Hello I am contemplating opening a futures account & in my broker search, narrowed down to 2 brokers : a) Open ECry b) Velocity The factors that I considered : 1. low commissions 2. low day-trading margin requirements for EMinis 3. No software or any account fees. Can you guys provide your feedback on which you think is better of the two ? Any comments on the account safety (we all remember refco)? IB & ThinkorSwim did come to mind, but have higher day-trade margin requirements. The only positive I see with them is they are less likely to go under compared to OpenECry or Velocity
OEC is now owned by optionsxpress, so they may be less likely to go under than before. Then again who knows..... I've only used OEC and I like them -- that said I still do most of my trading with IB.
No problem trading eminis at OEC - been there since March and have no problems. Great platform, great fills, no worries for me.
To the op - you may want to take a look at the attached report from the CFTC's site. Now that OEC is owned by Options Xpress there is more capital behind the firm. Taken from: http://www.cftc.gov/marketreports/financialdataforfcms/index.htm