Interactive Brokers for dummies

[hedgehog]

@Bojack

You need to trust the developers of LineageOS, because theoretically the OS could activate WiFi by itself and the connect to some unprotected network

It’s a small potential risk, yes

@Bojack

Keepass is not officially supported on Android, you need to use an unsupported port.

The Original Keepass was a Windows C# program. It has since been reimplemented numerous times, some versions even themselves got forked - like KeepassX and KeepassXC. It doesn’t really matter which fork you consider official. The important thing between all of them is just the common database format.

Of course, the phone is always offline so I guess there’s not much possible harm

Exactly. It’s offline so it ain’t going to leak nothing to noone and as long as it can read/write keepass database in the format that other forks can read I don’t really care that much about the particular fork I’m using.

@Bojack

You can only login to your account when you have this device with you. I assume it never leaves your home

I carry it with me all the time in my backpack. I do have however backups of everything on it should it get lost or stolen to be able to restore everything on another device.

What’s a security token?

My permanently offline android phone

@Bojack

I guess in this case you should keep one PC just for the bank stuff, where some linux is running, and then your normal PC where you can do what you want.

You don’t really have to do this. It’s amazing what virtualization software can do these days. You can passthrough your whole GPU to the guest OS and you’ll have like 99% native performance. You just need a decent enough CPU with vt-d support, that’s all, modern high end cpu should all have it. But if you’re not gaming and don’t need 4k, even without the relatively complicated GPU passthrough, the stuff just works amazingly fast, it’s totally possible to work all from within virtual machines these days. I have one VM for porn, one for banking, one for cryptocurrencies, a couple for web surfing, I can pop a new one by cloning a template to test out a random software download or build whenever I want, takes a just a few moments…

BTW, which distro of Linux are you running then?

Debian.

You have to trust someone in the end who packages and builds your software for you and I choose to trust the biggest player there is out there. It’s also got much more polished than it used to be in recent years, for me it’s even better than Ubuntu - recent Ubuntu releases crash way too much on my machine. It also works perfectly as a rolling release with Debian Testing unlike Ubuntu which you have to reinstall every f’ing time

[Bojack]

OK, that makes sense to me. But why do you carry that android device all the time with you? You don’t think it’s safer at home or you want to have the possibility to use it whenever you want?

I’m wondering if your strategy is not a bit of an overkill. When you type in the password, the software on your PC could log your keyboard input. Even if everything is open source, they also have security holes that some malware could exploit. And even if everything fully safe on your side, the bank/broker could do a shit job and not protect your password well enough. The whole chain is only as strong as the weakest link. You keep your password very safe, but it could get stolen by typing or directly from the server.

[hedgehog]

@Bojack

OK, that makes sense to me. But why do you carry that android device all the time with you? You don’t think it’s safer at home or you want to have the possibility to use it whenever you want?

To have a possibility to log in from wherever I want. Also all my second factor authenticators are on it instead of my main phone and I need them regularly.

To protect against the risk of theft, I’m relying on android’s full disk encryption, lock screen and keepass manager itself asking for a password/pin on access, and I also have backups of everything from the device.

@Bojack

I’m wondering if your strategy is not a bit of an overkill. When you type in the password, the software on your PC could log your keyboard input.

Yes, that’s why I also enable second factor everywhere it’s possible

[Bojack]

Well that’s been an interesting discussion. Thanks. Now I will try to fall asleep without getting paranoid

As a conclusion and food for thought, I have this comic:

[hedgehog]

The only advice I can make with regards to that is to keep a low profile. If noone knows you had any wealth to begin with, it’s hard to get wrenched for it

I also don’t plan on declaring my bitcoin holdings, partly for this reason too - noone needs to know about them, even the tax people

[Bojack]

@hedgehog

I also don’t plan on declaring my bitcoin holdings, partly for this reason too - noone needs to know about them, even the tax people

Oh, so you also hold bitcoin? Can you share your reasons behind investing in bitcoin? Do you hold other cryptocurrencies? Do you invest a large portion your portfolio in crypto? How to buy and store bitcoin that it’s safe? How would you interpret the current $4000 price, do you think it is still undervalued in the long term? And finally, any other significant investments than the stock market and crypto? Sorry for the series of questions, I’ve been battling with the idea of bitcoin for some time and still don’t know what to think about it.

