Hi everyone, This is probably a stupid question but I will ask anyway. I currently have a futures trading account where most of my money is and I trade micro currencies and such. There is a few stock trading strategies I'd like to try but the commissions have to be extremely low for it to make sense. Part of the reason for this is because I only have about $3000 to put in this small trading account on the side. I used to use speedtrader which was .99 minimum for stock trades and .0035 per share. It has gone up to 1.99 minimum. That is the cheapest broker I've found and I will use them if I have to. The next cheapest for me is optionshouse and that is considerably more expensive. There used to be a bunch of .99 minimum brokers out there like lightspeed, noble trading, etc. I'm not sure why discount rates have gone up so much. Anyone have suggestions for a cheaper discount broker? Thanks!
Lightspeed has a $1.00 minimum if you go with per share commission. You also need $25,000 account. IB has a $1.00 minimum if you go with per share commission. You also need $10,000 account. Many discount stock brokers have raised commissions because Penson went bankrupt. Almost all the bottom feeder brokers used Penson to clear their trades. Penson's clearing rates were too low and now no clearing firm offers such low rates.