[beezle]

For many things, IB is great. Certainly if you are a futures trader it is very good, same for most equity/option trading. But for bond trading, expect a complete nightmare at tax time. Their "tax department" has no clue how to properly and consistently amortize bond premiums and quite honestly (personal experience) does not give a rats.

[throwaway2037]

    > bond premiums

Does this mean you are buying bonds with a price greater than 100%? If yes, can you explain why? On the institutional side, there is an allergy to premium bonds; they only want to buy at par (100%) or less, so normally the coupon rate is adjusted just before issuance to meet their needs.