Quote from BoSoxFan: For Echo you dont need a Series 55---they dont let u trade in nasdaq. For Hold Brothers---it is required, although from talking to the contact person it sounded like it was more of an option. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You do NOT need a 55 to trade nasdaq. At Echo you only need series 7. Trade NYSE,nasdaq,options,hotdogs, whatever you want. Echo told me they ONLY trade equities.
One thing that you might like to do is check that the rates you are being quoted include all fees for ECN routing and pass throughs. Because if they dont then those rates are very high. You can get .05 a share and even .04 a share retail these days all in. At IB they are quoting .0029 for ECN fees. Or almost a third of a cent per share for routing for NYSE stocks via something like ARCA if you opt for unbundled commission structure and are taking liquidity rather than adding it. So yeah you need to confirm that the commish they quoted you includes all the ECN passthroughs otherwise you may find that youre paying well over the odds because they neglected to tell you the details on there commish structure.
i've traded with both and it came down to firm's integrity. Hold beats echo at professionalism, transparency and branch management's maturity. The guys at Hold are older and have better customer retention skills over young/arrogant, disinterested cowboys heading up the broadway street branch. Management seemed deceitful when trading at echo and my thoughts were confirmed some time ago, by another echo-related post. Trading packages comparable at both. Happy Tradestation Customer.
I realize that this thread was about Hold and Echo, and I didn't vote of course, LOL. I would like to point out that there was a lot of incorrect information put out, so in all fairness to the firms, double check the questions and responses (things like Nasdaq etc.). We've been accused of not trading nasdaq, which is absolutely false. FWIW, Don
Don, any chance of you lowering your deposit to $5K? Until then I don't think you are in the same arena as the others. There is no need to have so much money tied up at your firm.
dve250 Registered: Oct 2008 Posts: 53 12-23-08 11:20 AM Don, any chance of you lowering your deposit to $5K? Until then I don't think you are in the same arena as the others. There is no need to have so much money tied up at your firm. Echo, hold have a mini. requirement of $5, but honestly, if Bright Trading would lower it to $5k i would sign up on the spot and join their Boston office. But if it comes down to space--i'll trade remotely from my home. Just need & want the knowledge you provide Don
Actually, our target traders prefer to keep positions, not simply day trade, so the $20k or so is not a problem. This makes for more diverse strategies and tactics. We have been inundated with inquiries because of the Wall Street layoffs (not my preferred method of continued growth for the firm, however). FWIW. The limited capital is generally the reason for concern with new traders, as it is with any business venture. The "arena" we're in is working well, our trader numbers have grown, and our trader profits are setting records lately. But, don't get me wrong...if you can get in with a small deposit, and then build it up....we'll be here....money is not 'tied up" anyway, our guys can draw out twice a week. Enjoy the Holidays everyone!! Don
Right on Don. These guys that want to "get in" for $5,000 don't understand that if you have a drawdown of only $2,000 that you now have just $3,000 to back-up your trades. Believe it or not, there is a cost to bringing traders on board, whether it's the cost of "time" (compliance officer filling out all of your paperwork) or hard dollars (getting you set-up with Redi / Goldman). Does it make more sense for Bright to bring in 1 trader with a $25,000 account, who has about a 20% chance of being a professional trader after one year or 5 traders with $5,000 accounts, who have about a 1% chance of being a professional trader after 1 year? If you really need the leverage and <b>have a strategy that can extract money from the markets</b>, get the $25,000 and open up an account with Bright.