Is $4.00 a round turn a good rate?

I'm an equity trader that is looking to give futures a shot. I had some questions about futures commisions and execution platforms. Is $3.72 a round turn a good rate or can i do better? I'm also paying $625 a month for the Trading Technologies execution platform. I was told this is the best for an active trader. I thought the $625 was a little steep. Does anyone know if I can get this cheaper or are there better execution platforms?


I appreciate any feed back.

Thanks

 

My commisions will go to $4.00 after my first month unless I hit some volume quotas. My last post was confusing. Sorry

 

What are the volume quotas, and how much did you intend to trade.
If you traded 150 contracts a month, you'd be averaging about $8 round turn if you consider the $625 fee into the cost. 75 contracts would average out to about $12 round turn.

 

You would have to do 781 round trip lots per month in order to match IB's rate of $4.8 per round trip. So if you extremely high volume, then your currently deal could potentially be good. But if you do less then 781 contracts, IB offers the lower rate.

 

Was this with Spike Trading? Sounds exactly like a quote I got from them.

TT's platform is a rip, but I sure would like to have single click entry and exits (I use IB).
Jay

 

You have them for market orders, at least. You just need to define hotkeys to get this done.

 

My rate scheduele is:

0-4999 $4.00
5000-9999 $3.72
10000-14999 $3.32
15000-19999 $3.00
20000-49999 $2.72
50000+ $2.52



I can use a web based trading platform and have no software fee but it would add .50 per round turn. I was told not to choose that if i'm going to be making more then 20 trades a day though.
So, I chose Trading Technologies.

I looked at IB but i heard there customer service is poor. I've heard you can be stuck in position if systems crash and you can't get though to customer service right away to get you out.

I recieved a number to a trading desk that is guaranteed to pick up in two rings or they rebate my commisions for that day. You can only use it when systems crash or your internet goes down though. You can't use it to put on postions if your system is down.

The two rings if my system crashes or internet goes down is what i really liked. I've lost alot of money trying to call my broker to get me out of some stocks befor when my internet crashed.

 

The quotas are for total contracts and my rates are for round turns.

 

Just got an offer.

Why is future better play? Who convince me please.

 

FFasttrade commission for e-minis is $3.32 roundturn. There is a $550.00/mo. platform fee. Since I average about 30 contracts/day, for me they are the least expensive firm I have found. In addition, they have a great platform. I have been using them for about a month, and I'm very pleased. They have a real-time trainer you can use for free for a week to see if you like the platform without risking any capital. The thing I liked about FFasttrade and the trainer, was that someone from FFasttrade remotely helps set up the trainer on your computer, and explains its functionality, instead of you simply downloading a trainer on your own and learning how it works through trial and error. If you wanted to know how something worked, all you had to do was ask. Some of the others like IB and Advanced Futures also have simulators. I would recommend "test driving" at least a couple of platforms before signing up with any firm.