You really have no negotiating power with only 350k shares/month. Even if you found a way to cut your commissions in half, it would only save you $700 per month. Stay with the 80:1 leverage until you start doing at least a million shares per month. At this point, the extra leverage will far surpass any small benefits of a commission cut. BTW-I've never heard of anyone giving out 80:1 BP (at least not since the early 2000's). How much do you leave in your account to get 80:1? There must be a limit on that? No way would they give someone 80 million BP for a one million deposit, right?
When my branch is working to structure a deal for a new trader, we consider the following when determining what kind of rate we can offer a trader. How much is the trader going to put up? The more they put up the less risk we have to take and the better rate we can give. How much buying power does the trader need? Again the greater the BP the greater the risk we have to assume so the higher the rate. What is the avg monthly share volume. The greater the volume the lower the rate. We also consider the trading style in determining risk. Some traders have greater volitility than others which can affect the rate and well as the risk parameters we negotiate ( Max size, max position size, max daily loss, max postion loss etc) Normally our traders pay between .006 and .003 with a couple big hitters even lower. Many times we can offer a sliding scale so that the greater the volume the traders does in a month the lower the rate for that particular month. The are no minimum ticket charges. Here are other things to consider when determining your total costs (Tangible and intangible): Is there 100% profit pass thru or does the firm keep a percentage of your profits? How easy or hard is it to get your money out? How are other pass throughs treated? If you are rebated money for providing liquidity for instance, do you get that money or does the firm keep it? What are the ECN and SEC fees? I see you alreadly considered those and they should be clearly broken out for you when you look at your statements. Are there any other monthly fees associated with the accounts? How about remote trading fees, equipment usage fees, locate stock costs, office rental fees etc. How is the platform? Does it suit your trading style. How is the support? If your internet goes down while your in a position. How easily can you call someone to get out. How easy or hard is it to reach someone to help you configure your trading program. I hope this was helpful. Don't be afraid to negotiate for the best deal you can get and make sure to consider the bigger picture when you choose. A really low rate trading on a platform that always crashes might not turn out to be such a good deal in the long run.
I pay .0025 per share. I do about 1.5MM a month. ECN's are passthru. I also get 100% payout. Higher than .003 with less than 100% PO is not wise if you are putting up cap.
Would be nice if you mentioned which firms offer which deals I'm entertaining the idea of going prop but I dont want to be locked into trading a TON, or high costs. Even 300k shares a month seems like a lot since during major bottoms or tops I hold for days at at time. What if you only traded stocks like GOOG. What if you wanted to go on vacation for a month and you have a 300k share minimum? Kinda defeats the purpose of trading imo. I usually just day trade during times of questionable direction. I think now qualifies as one of those times. So anyone have a prop firm with very high payout or 100% and low or no share minimum. Seems like a prop firm that charges high costs is only interested in you burning out imo.
I pay .0045 with my own money up and own account. No ECN pass-throughs though I do pay SEC fees (obviously). trade about 800,000 shares a month.
I pay 20 cents per thousand plus and minus ECN'S. While I dont get 100 percent i have 5 black boxes running 50 million and I have very little of my money up. So I guess it depends on what you are looking for.