Need some opinions. Currently trading with tradestation. However, my account size has grown and I am considering moving to IB. What brought me to tradestation was their platform and charting services. How does IB compare? It is also my understanding that IB gives you much more access to data for cheaper? What about for futures trading, commission wise and margin wise? Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
this is simple... why are you with TRAD? what is your timeframe? what instrumenst do you trade? (equities/futures/options on both/FX?) ... is your account over $100K? you dont need to answer any of those questions to me, but rather to yourself.. if account is over $100K, then you will get portfolio margin (if you ask for it) and you can trade with more margin than you get today. if your strategies are coded in EL, then just go and buy yourself MC8.5 and move your code to MC and trade away with IBKR. You can always keep TS and still execute orders with IBKR btw, there is software that enables that connection. if what you care about is charting, then just get one of the many that will support IBKR market data (depending on your timeframe of course given there are some "issues" with them doing snapshots vs unfiltered) The main benefits of IBKR over anyone out there... 1) Universal Account. You can trade anything from a single account. 2) Access to Markets & Liquidity (you can short things easier with them if that is your thing) 3) Well Capitalized BD/FCM 4) Low cost to trade (relatively speaking) 5) Portfolio Margin (Easier with them than most)...
Tradestation as charting is pretty good, but the broker side is crap, need a shitload of accounts to trade futures, stocks, forex, etc. IB charting is crap, but as a broker is top notch. You prob need both or IB and something else.
Been with IB for over 10 years. Data is good and nearly all free. Entry platform is easy and effective. Charting is crapola. Everyone now needs to have a heads up regarding these goings on...... http://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/pr6560-13
Listening to the IB conference call last week was interesting. IB has a higher credit rating than Goldman sachs or Morgan Stanley. They are widening the spreads on the options market making as the return on capital is low and may pull out completely.
Ib is currently owned by Monex a large Japanese Corp. Monex was looking very weak awhile back but in the last few months has gained value with Japanese market rising.
I like TS charting and have used them for many years. It's much, much better than IB charting............but their order bar platform seems complicated and confusing. Therefore I have always placed my trades thru IB as their Platform is very superior. IMO.
I use to use TS for both charting and execution, then moved execution to IB while maintaining charting at TS, and now I am actually moved much of my execution back to TS. * Caveat - I trade exclusively futures on a longer time frame (and consequently lower volume) than pretty much everyone here, so my particular needs may not match up with anyone else. Why I moved execution to IB (this was years ago): 1) IB had access to markets TS did not 2) IB allowed electronic and pit in same account, TS required seperate accounts 3) IB paid interest 4) I was paying over $300 a month at TS for data feeds, it was bundled for $10 (actually free with minimum activity) at IB Most of these reasons are no longer relevant 1) TS now offers all the markets I want 2) All futures I need can be traded in one account 3) Thanks Ben 4) TS now offers a data feed bundle similar to IB for $20 I've moved a lot of my execution back to TS because I find it convenient to have everything in one place and integrated. And to be honest for my purposes the tools are easier to use. I look at the software like this - TWS strikes me as software designed and implemented by traders who happen to code, while TS seems designed and implemented by coders who happen to trade.