ML and GSEC, which is good for shorting? I know Bob has connection to ML. Who can offer connection to GSEC? Bright trading on Rediplus?
Those warnings were annoying. I traded very few financials but did some a/b pairs trades in non bank stocks. One leg of the pair was very illiquid with wide market. Even a small buy in on the open could cost me $0.50 a share from wide markets when I was only looking to make $0.05 to $0.10 on each pair. I liked GSEC better when it was Spear Leeds & Kellogg. SLK was awesome to do business with.
GSEC dumped all their small BD accounts. They dumped almost all their Introducing brokers. If you want GSEC with small dollars (under $5M), you will have to go with a firm like Bright.
I know Bright is prop, but I do not use leverage, which I think is the main feature of them. How about gracefg.com. It seems they have GSEC connection. Besides short ability, how's the charge of ML compared to Interactive Brokers? Bob, if you can, please send me more information on ML (commissions?) . Thank you.
The rates come from us, not ML. We would need to discuss your account first. Email me a directly with your contact information and I'll give you a call today. Bob
Maybe this question has been asked before but I will ask it again to make it fresh in the thread. What concerns you about IB with your current account size? Others might be able to help guide you in the right direction if you would share more specifics. So far you have not stated anything specific.
I do not know what other company can offer, so frankly, I am not clearly know what I can get. The following is my current "demand" for a second account (I know many of you have several account for different purpose) Safety. One concern is of course broker failure. Though SIPF insurance, I read somewhere that a very few people still lost part of the money when their asset is large. But this is not the main one. I think identity stolen is not covered by SIPF. If someone have your password and damage one account, at least another account is safe. Short ability. IB has great short. But many times, I still cannot get the borrow. So if a second broker can offer great borrow, I will have a second place as backup. Commission: It is nice if the commission is comparable or lower than IB if they offer better commission for account with assets 500K than some account with only $5K. Again, I do not know what other company can offer. If they can offer more service for a 500K account than a 5K account, it would be great. Strategy running: 1. contrary strategy. If stock hot, short it. Holding a few hours to a few days 2. Two long strategy based on stock ranking. One covers small cap based on fundamental, average turnover, 2 month. One covers mid cap based on up estimates, average turnover, 2 weeks Allocation: each strategy get 1/3 fund. No leverage used. Long holding 5 stocks, Short holding 10 stocks
Only for funds now over 10mm. GSEC wont take anymore retail type accounts from the few remaining IBs no matter how large. And I think Goldman direct is near the 50 mark now....may be wrong though.
no broker in the world can beat ib on almost anything. some specialized brokers are better in certain niches like forex bokers or futures brokers. 500k is a small account size for ib. even if you have 50 million or 500 million you will not find a better broker. you will find more expensive brokers but you will not find a better one if you want to manage your money yourself.