd 9k. breakeven for the usd 1.7 + stock exchange fees etc (total around 1.93 usd depending on exchange rate since stock exchange fee is in GBP) is around 3.4k usd.

anything more than ~9k usd, up till a certain limit (which I am not very sure), fixed is cheaper.

 

[Starrynitee]

Hi guys, noob question. Anyone tried transferring sgd to IB via citibank NA singapore from local bank? How long does it take for the funds to be received in IB account typically?

 

[reddevil0728]

Hi guys, noob question. Anyone tried transferring sgd to IB via citibank NA singapore from local bank? How long does it take for the funds to be received in IB account typically?

how long ago did you transfer and for how much?

 

[crystalnox]

Hi guys, noob question. Anyone tried transferring sgd to IB via citibank NA singapore from local bank? How long does it take for the funds to be received in IB account typically?

From less than 1 hour to 1 working day if you transferred during a PH.

 

[swan02]

I also wish to add that usually it can be as fast as 10 mins. Or as long as 1 day.

In one instance I made a 20k transfer and went in 10mins, immediately after I made another 20k. 4 hrs passed nothing, online chat with representative and found out that the system flagged my account because I made a transfer of the same amount coming from the same account hence needed to b checked.

That cost me a bull run of 1.5 percent in gold price for a day of trading. made me mad.

From less than 1 hour to 1 working day if you transferred during a PH.

 

[wutawa]

@swan02

Thanks for sharing. Fund transfer duration is definitely an impt factor, especially for fast-moving markets and when we r pampered by FAST.

 

[Starrynitee]

Thanks all for the sharing. Yeah it took almost 12hrs for me to receive the crediting. Damn expensive opportunity cost lol. Yes i guess i was too pampered by the instanteous fast transfer which i thought would apply in this case.

 

[reddevil0728]

@swan02

Thanks for sharing. Fund transfer duration is definitely an impt factor, especially for fast-moving markets and when we r pampered by FAST.

Thanks all for the sharing. Yeah it took almost 12hrs for me to receive the crediting. Damn expensive opportunity cost lol. Yes i guess i was too pampered by the instanteous fast transfer which i thought would apply in this case.

I believe the transfer from your side is “instant”. And the receipt on their side is “instant” also.

But it’s the allocating of the money on their side that’s taking the most time

 

[klanddt]

Lesson learned here is to load up your settlement account with loads of money if you want to avoid "opportunity cost" loss. No need transfer in and trade, keep the war chest in the account, trade anytime, and use the proceeds to make more money and bankroll. Is that right?

I believe the transfer from your side is “instant”. And the receipt on their side is “instant” also.

But it’s the allocating of the money on their side that’s taking the most time

 

[limster]

@swan02

Thanks for sharing. Fund transfer duration is definitely an impt factor, especially for fast-moving markets and when we r pampered by FAST.

though I started with cash account first as I wanted to play safe, after I gained enough experience with the platform, I switched to margin account.

with margin account, i can always trade first even if there is a delay in the FAST transfer (but that has never happened to me before, because like many others in the forum, I always transfer using 'unique numbers' -eg: $10,012 some even use cents like $10,017.78)

but the margin account is most useful because after you sell, it takes 3 days before the settled cash is available for your use, so day trading is very hard with cash account.

the only concern is that the system seems to automatically set your margin limits - doesn't seem to be any way to request lower margin limits? 7 digit margin is quite scary if you make a mistake with your order size...

 

[reddevil0728]

Lesson learned here is to load up your settlement account with loads of money if you want to avoid "opportunity cost" loss. No need transfer in and trade, keep the war chest in the account, trade anytime, and use the proceeds to make more money and bankroll. Is that right?

you may not want too much money inside also.

If you really think it is such big of a problem, get a margin account?

 

[reddevil0728]

though I started with cash account first as I wanted to play safe, after I gained enough experience with the platform, I switched to margin account.

with margin account, i can always trade first even if there is a delay in the FAST transfer (but that has never happened to me before, because like many others in the forum, I always transfer using 'unique numbers' -eg: $10,012 some even use cents like $10,017.78)

but the margin account is most useful because after you sell, it takes 3 days before the settled cash is available for your use, so day trading is very hard with cash account.

the only concern is that the system seems to automatically set your margin limits - doesn't seem to be any way to request lower margin limits? 7 digit margin is quite scary if you make a mistake with your order size...

cash account, you can actually use unsettled cash to trade also long as you don't breach free riding rule.

 

[reddevil0728]

For cash account, when I sell shares, I can't use the proceeds of sale immediately. This happened during Brexit so I had to transfer a huge cash buffer into my IBKR account in order to day trade LLoyds

Have you actually been able to use cash from share sales immediately with cash account?

as long as you don't infringe this you can

https://ibkr.info/article/3101