i guess your smoking too much something--- what does, in your exact words-- "at the 9.95 for 5000 shares is 14.95 the 5.95 rate is for small orders"mean?? ok, thanks buddy you really clarified your rates there, dont take bong rips before you make posts trying to promote your business oh, and i don't count on trading for free (damn i wish!!) but just about half of what you charge..... just saving these fine people here some money.......
Look out for all this advertising about cheap rates! They are trying to trick you by advertising low rates and marking up their ECN fees. Read the fine print - their ECN fees schedule. If above .0019 (ISLD), .003 (INCA), .003 (ARCA)? They are marking them up. Not to mention the fact that when you add liquidity, not only do they charge you the fee, they get a rebate back from the ECN, so their take from these fees (from the ECN and you) goes up to .003 (ISLD), .005 (INCA), .005 (ARCA). Considering that a "fair" rate by current standards would be .005 - .01/share (ALL inclusive), this is a bad deal. For larger size trades, IB is still the best. Even Datek, although I'm not sure about their execution quality.
my inclination is to think prices are going to go up, not down. why do you think the prices are where they are now? 5 years ago you were looking north of 30.00 a trade.
It is not a happy thought, that prices would go up, because the commisions charged (the "vig") is mathematically a very difficult hurdle for the very active trader to overcome (especially following Nasdaq's horrendous "decimalization"). Neiderhoffer's "Education of a speculator" has a great section describing the problem of paying a vig in trading. Quote: "You need a BIG edge to succeed" The average TRADER on this board - (as opposed to the employee, partner, or manager) with a interest ($$$) in selling trading services - knows this, hence all the concern on here lately about commission fees.
realistically speaking do you see a continued slide in pricing giving the trader the edge or firms raising prices and putting the us active trading consumer out of business? its starting to look like penny stocks will be the rage this decade.
Nobody is really interested in what your "inclination" is. Either put up some evidence to support your claim or shut the F up. Anyone with half a brain can see that paying 5.95 + .5c/share + ECN is a freakin rip off.
If your posting (adding liquidity) your trades will be free with nasdaq stocks as daytradz.com rebates the ECN rebate with Island. I used daytradz.com and thought the service was good. The short list wasnt the greatest though. They use realtick for execution software and that cost a couple of hundred a month. I now use IB due to changing over to smaller size and wanting to trade the emini. But for someone posting large blocks at a retail level ( on island) I cant think of anyone better. Best of luck
i use equitytrading www.equitytrading.com i use to trade between 2000 and 10000 shares and i only pay 9.99 $ per ticket ( 8.99 + 1$ flat for using island ) . When using island you cannot use more than 9999 shares to that price of 9.99$. Before it was the same price with SOES but now it is 8.95 + 0.003 cents a share. The soft is instaquote and it is a very good one. I have 2 other brokers ( Cybercorp and mbtrading)