I am looking at a system (Timac) that trades Forex, futures, and equities. Are there any brokers that trade all of these. I was with Interactive Brokers, but they only offer electronic financial futures (no pit, no softs, etc.) Trying to find a way to simplify so I can use one account to trade one system.
Generally (in the USA), futures accounts are kept separate from other instruments. The futures industry is way different than others; customer funds are segregated/held at a bank (usually Harris, in Chicago), and not directly held by the broker. It is a safety net for the
For example, when Refco blew up, their futures customers were much safer than customers trading other instruments. One of the reasons I prefer futures to anything else!
I dont know of anywhere you can directly trade true futures out of the same account as stocks, for example.
Interactivebrokers allows you to trade stocks(US and international),stock options, single stock futures and forex out of one single universal trading account at one of the lowest rates in the industry.You can even take margin loans for stocks or other overnight positions in other currencies than USD and also hedge the currency risk.
Use it since years.
Interactivebrokers offers pit traded contracts as well!
Well, not really. I haven’t found a pit contract that they really support. For example, you can’t enter a stop in the grains. Basically, if you have a soybean contract going, you can’t go to the bathroom during trading hours, as you have to formulate a limit order (not even a market order!) to exit. Most/all of their ‘pit’ contract support is similarly “non-supported”.
Hans.
