Hi, IB is my main broker, but I believe in having a backup broker or 2 for safety. Platform and execution reliability in volatile markets and cost are most important to me. I trade both ES and SPY. Tradestation's $100/month does apply to me, because I don't trade enough or have the $100k+ balance. TOS is an option, but I've heard horror stories about reliability in volatile markets. Could anyone make some recommendations? Thank you!
I believe you asked this question already... https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/should-i-move-to-tradestation.299027/page-5#post-4407660
You can use us. Email me if you want me to call. My last three clients that used me for back up, now use IB for back up.
Do you trade from the DOM or Charts? I can give you a few options to choose from. Also, do you hold positions overnight or just day trade? Thank you,
I would be looking for a 'backup' broker for IB as well. Mainly to avoid having too much investments/cash in one brokerage in case something bad happened. Sadly I have yet to find one that offers what I need (low margin rates, low/no option assignment rates, otherwise low fees -- all of which I use quite extensively).
I don't understand how one would use a backup broker. If you split your trading capital 50/50 between 2 different brokers I assume you'd be trading actively in both. Otherwise you'd have half your capital parked somewhere doing nothing. Switching between 2 different user interfaces would make me bleed from the eyes.
I only do a dozen or so trades a weeks, so it's not a big deal to switch between trading platforms (especially if only 3-4 different platforms). And I would choose some of the brokers to be pure buy & hold (with little regular activity). The reason I would break up is so that I can keep 500k per broker to avoid concerns (broker going under, or back office issue where accounts are frozen for whatever reason). I suppose there might be a better solution (small hedge funds/etc. must have a better approach) but I have not quite gotten there yet. I'm aware of prime/mini-prime/introducing brokers to prime but haven't done too much down that avenue yet and may do that in the fullness of time (should I choose to go professional, right now I'm still private).
If you're willing to pay a monthly fee, you could use Sterling Trader. They're a consistent front-end to many major brokers like IB and Lightspeed.
We subsidize the cost of Sterling TRader Pro for our clients. The first $100 in commissions goes toward the platfrom fee.