No idea but i'm sure higher than IB's. I'm sure IB's lite free margin rates are higher than their pro commissions version . But the initial question was about commissions and i'm sure outside a day now and then very few day traders use overnight margin so for most its all about stock commissions.
what about speed? what is the difference what about an account that trades futures and equities, are the futures routed direct to echange where can we find performance metrics?
Speed - that's a relative question when HFTs are playing in micro-seconds which in computer terms is plenty of time to maximize their return in relation to our 200-300ms world which is roughly the time it takes to click a mouse. Nevertheless there are also many angles to look at. SMART will seek price improvement and could route a larger order to multiple exchanges or dark pools which could add or decrease a few millisecond to an order so it could vary. In general terms though, I would imagine speed differences won't vary much if lifting an offer or displaying on an exchange. Speed though doesn't measure fill quality. Let's look at extreme example. You send a market order for stock ABD with NBBO at $9 at $11. Order gets routed to HFT. They flash a bid for 9.80 on a dark pool and get filled and immediately turn around and fill you at $10 They make 20 cents, you get what seems like an immediate fill and are happy to get price improvement with what is pretty much an instant fill. Assume SMART flashes your bid to the same dark pool, you get a fill for $9.80 at a better price with what would seem to be the same speed but better price improvement. For futures, there is one exchange. Orders go direct to the exchange, there are no middlemen buying flow in between.
makes sense, tks for clarity. so in futures, there sb no difference in speed between lite and pro equities, it can vary. thanks
how is he calculating price improvements? in my opinion very tough to measure the differences as a non/semi-professional. Why would the MM's pay for flow if they are not getting a big benefit? and if there's a big benefit, where is this coming from? Theoretically, the zero commission order is disadvantaged by the Pay for Flow payment + profit margin of the MM's. the question is whether this amount is higher or lower than the commission you would be paying with IB Pro...
You'll never know this unless you have 2 traders side by side pressing the button at the same time . He's happy with the fills and doing very well and that's all that counts . Plus he likes the platform much better than IB's platform which hasn't changed in over 20 yrs .
Obviously you haven't looked at Mosaic which is a complete redesign nor the hundreds of new features and tools available on TWS over the past 20 yrs. To each his own of course.