related question is what non-penson brokers have good otcbb routes. The latest penson change this weekend is pretty much the end of trading otcbb/pink with them. There are some cases where if I read the language right "Effective October 1, 2011, you cannot trade in excess of 10% of the previous 20 business day average trading volume of any OTC Bulletin Board (OTCBB) or Pink Sheet security, on any day, regardless of the stock's price. In addition, for stocks trading below $1 per share, you cannot trade more than 25% of the current day's trading volume. " If you trade a tout on the first day, you can only trade 10% of the prev. 20 days avg volume, which is often close to zero. Heck, any stock on a big volume spike still is nearly untradable with the 20-day rule. Anyone know how penson has dealt with liquidation of established positions before they started changing the rules in august? Under this rule, I certainly have things I will no longer be able to sell.
lightspeed's main part clears through penson, and genesis basically split up, and the remnants clear through penson.
Just a minor point of clarification, if I may. The gentlemen who posted previously is correct that Penson clears many Lightspeed accounts, and Assent Clearing is also a clearing firm in the mix, but for what it's worth, Lightspeed also has clearing relationships with Wedbush, ABN and ETC.
i have come across Merrill Edge, seems quite cheap if u exceed 30 trades per month, i definitely qualify, but i read some where the review of it is not so good... Anyone can share? Tradestation is $7 per trade IB seems cheapest but it has the stupid auto liquidation rule which kicks in at 3:50pm...
Do you mean for securities or futures? For stocks I use eTrade and have been reasonably pleased (but I don't trade high volume like I do with futures), but they use Pension for futures and you can't even trade from the same account. So if you don't mind using 2 different platforms I would suggest trying Generic Trade. They use Ironbeam like many others - but their fees and margin policies are fantastic. Also, they take any sized account, so you can do like I did and start with a minimal acct. I opened with 1100 and they let me trade 2 ES. Everything went well and now I trade 20's. -V
"IB seems cheapest but it has the stupid auto liquidation rule which kicks in at 3:50pm the minute I read the word cheapest as a criteria I know that the poster doesn't know what he is talking about. just as important is order routing and price improvement which coincidentally ib excels at. as to the auto liquidation rule nobody wants to be partners with other traders who may cause losses for the broker which guaranteed will be passed along to other customers or put the broker out of business.