Having done it before, I believe that I could make a profit rapidly scalping with a brokerage fee of 1/2 cent per share or less. I have made anywhere from between 50 and 200 trades per day. But not anymore. With 1 cent per share broker fee like IB charges, I don't even make 5 trades a day. One would think brokers would understand that when the fees go up, the number of trades go down. regards hoodoo
Many ET traders are like herds following other's path because they hear IB IB IB IB IB IB IB IB IB IB Everyday. If it were because of cheap commision, belive me IB is not the cheapest out there. But considering many features and 3rd party software support and having Universal account is what makes IB overall best broker. But IB is not an option for Scalpers, what i Belive
Well, I sympathise, but the 1 cent is for the first 500, the rest is 1/2 cents, so 2000 shares approaches 1/2 cent. They also eat the SEC fee, which the others don't. So if you're down from 200 trades to 5, that ain't the reason.
In some case i don't agree, especially if you trading very liquid stocks or ETFs. Most guys scalp with volume of 1000 shares block per trade and andscale in and out 500 or 1000 more if opputunity rise. Now with above volume and instruments you can place you orders trough Island trough POINTDIREX , which cost you 10$ to close you trade, and with IB it costs you 15$ to close.
I have had a myTrack account for 4 years. They are the same company (Track Data Securties). Options fills are great. They will route to any of the 5 markets. I have only used limit orders, I can not speak of market orders. Orders (at least through myTrack) are routed through ABNO but you choose the market in which it is sent to. Trading at the inside market gets me instant fills.
Tradestation has significantly reduced rates so to compete with IB... IB should do something to keep the competitive edge!
There are a lot of smaller firms that work through large clearing firms that will cut individual retail traders a deal based on the volume you do.
You can definitely find commissions by far cheaper than IB if you trade massive volume. But for the piker (c'est moi), IB seems to provide the cheapest commissions as far as I know.. Cheers 50