Broker Comparisions?

to compare fees only and focus only on that is fatal. depending on how you trade, but no matter cheap is not a part you put on the space shuttle or have made in china.

so lets take a hypothetical broker and we will call it "ic" and ic has the cheapest fees and commissions but require higher margin and will margin call you at any rumor of volatility. also you have to use the ic software and the ic data feed that is pure shit at best. then add to that ic has these outages all the time but you don't care right cause what a deal on those fees and commissions.

next comes a broker named "id" and what you know learned from the gullible fools of ic - id decides to pay people to trade, gee wonder what could go wrong there?

 

Ah, OK.
And yes, I agree totally.

Part of the reason I want to switch to another broker than IB is the disgraceful customer service.
I'm kinda funny when it comes to poor customer service. I despise it. And I have extreme loyalty too - my Mrs asked me why I bought a mega expensive toothbrush from Braun just last week. The reason, was the customer service that I received 10 years ago.

I've reached a point where I can now pay 'extra' to never have to speak with them again.

But its this 'extra' that I want to give a value to.
I am now prepared to pay for data. 6 months ago I was not.

Anyway, I will do a nice little spreadsheet analysis and work out what additional it will cost me to start using another broker.

The end game is to make profit, with the least stress.

 

But doing that would give you a proper or more accurate answer for you, won't it?

 

I can talk about my experience. I moved to lightspeed 2 months ago and i find it very good. The costumer service is great and Robert Morse answers fast. Compared to other brokers it has the fastest execution and fit all the needs of a day trader.

 

lightspeed commission is higher than ib.

 

I don't think that is true. It depends on whether you choose fixed or tiered with IB and what products you trade. For example it seems that options are generally cheaper with Lightspeed.
Stock may or may not be cheaper depending on your overall volume as well.

 

In addition to the per-share rate, we offer a flat per-trade for up to 10,000 shares that they do not. We do not make you earn your volume discount each month. Once you hit a tier, we generally leave you there. Our option rates include the OCC fee of $0.045/Option and they pass that to you.

 

in that case, your rate is cheaper than IB. the website says for tier 1, there is a minimum of 1 dollar per order under 250k volume. does the minimum 1 dollar/order exist for tier 2 and up?

 

Drops to the 100 share rate except for Realtick. E.G. $0.0035/Share, min $0.35.

 

do you know that the top dentists are now questioning the long term use of an electric toothbrush..especially in relation to fillings and crowns !