I think IB has a longer list of products to trade vs. AMP. Although, cheaper commission and lower margin is tempting.
IB absolutely has a larger list. AMP deals in only futures and FOP. IB does, well, everything else as well, hehe. But if only futures is your bag, AMP is clean and affordable, no frills. The Pathmark of FCMs, if you will. (Don't know how they are on FOP though, options are scary enough. FOP would be doubly so to me.)
There are a lot of differences between this and 1929. A couple of things to note-----Monetary policy was tightened during 1929 and it's been loosened here. Massive new regulations were put in place by both Hoover and FDR. Trump on the other hand has loosened regs. We're in great hands and it will not take 20 yrs like back then to recover.
Lately it's been changing every other day. I believe currently day margin is half CME maintenance...usually either $1000 or $500 for ES.
Called Amp.They answered quick and were very knowledgeable . I'll put $20k in and try them out. 1/3 the margins of Ib . I don't like IB's software for futures if your trading fast for scalps
AMP seems to generally have happy customers. The only reason I didn't go with them is that I want to use Ninjatrader (old habit). If not, I would have used AMP.
How strong are they financially? Margin is a double edged sword, but IB is ridiculously conservative.
I found with IB it required alot of maintenance, always something you were tweaking, it's over engineered, way too complicated. For example, I've owned the Amibroker software for something like maybe 15 years (can't remember exactly) and it's been flawless, however AB is not a trading software for me, it's an algo platform. I trade via an Australian online broker, bug free too.