Who knows who the hell they are. That;s the problem with the futures business - all smoke and mirrors. Looks like they use Man Financial (who seem to support every platform under the sun: their own, IB's, x-trader etc). Take a look at their website....no "who we are" section....no advertised commission rates...no info at all - doesn't even say where they are based. I presume also no insurance. Is this the firm that pats recently sold a stake in. Its the same with all these fly by night firms..no information...although credit to advanced futures for going some of the way atleast they give their commission rates. But still no information about who they are.. I guess a five man band in a studio flat outside Disneyland. Anywhere back to the eternal question - why are equity brokers offering insurance and freely give out commission rates, yet futures brokers play all these silly little games and think they are doing you a favour by even telling you what their commission rate is. Heavens help if you ask them what insurance they provide, or what the size of their firm is or size of its capital or customer assets. Stick with IB ( insurance, forbes 500), Tradestation (listed firm so can check on their health constantly- think they have insurance too), or Terranova (been around a while-insurance?) or go direct to an exchange members. Dodgy industry.
While down in Orlando last month, I had a few extra hours to spare. I heard a lot of good things about efloortrade, so I gave them a ring. Tyler answered the phone. I asked if I could stop by to see their operation and he politely gave me directions to their office. 30 minutes later I arrived and was greeted by Tyler and Jonathan. Both were casually dressed and attentively answering the phone and emails. On slow periods, each would direct attention to my prying questions and curiosity. The office was well equipped with new workstations and powered by two Dell 1650 poweredge servers. A dedicated T-1 with redundant connection was present. I asked several detailed, inquiring questions and all were answered straightforward without hesitation. The firm is relatively new and is a family run business. I was impressed with their business model and vision, offering the services of a full-priced broker at descent, competitive rates. The guys there foregone the fancy office and invested $ where it's important ... in the back office - servers, lines, equipment, software. Everything in their office was top-notch. They have their office on the second floor a very upscale home in a posh, suburb neighborhood. Not paying $5k/month in expensive downtown Orlando office space allows them to offer great service at a good rate. Some people may be turned off by this (a bad assumption), however I appreciate the model. I've teleworked from home for 5+ years, and I know it's not where you are located, it's how you are connected I personally know of three individuals who are using their unique ,fully ATS system (Automated Trading System). Essentially, efloortrade has a front-end for PATS API that will take a Tradestation Strategy and fully auto-trade it for you. Rates are really cheap compared to a full-service broker executing it on your behalf. I understand two choices are available: one version of the ATS running on your pc with a rate of ~$9/rt and one version of the ATS running on their server at ~$13/rt. I don't know if these rates are accurate, just what's been told to me by a couple of their customers. What's really neat about their ATS is that you can trade different systems in the same account and the system will recognize that ... so one system could be short a contract and another long at the same time (my understanding). Of course, do your own research. Check with the NFA and CTFC ... I have ... no bad filings. I have no relationship with the company or individuals ... just impressed with their setup when I checked them out. I would not have any problem parking some of my $ with them. Cheers.
I have been using them for about 5 months now. I use their autoXecutor software to automate my system trades from TradeStation. I've been very happy with the performance of their software during this time. My systems could have done better, but that's another thread :eek: Their price for autoX trades is $10/rt (maybe $9.95 or somesuch...) I also have an account at IB that I use for discretionary trading. But I am happy to pay the extra $5/rt over IB for my system trades for 2 main reasons: 1) They developed and support the API interface, so I dont have to. Unlike IB, where you either roll your own or depend on strangers to write the code, and then cross fingers that IB's next update doesn't break what you have. 2) If you call them, the phone is answered in 2 rings. So if I ever have a problem with my auto-traded systems, I know I can call them up and get help asap. $5/rt is a reasonable price for direct service, imo. My systems aren't super active however...maybe 1-2 trades per day, often less. If I had a scalp system, the story might be different. Frankly, I was suprised to see eFT advertise here. Its a pretty tough crowd here at ET, and for many around here, low commission price is priority 1. But they have a unique product with their TradeStation interface, and the new version of their software is also an improvement on some of the basic PATS features.
eFloorTrade aside, it does seem that these various firms sit around and answer emails at all hours of the day. I usually get the same response (albeit usually immediate) to my very detailed, information laden questions: "I need more information to give you a rate. Please call me on Monday."
You wouldn't actually be parking money with them , it would be with their FCM, who I think is MANN but I dont remember for sure.... I have been speaking and emailing with many brokers the past two weeks , with efloortrade I was emailed by Tyler. Nice guy, answered all my emails very quickly but I went another route because commission is a bug factor for me. Elfoor wanted 5.95 RT plus fees bringing it to 9.27 I believe... Good Trading Nick
Basically you want to be concerned with the Brokers clearing firm FCM because this is where your money is and whose servers PATS is usually on. The Introducing broker is for customer service. Efloortrade seems to be perfectly fine and maybe even better than most IB's because of the added automation software they developed.
Thanks for stating this ... technically, yes the money is with Man Financial, however the working relationship with the broker is important.
call these guys to find out what they are all about. i talked with them and they have answers for any questions that you may have.