FT High frequency trading

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https://www.ft.com/content/4001099b-12a9-4a...21-7333e88b536d

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The complete series of "New titans of Wall Street" can be found here:

https://www.ft.com/content/e86a8960-fd66-49...80-a7098d4a40bd

hi, i would like to ask based on this, https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accou...erest-rates.php

is this based on per account name (in my case, it's one) or per account (in my case it's two)? as my account has 2 sub- accounts, as i try to differentiate the origin of both money, for tax purposes...

FT The Big Read | Oil & Gas industry

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https://www.ft.com/content/374e78dc-69ae-41...83-0842b3833d9d

The same link above already stated

Different accounts should have different numbers beginning with the letter U (e.g. U1223456 and U13445678 are separate accounts).

Anyway, the first 10k USD won't earn any thing, and if you have more than 10k USD, you are better off buying ultrashort term T-bills ETFs or buy US T-bills directly, so you won't bother keeping cash balances in IBKR's account anyway.

Thanks a lot. That's a good point.

Buy t bill, there's transaction fee for it I suppose?

I'm keen to have cash ready in case there is a sudden opportunity, can I sell my t bills and still earn the interest for that particular days/weeks/mths or am I better off leaving it in my account?

t bil 4.48%... ibkr 4.08% >10k... songlap >0.4%...

So buy t bill better.

How often do they give interest?

I've seen a list of t bill somewhere.. In finance group.

interest is accumulated "daily" reflected in price... and paid out monthly... had to look twice to understand what is going on here...



interest kena 30% wht but will be refunded early next year...

bro tos has a post few pages back trying to game the system... have a look, you may be able to buy it cheaper his way...

Yes, transaction fee is 5 USD minimum: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/prici...nds.php?re=amer

For comparison, buying some 500 USD worth of stocks on IBKR usually cost about 0.3 USD = 0.06%

To achieve 0.06% commission fee as a percentage of your purchase amount, with a 5 USD commissions, you gotta buy 9000 USD minimum worth of T-bills (remember T-bills trade with a minimum denomination of 1000 USD, and increments of 1k USD).

So, if you don't have minimum 10k USD cash, it's a lot cheaper to gain exposure via BIL ETF or SGOV ETF. These T-bills ETFs give you 1-2 month USD risk-free interest rate exposure by buying various US T-bills with 1-3 months of duration. The effective duration is 1-2 months.

With ETFs, now I can purchase T-bills at the same commission level as a US stock on IBKR, even with fractional shares if I want to although I don't recommend that since the ETF price is very low at close to 100 USD a unit.

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To address your question on opportunity. Yes, that's the purpose why I park huge sum of USD in US T-bills ETF as well. You can sell 23 hours and 50 minutes for each trading day (barring trading holiday the next day if you are in Asian hours trying to trade in US Overnight session, as the trades are supposed to cleared the next day following US time). If you spot a crash, you can always sell and get cash instantly even without margin account. The USD can then be used to purchase say VOO or QQQM etc.

There is one caveat, you cannot withdraw the cash or buy stocks/bonds/ETF or anything denominated in other currency on the same day you sell your BIL or SGOV ETF units. The selling trade settles at T+1, so you can only withdraw the cash the next day. They also don't want to bear any overnight FX risk, so they will only allow FX conversion once the selling trade is settled (which means you will have real USD in your account by then, T+1).

They do allow same currency purchase, like sell BIL ETF and buy VOO/QQQM or other US stocks which I stated above. This "contra" trade is allowed, provided the settlement period is the same, i.e., in this case, T+1.

Now, if you have margin account however, the restrictions above do not apply. If you sell BIL and say buy Nestle stocks (SIX: NESN) on SIX in Switzerland the same day, you are effectively shorting USD.CHF overnight forwards, i.e., borrowing CHF from IBKR (or some other market participants) with any outstanding cash/stocks as collateral for one day to buy NESN, and repay back at T+1 with USD proceeds from selling your stake in BIL/SGOV the day before. IBKR will charge interest on the overnight loan I believe, but sifus here can give you more color on this topic.

