Thanks for the post. As someone who trades with IB and not totally happy (or unhappy) I took at quick look and if your trading > 400K shares per month this may be an option to look at. For myself I trade about 200-400K per month and dont find the offer worth changing for. I will say that its good to see someone come this close for the small traders though. I have posted in several places that I wish there was other options to look at in terms of price but have yet to see a better deal (for me) than IB
Let's take the do it better part out of the equation for now, but why can't anyone offer the same all-in-one package (here in the states - Saxo don't count) that IB does? Are there any?
You can trade most stocks/futures with any Penson "introducing broker", I think, although some of their platforms are a little shaky. To the best of my understanding, ITG (especially the former "RedSky"), Newedge (formerly known to many as "Fimat"), Lime Brokerage, and Goldman Sachs let you trade more or less anything, but these may have some minima of capital and/or trading volume. Genesis and Assent may expand to offer futures, and I think Lightspeed has them already (through Penson?).