It's not $3.25 commission. It's $3.25 including commission, NFA fees, Rithmic fees, and an average cost for exchange fees. This is pretty close to what you're going to get with most live FCM's, except if you are working with a discount brokerage like AMP. Here is an example: $0.25 Rithmic + $0.02 NFA + $1.50 Exchange Fees + $1.48 commission = $3.25/side That said, as of today, we're tweaking it a tiny bit. $1.25 commission and an average of $1.46 exchange fees (CL for instance is $1.50). This will be $2.98/side. Any Gauntlet subscriber who got charged $3.25/side, will get a credit for the difference of $0.27/side. If anyone specifically trades a certain product that has cheaper exchange fees, speak with our support and we can configure your account for that cheaper exchange fee. If you trade a lot of volume, let us know and we can also reduce your $1.25 commission down to $1.00 or even less. We try and provide an average so that people can have a consistent rate. In the future we hope to be able to mimic live accounts even closer by providing the exact exchange fee no matter what you trade, however Rithmic cannot yet pull this directly from the exchange. Helios's FCM also gives certain commission rates based on the volume of the specific trader, so we try and use an average for that as well. I understand this may not be as cheap as some competitors, however, I refer you to the prior discussions regarding regulatory issues and tax savings.
Does anyone pay more than $2.00 a side? IB, Tradestation, NinjaTrader brokerage, etc. Who doesn’t use a “discount” brokerage? There may be a lot of things to like here but that commission structure is a major fail.
I understand the concern. Commissions add up for sure! Unfortunately it's not something we can decide. Due to the complex risk management systems required to run the prop firm that funds Gauntlet traders, their brokerage can have commissions (not including exchange fees) that typically range from $0.50-$1.25/side (most often $1-1.25). To try and provide the most realistic simulator possible, we use the commission seen most often. Round-turn including exchange fees, absolutely. Many people do. For instance, anyone trading with TDAmeritrade/TOS is likely paying over $3.50/side. Our range $0.50-$1.25/side + exchange/clearing fees Commissions from the ones you mentioned: NinjaTrader: $0.53-$1.19/side + exchange/clearing fees (within the range of what we can provide) Tradestation: $1.50/side + exchange/clearing fees (higher than our default) IB: Typically $0.65-$0.85/side + exchange/clearing fees (within range of ours) As I've previously stated, you are more than welcome to reach out to us directly to discuss what sort of commission your trading style/frequency may get you. We can then reach out to the prop firm and have them get an estimate from their brokerage. If they give us a lower number than what we have set to default, we are more than happy to adjust your Gauntlet's commission to be lower! Our additional benefits can also help outweigh any potential negative side effects of commissions. I hope that helps clear things up a bit.
This is exactly the “logic” proponents of a Financial Transaction Tax wield. In all seriousness, you do have a rudimentary understanding of how markets work and why your evocation of the contract’s notional value is utterly specious, don’t you?
Unless you're running HFT, $7 per $1million of notional shouldn't kill your edge. If it does, you're in the wrong business.
Hello everyone, an update to our commission structure. Helios has worked and secured a $0.50/side rate for all accounts, and it will get lower with more volume. Rithmic is also giving a discounted rate of $0.20/side for traders using R|Trader or Finamark. What does this mean? Instead of our standard rate being $2.98/side, our new standard rate is going to be $2.22/side ($0.50 commission + $1.50 exchange + $0.02 NFA + $0.20 Rithmic). If you trade something like ES or ZB that's cheaper exchange fees, let us know when you sign up and we will adjust your account for the cheaper fees, getting your rate even lower.
I don't want to take the discussion sideways, but anytime when someone mentions notional value my blood pressure goes up 30 points. I actually have an old thread explaining how futile it is to use notional in any type of math. Specially true type kind.