Sanjuro, I take it from your comment that you are implying I am a dumbass because I like customer support. Well I think it would be pretty stupid to trade with a firm which has little/no customer support as IB is known for. Suppose genuis, your internet goes down WTF are you going to do when you are in the middle of a trade, hmm? Who is going to flatten your postions? No I don't call my broker often either, but I would rather pay a bit more and know I have someone to cover my ass if my computer or internet just happens to crash. Murphys law does happen from time to time.
id like to put in my two cents worth. concerning customer service, when im looking for a broker thats the first thing i look at. whether they answer the phone or put you on hold. even if you dont need to have your hand held. second, IB does not have the best commissions. I don't know why people keep saying that. i can think of 5 without even breaking a sweat.
Progers82, Can you name one broker that offer cheaper commission for whole future, stocks, options? Considering commission for each security separately, yes, there are many brokers that can beat IB, then again you need three accounts, but still no international market diversity?
and while we are all complaining... I luv Tradestation. Always get the correct bid or ask on all emini trades. However ...... never try to talk to a human there. They are sweet, but dumb. I know the day is coming when I will have to call the tradedesk and that is a scary thought.
Let's see. I called IB Support twice in about 5 years and got someone on the telephone without any wait. They solved my problem both times in less than 8 mins. Their system did go down once in that 5 years and I get someone on the phone to get me out. I'm sorry I can't tell that IB has bad customer support like you said because I don't need to call my broker that often. Good Luck!
This is my first post in ET. I am seriously considering moving from ETrade to TS. Etarde goes down often, customer support is ignorant and rude, my buying power gets messed up every other day (literally) and their commission rates are in general high. My only problem with TS is: I do day trading, for example, I do scalping of CSCO with 5000 shares. It will cost me $64 roundtrip in TS compared to $20 in ETrade. However, considering software, Charting, Indicators, ,automation ETrade could not even touch TS with a long pole. However, $64 will hurt bottom line. Any suggestions. Thanks.
5000 shares $21.00 on Cybertrader .005 per share IB or $25.00 I don't know about either's trading platform I'm planning on using Tradestation....I've gotten some great responses when I first posted the question...but I want to automate my trading and that's the place for me...I won't trade over 1000 shares so commissions aren't my biggest concern I've listed a couple of prices of other brokers above....read the former notes from this thread -there is some very good info for you about Tradestation on those older posts(21days old) you might consider purchasing Tradestation platform and using someone else for your broker-I am not certain this is possible but from my limited knowledge it seems other are doing that from what I've read here on ET best of luck to you, Jeff