Here's a thought. Even though these uber data feeds supply worldwide data access, whether it is IB or CQG or God-Knows-Who.... How much of it do you use? Does someone out there really trade both the CBOT and the Borsa Istanbul? https://www.cqg.com/partners/exchanges/borsa-Istanbul How about the https://www.cqg.com/partners/exchanges/tullett-prebon ? Seriously. We're arguing about who can provide the most number of obscure markets that nobody could make money with, I think. *shrugs*
My broker is amp futures and I day trade futs from the four primary US exchanges. There are plenty of markets here to trade to make my living I don't need go overseas. I walk around like an "expert"? I don't know the rules? Making allot of assumptions chief.
You are correct. Just because IB offers more markets doesn't make them a better broker Can Zzzz1 explain why IB charges more margin on a debit spread than I can possibly lose
See, exactly as I guessed. Thanks for confirming. So yes IB does not suit your need and you are not IB's target audience. They aim at slightly higher account funding levels. No harm done, you are happy with AMP so all is good right? You really should not talk about things you clearly know nothing about, and I claim someone who does not have a portfolio margin account with IB hardly understands all the nuances of IB's margin and exposure fee policy.
Hmm. I think you may be getting some wires crossed here. Not every trader requires a "portfolio margin account". So maybe IB is good for that sort of thing, and other brokers are worse. But perhaps other brokers are better at other types of account than IB is.
I explained to you already. Because a debit spread is not necessarily risk free. American options can be exercised on you. I am not saying IB's margins for debit spread are optimal for spreaders. I am saying the truth lies somewhere in between. By the way, a) does TD offer routing and execution at the Tokyo Stock Exchange? Can you trade Nikkei 225 futures with them? (Not the SGX contracts). Does TD not sell order flow? b) Swissquote? That is not meant as a serious comparison with IB, is it? c) OCBC? Seriously? Why not directly listing HSBC?
by the way, to get a half-way complete data access going they charge you more than a full fledged Bloomberg terminal. I do not understand how someone would go with CQG's standalone product.
Not Isanbul, but I actively trade, Australia (futures, stocks), Hong Kong (futures, stocks, options), Korea (stocks and futures and options), Japan (stocks, futures, options), All US futures and options, very rarely stocks, European markets (almost all major ones). So yes, there are plenty people who trade macro themes and want access to global markets. But in the end we are not talking about the broker that provides access to most markets. Show me another broker that charges less than IB to execute a Hangseng Future, N225 futures, and Kospi all from one platform. Someone where you do not need to maintain x different brokerage accounts. Sure, your FCMs in the US are great for the type of trader who focuses on 1 or few domestic products. CQG's offering is outrageously priced, and in some instances offers horrible pricing data. Their fx offering is utter garbage. They say they provide access to EBS data (though at a steep premium as with anything you want to add to the barebone skeleton at CQG) but it is an institutional data feed and totally useless to a retail person, whether you want data for backtesting or trading or other analytics. Also anything API related will be charged at some ridiculous rates. Seriously, go to the website and check it out. I bet a full fledged setup of the type I would need would cost almost twice as much at CQG than what I would pay Bloomberg.