Interactive Brokers India

[startrade]

I have experience of trading online on etrade.com (US equities and options).

Our Indian brokers like ICICIdirect, HDFCsec or sharekhan are all using same websites and softwares that they were using 10 years ago. For example ICICIdirect's site has not changed at all since April, 2000 when they launched online broking services. They are as unreliable today as they were 10 years ago. HDFC securities site it appears has been designed by some 16 year old. It is not that these companies don't have money to invest in technology or the right technoligy is not available in India. These brokerages are all making good money and there are enough software companies like Infosys and TCS in India to take care of designing tech platform for these brokers.

On the other hand USA based online brokers are miles and ages ahead of us when it comes to technology. When you use their sites and software, you realize in a moment that they have invested good money on technology and systems.

Basically there is no comparison between etrade.com and IB on one hand and ICICIdirect and HDFCsec on the other hand. Even if IB is charging significantly higher brokerage, I believe they are still worth it.

Believe me, a few more such brokers actively marketing their services in India can force a lot of lethargic Indian brokers to move from 1990s to 21st century.

 

[trading101]

I have experience of trading online on etrade.com (US equities and options).

Our Indian brokers like ICICIdirect, HDFCsec or sharekhan are all using same websites and softwares that they were using 10 years ago. For example ICICIdirect's site has not changed at all since April, 2000 when they launched online broking services. They are as unreliable today as they were 10 years ago. HDFC securities site it appears has been designed by some 16 year old. It is not that these companies don't have money to invest in technology or the right technoligy is not available in India. These brokerages are all making good money and there are enough software companies like Infosys and TCS in India to take care of designing tech platform for these brokers.

On the other hand USA based online brokers are miles and ages ahead of us when it comes to technology. When you use their sites and software, you realize in a moment that they have invested good money on technology and systems.

Basically there is no comparison between etrade.com and IB on one hand and ICICIdirect and HDFCsec on the other hand. Even if IB is charging significantly higher brokerage, I believe they are still worth it.

Believe me, a few more such brokers actively marketing their services in India can force a lot of lethargic Indian brokers to move from 1990s to 21st century.

I couldnt agree less! Interactive is an excellent platform for those who are trading and or investing and are interested in using API's or automated strategies. Their commissions arent really that high if you look at the software which is for free..

They have a support team and etc based out of India for both the Indian markets and overseas markets..

They say that the minimum margin requirement is rs.100K. You should check out their website www.interactivebrokers.co.in and if your interested in opening an account, you should contact their representative. They even allow you to use a demo of their platform!

 

[alroyraj]

I have experience of trading online on etrade.com (US equities and options).

Our Indian brokers like ICICIdirect, HDFCsec or sharekhan are all using same websites and softwares that they were using 10 years ago. For example ICICIdirect's site has not changed at all since April, 2000 when they launched online broking services. They are as unreliable today as they were 10 years ago. HDFC securities site it appears has been designed by some 16 year old. It is not that these companies don't have money to invest in technology or the right technoligy is not available in India. These brokerages are all making good money and there are enough software companies like Infosys and TCS in India to take care of designing tech platform for these brokers.

On the other hand USA based online brokers are miles and ages ahead of us when it comes to technology. When you use their sites and software, you realize in a moment that they have invested good money on technology and systems.

Basically there is no comparison between etrade.com and IB on one hand and ICICIdirect and HDFCsec on the other hand. Even if IB is charging significantly higher brokerage, I believe they are still worth it.

Believe me, a few more such brokers actively marketing their services in India can force a lot of lethargic Indian brokers to move from 1990s to 21st century.

Adding to what you said, some like Shrekhan and Indiabulls are charging the same brokerage charges from 5 years ago. 0.5%/.05% So you know how much improvement.At least Interactice brokers has value addition.
Other companies have lauched algorithmic trading like that from Religare in asso with some Delta Algo.No such news after that. Dont know the eligibility -maybe its for HNIs .
Also Direct Market Access not much is reported,but its an improvement for proprietary firms which are quite a few.
On the side, I have to say that after Stock Holding services was sold off to E*trade there has been no initiatives from their side.Only recently some 6 months back was internet trading lauched that too only on BSE with minimum brokerage per trade Rs 50.

 

[gainlossgain]

so anybody opened a account with them

 

[nikhiltrader]

Professionaly, I trade future spreads in energy and interest rate futures on CME from India. I would like to trade from my own funds. I think if the spreads are exchange traded then they can be traded from IB.. and no need to enter to seperate transactions.
Thinking abt approaching IB to open an account to trade on CME

 

[raghuram60]

I am trying to buy a OCT 28'10 12100 PUT OPTION for BANKNIFTY, but I get an error message "No trading permission" and unable to transmit the order.

