This is my impression and it got formed due to following: 1) I have heard many seriously successful futures traders trading through Advantage. 2) I have heard their systems are quite robust viz. datafeeds don't blank during high market vol, lightening fast execution etc. 3) Also, the electronic solutions they have for automatic trading is pretty good. They help with colocation etc. if you need it. 4) Their pricing is better than IB. 5) Among FCMs, again I think they are financially one of the most stable. 6) Their website is very professional. 7) Their minimums for account opening is respectable. Its not that you can open an account with them with 2k in your account. Basically most big "individual" guys trade with them. This is my impression. So its a good alternative to IB if you want to diversify among at least 2 brokers.
we need a broker that charges zero comms, and takes a % of the profit on a trade. no charge for losers. how about that? something to justify going head to head with co located scum.
"co located scum" - qualify that. What is so contemptuous about a company paying a premium to get a speed advantage, so long as no one else is prohibited from doing the same, *given* they pony up the dough instead of whining that it's their "right" to get to a higher vantage point without paying for it.
1. considering IB states what the fees are for each exchange, you can easily go to that exchanges website and compare. (you may also want to factor in redundant data lines, redistribution fees, non-display data fees, annual data audits, etc). Do some simple math and you'll see how a firm needs to cover these costs if offering access to over 100 market venues with a client base of active traders exceeding 200K. 2. You talk about commissions per year but somehow I suspect you are not subtracting exchange fees. Exchange fees on CME and ICE are over $1 per side. (brokers earn less than 1/2 of the exchanges for the privilege to pay for all the regulatory, data, programming and more to a demanding clientele who want it all for free or near cost). So please show me the fees that IB are raising other than those where exchanges are raising fees. Your beef should be with the exchanges that are starting to charge or keep raising data fees. Given your posts, I'd urge you to head to an exchange website and dig in deep into the fee structures including data redistribution, non-display data, different tiered data (yep you can pay more for faster data which I think is grossly unfair on some exchanges), telco costs, API costs, pro vis non-pro fees, the various definitions of pro/non-pro around the world, etc. etc etc. You may learn a thing or two and while I know many would like a free lunch, after you do the numbers, you might understand why we choose not to eat all the costs.