I am currently searching for an good online futures broker and I'm finding that Xpresstrade appears to be the best as far as having a user friendly web based platform; ability to place advanced orders such as OCO and OTO orders,etc.; great interactive charts; and ability to trade all futures markets. Not sure how good their customer service is as they did not seem that friendly on the telephone although that could have been an isolated moment and not the usual case. The only thing I dislike about Xpresstrade is that they are on the high side on commissions for discount futures brokers and possibly not very friendly customer service. Does anyone know of an online broker that has all the good features that Xpresstrade has noted above plus trades all the major future markets, good customer service and has lower commissions than Xpresstrade? Thx for your help.
i had the exact same experience wrt phone demeanor vs range of mkts offered, particularly the tocom in addition to comex. undecided on which way to go. the broker at globalfutures was willing to elaborate on their service for me and really helpful
I am currently at xpresstrade and I am moving my account to open e cry due to lower commisions. There is another thread on this topic that was started a few days ago, you should check it.
Make sure you download .NET Framework version 2.0. They say earlier versions work...mine didn't. Also, if you're not on XP then upgrade to it. Windows 2k doesn't work well. Only thing I REALLY hate about OpenECry is their update/upgrade policy. They don't tell you in advance. You just try to startup the interface and it tells you to download the latest software. If you don't...you can't login. It's lots of fun when all you want to do is place a order ASAP. Customer service is excellent. Always quick reply either in email or phone. Can't remember the last time I couldn't trade because OEC was down (a good thing). I've traded the SP and ND pit contracts and got very good service. Orders quickly went into working mode and fill notifications were prompt. OEC used to have lagging problems in the DOM, but after the recent updates it seems the problem has been eliminated. OCO's can't be done from the DOM but it's pretty easy to do with other tickets. Probably easier to one click cancel the old order on the DOM and one click add the new order. I like that they give you access to ALL markets they offer with no exchange fees. On a slow day you can pull up any contract and watch it trade in the DOM (gives some good info. about liquidity and volatility in markets you're interested in). One problem I had early was my account was setup to only allow 20 contracts open at a time (no matter what you're equity). A quick email and the problem was fixed in 20 min. (it's pretty easy to get spoiled by their customer service). Also, when the DOM lagging was a big problem sometimes they'd reboot their quote servers. (Could place and trade orders but not get quotes.) After one bad day the president of the company sent out a email saying all trades that day would be commission free...and sorry for the outages. (So the good customer service goes all the way to the top).
I am considering Xpresstrade because you don't have to pay for data feeds. IB is $55/mo for CBOT and $35/mo for CME pit data.
Tradestation has a lot of good things and many futures markets and live charting and trading off the charts.
See: http://www.xpresstrade.com/commissions.html It seems to be expensive. $5 for e-mini SP, NASDAQ, DJ per side per contract + exchange/regulatory/floor-based fees (see http://www.xpresstrade.com/comm_ans5.html )