[dbu]

@Bojack

@hedgehog

I also don’t plan on declaring my bitcoin holdings, partly for this reason too - noone needs to know about them, even the tax people

Oh, so you also hold bitcoin? Can you share your reasons behind investing in bitcoin? Do you hold other cryptocurrencies? Do you invest a large portion your portfolio in crypto? How to buy and store bitcoin that it’s safe? How would you interpret the current $4000 price, do you think it is still undervalued in the long term? And finally, any other significant investments than the stock market and crypto? Sorry for the series of questions, I’ve been battling with the idea of bitcoin for some time and still don’t know what to think about it.

Please keep this topic on topic, and shift to another thread when needed.

Thank you,
D

[Alex]

@chestwood96

I tried the IB Algo thing on my last trade and it worked quite well, I set it to normal and my market order took about an hour. It seems to be kind of a hybrid of market and limit order.

I guess this is more useful if you usually set market orders? I usually set limit orders a bit below the current price.

[derpinator]

It looks kind of like a hybrid solution to me (internally it pretty much seems to be doing what you do but readjusting to market conditions).

I am not sure if it is better or worse.

[Knoch]

In the test account you can buy shares only in minimal amounts of 100, which could make rebalancing difficult. Is there also this minimum purchase limit with the real IB account?

[nugget]

@Knoch

Is there also this minimum purchase limit with the real IB account?

yes, it is 1 share, so no half shares or such

[Julianek]

Yes, usually there is no minimum imposed by IB on the integer quantity of shares you buy.
For some markets however (ex : Japan), the market imposes a minimum amount of shares, on a per company basis.
Ex : On the Tokyo Stock Exchange, company A will be bought/sold by packs of 100, Company B by packs of 200, and I even cam across a company where the mnimum package size is 1000 shares.

[Bojack]

@Knoch

In the test account you can buy shares only in minimal amounts of 100, which could make rebalancing difficult.

You make research and ask a lot of questions, which is smart, but why don’t you just buy VT and you will have no need to rebalance? Also it would be funny if you made a month-long research, tens of posts, and then you finally write, that you invested 1’000 CHF

[Alex]

You can’t fault him/her for doing their homework!

[Knoch]

@Alex

You can’t fault him/her for doing their homework!

Yes, that’s exactly my situation. I am not yet clear about many things (just started learning about stocks and ETFs a month ago), that’s why I ask so many questions, but I read a lot and it’s getting better. I hope to join the passive investors club soon

[nugget]

yes it takes some effort and time until you get to the point where you con make well balanced and concious decisions. It took me half a year until I finally bought some shares. you can take the shortcut - but it’s going to be more expensive and you’ll have less peace with it

feel encouraged to go on asking. maybe you can even write a blog or a story of your journey from “what is stocks?” to “I am inveted in XYZ becasue of ABC”

[Knoch]

@Bojack

you invested 1’000 CHF

VT is now worth about 80 USD, with the minimal quantity of 100 on ARCA that makes 8000 CHF. An expensive experiment… I’ll keep learning till I’ll know what I’m doing.

Good idea about a blog, I’ll start one in the Share your story section.

[derpinator]

I have bough as low as 5 VT in one transaction (I have not tried less), so that is no problem (transaction costs for just the buy were +/- 1$).

Were you aware that you can just write a number into the count window and are not limited to the drop down values?

[Knoch]

@derpinator

Were you aware that you can just write a number into the count window and are not limited to the drop down values?

Thanks, I didn’t know that.

[Knoch]

I applied for the IB account and they are asking to provide the wire notification confirmation for my bank. Does it mean that I can simply transfer money from my Postfinance account or is it some special procedure that I have to do at Postfinance? Will the sum transfered to this GB… account be charged with some commission by Postfinance?