This all reminds me of a certain country in Europe eliminating bus ticket fees. They realized that the ticket fees are less than 30% of the budget and the collection is too expensive and time consuming, so they eliminated tickets. Similar story with commissions when brokers make their money on interest rates and not commissions. Any money you keep with your broker, your broker is making money on it.
The only real question worth asking here os which division will subidise the other. I vote for lite paying for pro on the long run. Pro is going nowhere and IB will keep investing in its flagship product. Pro may become even more pro by revamping and expanding IB prime to steal miniprime market share. Time will tell....and I am sticking around.
Can anyone tell me what the all in commision plus fees cost is over at TD?? They tell me it is .65 per contract regardless if I provide liquidity or not.IB charges me 1.50 per contract more often than not...Trading butterflys for 6 bucks isnt much fun..Are there ant real advantages to stick with IB??? I know their cash sweep is 100 basis points higher