This is very interesting. I did some calculations with IB's published fees. Assuming exchange fees would be $0.48 by leasing compared to $1.14 without, would result in savings of $680 per 1000 contracts. As IOM memberships at CME lease around $2000/month, about 3000 contracts would be needed to break even. But would a GEM lease be enough, if I were to concentrate my trading mostly in the ER2 futures? Since a GEM membership can be leased for only $175/month the breakeven point would fall to 257 contracts per month. This would clearly make leasing very attractive. Are there other costs in leasing a membership? Lots of paperwork? Any exams to do, or other conditions to fill? Is a "professional" status with additional costs for market data necessary? Do they even let a foreigner to acquire a lease? What is the SE tax? I hope it does not apply to foreigners. Thank you all for your comments. This discussion has been an eye-opener. There seem to be considerable cost savings possible. It is very unfortunate that IB does not seem to offer any help on this issue to its customers.
Your WANT of published rates will prevent you from getting a highly favorable deal. MOST firms that have published rates do not negotiate. Fortunately, those that do have published rates are few!! The previous poster has provided you with GOOD FIRMS to use your negotiating skills. There are others too. Good trading Osorico
Why are these the best? Do you have personal experience? Are they all about equal, or are there some relevant differences? Are these firms strong enough to survive even the most extreme market conditions (enough capital, high margin requirements.. etc)? Are you implying that you can get a rate of less than $3 per round-trip with less than 100 contracts a day? I checked the websites of the above brokers, and only Velocity seemed to publish rates. But they seem to require X-Trader, of which there was no mention how much it costs. The others don't have much useful info on their sites at all. Don't quite understand why don't the firms in this business want to publish rates. Makes me a bit suspicious... Also I'm not that eager to haggle.
The reason these are good (many of which are FCM's) is that they will deal with you on rates..that is more important to me than what they publish on their sites. Yes, I do have personal experience with most of the brokers I have listed. Also, are you sure about Velocity.... http://www.velocityfutures.com/Ninja_platform.html
I have now asked a few firms for their rate offers. NONE can even offer what IB has published on its website. So I don't quite understand how people can get these $3/rt commissions. The offers I got don't even come close. I don't quite understand why can't these firms publish their rates. Why charge rates based on people's haggling skills? Why not ONLY based on their trading volume? Also, none of the firms I asked provided any info on how to get a CME lease. I would have expected a bit more interest in getting a client that could bring in thousands per month in commissions. Tradestar, at Velocity the commissions for those not using xTrader are just awful, $5.75/rt. Even with xTrader they can't really match IB. See http://www.velocityfutures.com/commisions_full.asp?exchanges_id=1
Let's see here... Moo is a client of IB, and is questioning IBs commissions, in reference to his/her trading business. Moo doesn't not want to haggle for what is in the best interest of his/her business; moo wants to fit into a specific category, based on nothing but trading volume. Moo has disregard for what is in the best interest of his/her trading business. Simple, one-size-fits-all-like-me is the deciding factor. How foolish, and a terrible business strategy to boot! Oh well, to each their own. Here are some OTHER firms, in no particular order, that offer PUBLISHED rates (which may or may not be negotiable, Im not gonna tell. :eek: ) http://www.vtradergroup.com/VTFutures/CommissionsFeesMatrix.aspx?c=1.16&n=Mini SP http://www.nobletrading.com/commissions-futures.php?page=fees http://mbtrading.com/ratesFutures.asp http://proactivefutures.com/fees_comm/e_mini2.htm http://www.tradestation.com/popups/fees/commissions_markets/cme.htm http://www.openecry.com/rates/rates.cfm And of course, there is the membership option. The exchange won't negotiate btw. Osorico