Relevant info from Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/interactivebrokers...ant_settlement/

This post has been edited by TOS: Nov 13 2024, 12:36 AM

Shhhhhh.... Don't tell people...

My profits have dropped to zero for the past 2 weeks... Someone here has clearly manipulated both the bid and ask side of the trading books, the spread has narrowed dramatically...

And no, it's not gaming the system, it's called making markets "more efficient" (Wall Street bros love to say that eh )

This post has been edited by TOS: Nov 12 2024, 10:09 PM

err.... you are not shorting usd.chf...

with margin acc without or insufficient chf... you will be borrowing chf with usd/stocks as collateral... to stop paying interest you need to buy chf... with cash acc ibkr will auto convert afaik...

This post has been edited by dwRK: Nov 12 2024, 11:09 PM

game the system... gives you more street cred lah... hahaha... actual term arbitration sounds so meh... hahaha...

But you will be selling your BIL ETF holdings at the same time right? You mean IBKR will automatically collateralize the remaining BIL ETF (if any) or any other open positions like stocks or ETFs in your IBKR account with the CHF borrowing?

What if I sell ALL the BIL ETF holdings and I don't have anything else remaining in my IBKR account at T+0, there will be nothing left to collateralize, no?

But yes, we agree on the loan nature and the daily interests. To close the short position/loan, gotta buy back CHF.

This post has been edited by TOS: Nov 12 2024, 11:36 PM

all cash n stocks are collateralized in margin acc... you sold but cant withdraw the cash immediately... you can actually buy and not sell anything... margin acc has this thing call buying power 2x/3x of acc size... can recall which x... if what you buy gg... ibkr will start liquidating your positions to cover...

Thanks so much to the two of you, it's been enlightening. In this case, I'll just get BIL ETF or SGOV ETF, right?

Any similar one to SGD and CHF currency?

hi, want to find out how to fund IBKR account, I already have bank account in USD, just want to transfer directly from bank. please advise

tkwfriend since you have USA bank account, pick direct ACH

This post has been edited by Medufsaid: Nov 13 2024, 06:55 AM

If you have below 10k USD, go for BIL or SGOV ETFs. After all, the first 10k USD won't earn you any interest in IBKR's USD cash account, while you will be indifferent to buying BIL ETF with that amount of cash.

As for your second question. There is only one money market ETFs listed on SGX: Phillip SGD Money Market ETF

https://phillipfunds.com/phillip-sgd-money-market-etf/

The problem is the ETF is very illiquid and has high bid-ask spread: https://investors.sgx.com/securities/etfs?security=MMS

You are better off sticking to Fullerton SGD Cash Fund for short-term parking purposes, which allow for withdrawals at T+1 (so you can't buy DBS, UOB or OCBC if the stocks tank intraday, it gotta be crashes lasting a few days then only you have the opportunity to buy).

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For CHF, the closest one I can find is something akin to a 2-year CHF FD: iShares Swiss Domestic Government Bond 0-3 ETF (CH)

https://www.blackrock.com/ch/individual/en/...bond-13-ch-fund

However, usually people will park their CHF in Nestle, Novartis and Roche etc. as the yields on Swiss Treasuries are a pittance. Swiss companies don't perform well recently, even after adjusting for FX, and the illiquid nature of Swiss stocks means you are better off with VOO/QQQM. I myself closed all my Swiss stock positions a couple of weeks ago and consolidate that to VOO/QQQM.

Thank you, this is very helpful. Some markets are indeed very illiquid.

that's where margin account comes in handy. just pay the overnight interest for negative balance

Fullerton SGD cash fund, if i initiate withdrawal (Moomoo sg) today, i'll get it by tomorrow 4pm (GMT +8)

This post has been edited by Medufsaid: Nov 13 2024, 09:34 AM