I spent hours trying to understand the REAL differences between bundled and unbundled and I'm curious if anyone here has any advice regarding this particular consideration. I talked to IB's cust reps and all of them say they dont provide advice regarding this subject. Assuming that one mostly trades NYSE stocks, at what volume would unbundled become cost effective? Is it SMART-routing dependant? Say everyday I spend $400 on commission on stocks, would it make more sense to go 'unbundled'? My current calculation shows that even at low volume (say like 10K shares a day, unbundled is still cheaper). Does using SMART automatically force one to have bundled pricing? Thanks
Are you sure IB CSRs did not answer to the last question : "Does using SMART automatically force one to have bundled pricing?" Usually if you use more market orders than limit orders that provide liquidity, then "bundled" is good. Which one is better often depends on your style of orders. You can switch between the two in the middle of the month too. You can try both and find out which one suits you better.