I have been a long time lurker at this site, and on occasion come across a nugget or two of wisdom. I have accounts with Schwab and am comfortable using them as an equities broker. I am at a juncture where I want to trade the e-mini s&p and would appreciate current recommendations for a broker. I initially only plan to 1 lot an e-mini until I either increase my stake or blow up. I have done searches and a lot of recommendations seem dated. I did talk to Lind-Waldock(because of affiliation to Schwab and was quoted $50 /round trip which is obscene. Thank you in advance!
http://www.openecry.com There's a nice following of OEC on here. If you are going to start testing demo's, you might as well include them on the list. Live accounts get data and charts included, which can be a nice $ saver. Also nice to pull up a chart quickly of a market not being traded just to see how it looks w/o having to turn that data package on for the entire month.
AMP has a good support? Is that a joke? I had the worst support. Some of the brokers do not know what OCO order is.
I guess I got lucky with a good broker. I have only dealt with one guy there and I assumed that everyone in the office were good to deal with.
Yeah I switched to AMP a few months ago because of the CQG feed and I've been happy so far. Admittedly I only trade after hours and am pretty low maintenance though. I see they finally expanded their demo instruments too (one of the things I questioned initially).
here is another horrible support, when i called in the exit my orders due to internet problem, it took him 10 MINUTES to place the market order. That was not the first time. Horrible!!!
I've heard similar reports, but as killingtheta said it may just vary depending on the individual broker you get. I trade primarily E-mini S&P 500 with Cannon Trading, though I do also dabble in some energies, metals and a few others. I'm paying $5 per round turn, then with exchange fees it's about $10/ round turn total... $50 is ridiculous, you should run for the hills after seeing that. I'd really just start contacting different brokers via phone, for example you might be able to get a lower price from cannon depending on your volume and level of broker assistance. http://www.cannontrading.com/price-commissions.php Cannon's been around for decades so all of the brokers I've spoken with are seriously knowledgeable, which I think is vital for somebody like you who is just getting into the market. My broker is actually an ex-floor trader, it's pretty cool hearing his experiences. They also offer a lot more platforms... but this might not matter if you've already chosen one. Of course, if you are overwhelmingly concerned with the absolute lowest price then IB is most likely where you should go. But as you've seen if you've spent time on this forum, you'll get what you pay for in terms of service (crap), so it depends on where your priorities lay. The top 5 I would check out in this order: 1.) Cannon Trading 2.) IB 3.) OptionsXPress 4.) Mirus Futures 5.) Velocity Futures