Ok I found them but there is very little info on their site that I can find in terms of margin and such.
I traded with them for about 5 months, and their commissions were eating me alive. I had a reduced commission setup also, but I still couldn't trade small size with it. A 100 lot round trip will cost around $21. I wrote a small review of them here. http://www.elitetrader.com/br/?action=view&R_FirmID=155
Yeah I figured as much about a firm like that. I think I am going to stick to the alliancetrader/alldaytrader idea and just use them until I am able to get the $25k to day trade in the states. 4:1 margin isn't bad for $5k. I was sim trading with there software today and was quite happy with the results. I was able to make about $250 with 1500 shares after commish on just FDRY alone. If I can maintain 100-300 a day that would be fine with me. I have lots of patience after doing this for a while. I have to admit I am nervous about using these off shore firms but I can't find anything negative about them except the commish rates. Oh well I am going to sit it out and wait about a month before I deposit with them to be sure I can't dig anything up. I emailed allianance today asking about better rates and what they would offer me based on an estimate trade pattern of 4-20 trades a day. I have been researching these prop firms but can't really get comfortable with the idea. I live in Alaska as well so the timing is good for me though. -4 hours from EST lets me get up at 4am work the early morning then go into work(day job) at 9am AST which is generally after I make money on the spikes and movers of the day. Thanks for the good reply guys I knew some helpful people did exist out there some where.
Still no response from Alliance about better commish rates. Any one out there use these guys and what rates did you get. I looked at the rates on the web page but have heard a simple email can get a better rate.
Well i'll give you my story. Their intro rate is $12.95 per ticket plus ECN and software fee's. I responded to an email they sent me and I started with a discounted ticket charge $9.95 per ticket plus ecn and software. I was thinking, well if I want to trade, i have to pay this high rate. Well, after 2-3 months I got so pissed off at how much I was paying, I emailed them about asking for a lower rate and seeing if they could pass along ECN rebates. They said they couldn't pass along the rebates but would drop my ticket charge $1. So my best rate with them was $8.95 plus software and ECN fee's. They charge $25 for you to wire money to them and charge you $55 to wire money back to you. If I were to do it over again, I would just have opened and IB account and only trade 3 trades a week. It's your dime though, do what you want.
Hmm I could see the ECN and tick charge but there doesn't look like there is a software charge any more. I don't know I don't have enough cap to fund a full 25K day trade account which is why I started this query. I have been doing very well with the 3 day trades a week with ameritrade now but its slow and frustrating for me since I am lured to be more active. The fees are definitely stiff but if I can do well and get the cap up here then I can switch to IB which seems to be everyone's favorite.
i am sorry,if i am repeating something, what was discussed before but there is one alternative of daytrading for low budget traders and it is financial spread betting . So far i found only UK based brokers and they let you daytrade (buy or sell)) selected US +EU shares , Indexes , currencies,bonds and commodities with as low as $200 deposit(1:10 margin?)from one account.It is tax free,zero commission and you can deposit funds by using your debit or credit card.Tomorow i am gonna open demo account,probably with Etrade to found out more.That's all i know.Obviously there must be some negative aspects of this kind of trading too,so if anybody has more experience with spread betting ,please share with us
if I am not mistaken , a citizen of the U.S can day trade e-mini futures that trade just like a stock and moves just as fast and often faster- no S.E.C. pattern rule. trade gold, oil, indexes - the S&P e-minis, Dow Industrial E-minis and the Nasdaq 100 e-minis are very popular and commissions are less expensive ranging from .70 per contract and higher. If you are into technicals and like to day trade try the minis you won't be disappointed and you won't need to scan for awhile