I just want to manage my own money. Have a secondary broker is a very good idea for not putting everything in one broker account. Just for security reason, for example, account is compromised by other people, bankruptcy of the broker. I think everyone should seriously consider identity stolen. In the case of fund withdraw, it is nice that such request can be approved by someone really knows me in the branch. Maybe another service is that I can be connected to the hedge funds, like mutual fund. Or I can be connected to some one who can get higher return than me, then I can let him to manage part of the money. Maybe some of the service is only available to multiple million account. But it is good to know the information now.
By the way, is there any resource on the internet that show the size of the retail broker? Who is the biggest? I know TD Ameritrade is much larger than Interactive Brokers. List the bigger name than Interactive Brokers I know, but not sure who is the biggest Scottrade TD Ameritrade Etrade Schwab Fidelity
You can see some information from their FCM reports: http://www.cftc.gov/ucm/groups/public/@financialdataforfcms/documents/file/fcmdata0212.pdf Bob
I have to concur with some others, 500k a/c size hardly gets you much more with other brokers than what IB has to offer, given you are an active trader and need access to a diverse asset class universe. You should already get a higher tier service at IB with this account size. The phone gets picked up right away, if you request a change of service hub that gets done much quicker than for the lowest tier retail account, you get a fancier secureID, you can actually also negotiate commissions up to a point with IB, their fx commissions for example are negotiable given you bring in sufficient business. If you only invest, trade infrequently, then you are possibly better off with a different broker, same if you specialize in high volume US stocks, for instance.
What exactly are you looking for? Security on swept cash? Access to IPOs and secondaries? You're not going to get that with any of the discounts. No SEC-regulated US client has lost a dime to a dealer-failure. At least with IB you know that your broker understands tail-risk and hedges their prop-book. Stay out of futures if you're truly paranoid. Fido is the best of the rest.
I don't trade equities so I have no experience with them but they have a stellar rep and clear through Goldman. I would certainly check them out. https://www.gracefg.com/HOMEPAGE.html
IB gives access to some hedge funds. i don't know what the minimum account equity is before you have access to them, but i see them on my account page. But if you want to be connected to the major hedge funds, your account is way too small. they have 7-figure minimums maybe you're looking for wealth management services? The major banks like wells fargo and BofA have them. but be prepared to give them a % of your account equity every year.
By doing some research, I found the following Merill Lynch : 2.2 trillion customer assets, they claim they are the largest broker Schwab: 1.7 trillion Fidelity: 1.5 trillion TD Ameritrade: 451 billion Interactive Brokers: 16.7 billion Look at the number, IB is only managing 1% of the big broker. I guess this is why I have some concern. I know many of the people here like me is an IB customer, attracting by its low fee. But if IB is good, why it has this low number? Is there something we are missing by taking its low fees? By the way, the total hedge fund under management is 2 trillion in this world. And total US Market Cap is 15 trillion
I also believe ML is a excellent place to run a trading business. Though our Introducing Broker relationship we can offer access to BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research, access to one of the top securities lending franchises in the business and one of the few large Investment banks to offer Portfolio Margining with less than $5 million of account equity. The principals of Victor Securities have successfully worked with Merrill Lynch since 2004. Accordingly, we are able to seamlessly deliver the desired solutions to our clientsâ needs. Bob