I traded with IB several years back and want to come back. I just submitted online application with them. What are the market data and other monthly fees that I need to pay to be able to trade STOCKS, STOCK Options and Bonds in the US only, through my Individual account? I see some bundled prices and some separate exchange fees as well.. Is this all going to add up, in which case what would I be reasonably looking at for executing my trades with sufficient information? I intend to make about 50 trades in stocks + options a month, with a starting capital of about 15- 20 k.. need to evaluate if market data and other fixed monthly fees would set me off any advantage of moving to lower commissions with IB -- (my current broker does not charge separate fees for data apart from commissions)
Which broker are you currently using? Are you currently making around 50 stock and option trades per month with them? FYI, pattern day trading retail accounts are required to have $25K or more. Since almost all bond trading in the US is OTC, I've yet to see a good retail bond trading broker, platform, setup etc. As I see it you have 2 routes to go. 1) start with a discount broker, either your current one or another one, and if the amount you'd save on commissions by switching to IB is more than the monthly data fees, then switch to IB. 2) start at IB and if your not doing enough trades to justify the monthly data fees switch to a discount broker. If you are doing enough volume to justify an account at a deep discount broker such as IB it still may be a good idea to keep a small account at a discount broker as a backup. Especially if the discount broker doesn't have monthly maintenance fees or minimums.