I am debating between using Lightspeed trading or Interactive brokers. Does anyone have a recomendation on which to use?
I have Lightspeed and am pretty happy with them. In choosing them, I was unaware of Interactive Brokers. Their commissions look a little lower than Lightspeed.
IB has some nice perks like one free wire withdrawal per month for which Lightspeed charges $50 and IB's API is pretty great (haven't used Lightspeed API). IB also has a much wider product range should you want to trade any other market later on.
You better do a demo. Being a book trader on Sterling and IB is very different. You will likely end up shopping for a front-end and data provider when you switch to IB. Now if your a multi asset/multi strategy trader, no broker with a free front end comes close. I say free because your $10 data charge per month is surely consumable.
Interactive Brokers is not for large volume traders or penny stock traders at .005 per share. They have to be out of their minds.
The max IB commission is 0.5% plus regulatory fees, usually that applies to stocks under $1 rather than the $0.005/share rate.
Negative I just got off the phone with them. If you are trading margin it is 1/2 penny per share which is .005 multiplied by the number of shares. So 2500 share will cost you $12.5 to buy and $12.5 to sell which is $25. 25k will cost you $250 round trip, they have to be out of their minds. It hurts them because large volume traders will be reluctant to deposit additional money to increase leverage. They may be $5k cheaper than Speedtraders, but in the longer term it is well worth it. That right there kills them, I was ready to go into business and they're fees are not negotiable.
You can believe what you want, but I've got fills from today for about that size and the cost was $3-4 not $12.50. Honestly, $3-4 isn't a great price compared to some other places if you can get $2-3 flat rate trades, but it's not what you're quoting. Did you even read the "maximum commission" part right there on the website? The max per order applies whether you pick fixed or tiered commissions: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=1590
U had the audacity to ask me if I bothered to read. Try clicking on links next time to answer what I have already stated. https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=commission&p=stocks1 United States Fixed Minimum Per Order Maximum Per Order USD0.005 per share USD 1.00 0.5% of trade value