Question:
1. Should I assume that IB does not allow trading options for BANKNIFTY?
2. Does that account requires any additional permission apart from Stock and Option permission already granted for the account?
3. Has anyone faced similar problem and how to get it resolved? (Do not get me started on creating a web ticket in IB... had bad experience so far)
4. Are there any recommended online brokerage in India where trading options on BANKNIFTY, NIFTY50 etc are permitted?

 

[gangadharan]

The IB terminal is an awesome piece of software 9compared to all other Indian brokers). Almost anything you can think of, it already does. The only killer is the brokerage, which for example in nifty futures you need to earn 5 points on every trade first to pay Ib and the government and only then come profits. Trailing stop loss, 30+ order types, ability to take code to execute trades directly, its all there. If they reduce brokerage to become competitive with Indian brokers, there is just no match to them in India.

Finaly it is fine to know that there is a platform where we can directly buy and sell with our directly feeded cods and strategy. Regarding commission structure it is not a matter.. we can make Rs. 5 for them... other brokers like sharekhan also is expensive where we have to pay Rs. 3-5..

I am interested to open an account with IB.

 

[raghuram60]

Hi,

I would not advise anyone to jump to conclusion that IB is great because of its software and open an account with them.

My experience with them has not been good so far because of the following issues.

1. It took more than a month to open an account. IB's own compliance dept does not do a good job of vetting your application initially, requiring back and forth mailing to each other with corrections.
2. The software is sophisticated compared to ODIN which most brokers offer in India, but half the features do not work for Indian market. Case in point: I trade stock and index options. I cannot execute a vertical trade with IB software instead I have to leg in.
3. Web ticket response is pathetic and it is not customer centric. Case in point: Current status of my web ticket:
a. Date created : 2010/10/18
b. Response and request for additional details from IB: 2010/10/21
c. Additional details provided : 2010/10/21
d. Request for a ticket update : 2010/10/27
e. NO UPDATE FROM IB SOFAR.
4. Run off the mill response from customer service management. My message followed by their response:
Message: Frustating to note that web tickets are not updated with progress. Requires constant followup by phone to know the status.Highly inefficient and not knowledgeable about facts and responses are not creditable.

Dear Sir,

The problem with a progress indicator is that progress is usually jumpy: it usually goes from zero to 100% in one event. we do show general state indicators which show when a ticket has been claimed (and by whom) and if it needed escalation to another workgroup. You can see the various states by looking at the "Key" just below the banner within account management.

Our Indian help desk is a young group as we just really started growing the operations/staff at the end of Q1 this year. Given the complexity of the TWS application, the short tenure of our service team, and IB's general inexperience in the Indian market overall, I admit this sometimes shows through to our clients. I hope you will be patient while we learn and improve, which I promise will happen, and probably at a good pace.

Thanks for the feedback. I will address it to the local team leaders.

 

[brainz]

Hi,

I would not advise anyone to jump to conclusion that IB is great because of its software and open an account with them.

My experience with them has not been good so far because of the following issues.

1. It took more than a month to open an account. IB's own compliance dept does not do a good job of vetting your application initially, requiring back and forth mailing to each other with corrections.
2. The software is sophisticated compared to ODIN which most brokers offer in India, but half the features do not work for Indian market. Case in point: I trade stock and index options. I cannot execute a vertical trade with IB software instead I have to leg in.
3. Web ticket response is pathetic and it is not customer centric. Case in point: Current status of my web ticket:
a. Date created : 2010/10/18
b. Response and request for additional details from IB: 2010/10/21
c. Additional details provided : 2010/10/21
d. Request for a ticket update : 2010/10/27
e. NO UPDATE FROM IB SOFAR.
4. Run off the mill response from customer service management. My message followed by their response:
Message: Frustating to note that web tickets are not updated with progress. Requires constant followup by phone to know the status.Highly inefficient and not knowledgeable about facts and responses are not creditable.

Dear Sir,

The problem with a progress indicator is that progress is usually jumpy: it usually goes from zero to 100% in one event. we do show general state indicators which show when a ticket has been claimed (and by whom) and if it needed escalation to another workgroup. You can see the various states by looking at the "Key" just below the banner within account management.

Our Indian help desk is a young group as we just really started growing the operations/staff at the end of Q1 this year. Given the complexity of the TWS application, the short tenure of our service team, and IB's general inexperience in the Indian market overall, I admit this sometimes shows through to our clients. I hope you will be patient while we learn and improve, which I promise will happen, and probably at a good pace.

Thanks for the feedback. I will address it to the local team leaders.

Thanks for this information, just curious to know if you can place Trailing stop loss on all your trades using Good till cancelled method on IB?

 

[Nifty-Nifty]

Does anybody else have experience with Interactive Brokers in India?