Well as a previous customer of Alliance I can attest that their commissions are high for a reason. It's the only broker around that gives small accounts big boy rights! You get around the PDT Rule in trade for slightly higher trades. You got 2 ways to go per share or flat fee. I used them for over 1 year. Love there DAS trader Pro software. But, I went to a lower priced broker. Got a deal I couldn't resist. It's tough with commissions like this on small accounts. But, if your trading mechanicism is ideal, it's only a matter of time until you can reach your capital goal. Keep us posted on your trading ventures.
If folks want to trade intraday and have less than $25k, stop trying to find ways around the annoying limitations of trading stocks (PDT rule, up-tick rule, T+3 settlement, short-list availability, etc.) and consider trading futures instead. Futures also offer a fair and transparent marketplace (instead of specialists and MMs), relatively consistent volatility, better trading hours, 60/40 tax treatment, and no itemized trade reporting on your tax return.
You get a net P/L on your 1099. Net figure is reported on Form 6781, which breaks out short-term (40%) and long-term (60%)capital gain/loss. Those two figures are passed to your Schedule D, one line for short-term, one line for long-term. No itemizing trades.
I know options on commodities and broad-based stock index futures are also taxed 60/40, but I'm not knowledgeable about how those transactions are reported for tax purposes.
I'm gonna look into it. I do credit spreads on the SPX, but would prefer to use options on the futures contract because you can go further OOM. If the tax reporting was simpler, that would clinch it for me.
Here is the response from Alliance on the rates: At 16 trades per day, we can offer you $9.95 per trade, charged each trade (buy or sell) For example Buy and sell 1000 units via ARCA Buy:9.95 + 1* + (1000x 0.004) = 14.95 Sell: 9.95 + 1 + (1000x 0.004) + [1000x (0.00075 +0.0000418)**]= 15.74 Total $30.69 * $1 software flat fee charged each trade ** Sell side fees charged every sell