http://www.tdameritrade.com/pricing.html http://www.tdameritrade.com/security/index.html I love TDAmeritrade's straightforward pricing. Everyone says IB is cheap, well, that is if you are trading small orders. I did my taxes and it was a shocking amount in commission I paid last year with IB not to mention some other hidden fees that IB charges. There are other things I like about TDAmeritrade such as their security guarantee and tax tools that are a huge advantage to myself the retail trader. I have a few more trades I want to make with IB before I wire all the money out and open up the TDAmeritrade account. I have had it with IB.
A lot of retail traders don't trade 2000 shares+ / trade. Personally, I feel the flat commissions to be very restrictive, and encourage me to do strategies that arn't optimal (like i feel forced to trade size when I really shouldn't, otherwise I'm losing too much to commission). Plus I use IB for options, .75 / contract, $1 minimum! can't beat that! Plus penny options. If you do large size trades consistently, then IB is not for you, nor any other broker that charges per share. Also not to mention IB doesn't charge for exercise/assignment, saves me a ton.
Well, he sounds like he's doing 5000 lot trades all the time or something.. In that case ameritrade would be a lot cheaper.
I have a post about the same thing: http://elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=92595 I just paid 25 dollars to trade buy 5000 shares of a 2.00 stock. That is ridiculous! I paid less at fidelity, and they were ripping me a new one at 19.95 per trade. I like ameritrade, but I don't see why I would go with them for 10 per trade when I can get 7 dollars at Scottrade. But then again, maybe I'd do it to unlock Quotetracker I want to see 10 days of intraday data on my charts!
Or you can hop on over to Think Or Swim. You can negotiate a pretty sweet deal with them if you so desire... I did.
How about MBTRADING charging 4.95 flat in their accoun type C. No thanks Ameritrade is for moms and pops, one in a year trade.
Think or swim will really eat you alive. check out the Barrons comparison. Scottrade might be $3 less, but they have a real lousy rep for executions that I've seen. I have a bunch of accounts. TD is the cheapest for the best service so far. I should qualify that with the fact that I have a lot of money in their accounts, so that might get me better service that average folks. PS: I do between 3000 and 4000 trades a year.
Thank God you're switching finally, one less 5k account newbie harassing IB with ridiculous questions and requests. Go hassle another broker instead of IB.
LOL Scotty. Time you f'd off into the sunset ... IB will be glad to be rid of your time wasting 5k account. As usual though you couldn't get a thing right. There are better choices but maybe MB would be tooooo advanced for the likes of you.