Bullets at a Retail Firm?

Check out http://www.choicetrade.com Under Traderoutedirect, it says 'electronic bullets' and lists charges. I was looking at another thread; I guess Cyber is going to come out with bullets. I thought only pro firms could do this. Is there a new trend forming?

BTW, Choicetrade seems to be the new name of our old friends from Spectre Level 4/Let'sgotrade.

 

It never made any sense to me at all that only 'pro' (wtf is that) firms would have access to bullets.

PS I know what a pro firm is, just don't think they should be entitled to anything we mere mortals don't have access to.

 

Andover offers bullets for their retail customers. They cost .025/share. You need 35k though to open an account but it is SIPC insured.

 

How long will it be until IB does the right thing and provides this.

 

I had emailed them about this and their reply was "not in the near future." Those were their exact words.

 

Some things that pro traders get they get because they are licensed (pros).

 

IB has a history of underpromising and over delivering. Remember how vehemently they despised trailing stops? Who knows what time and competition will bring.

It is rather interesting that lines are blurring. Pro and retail are coming into a very grey area.

 

I think prop traders are pressing retail to catch up, because prop firms are...well...why be under the jurisdiction of an SRO if you don't need to be?

 

An edge, in this case bullets, is only helpful if few have it and many don't. Making bullets available to all may reduce the effectiveness. However; it would be great if IB provides bullets at a competitive cost structure and ease of use.

 

Bullets:
I started to write a proposal - for starters Timber Hill can possibly offer a better bullet rate to what prop firms are paying. It would just be a matter of putting in the resources on the programming side.

One thing I am not clear on, do the regulators allow bullets for retail? If it's a grey area, forget it. It is not worth the regulatory hassle. Look what is happening to Datek. They took the lenient approach to freeriding on cash transactions. Many of you gave IB grief as they took the strict interpretation to daytrading. As a result of Datek's interpretation, their merger/buyout may fall through.

Finally, come October SSF's will be available. Assuming decent SSF spreads, shorting on a down tick via bullets will be more expensive than trading a SSF. Thus, it may not even be worth the effort.