I think the best approach would be to contact our Trade Desk (td@limebrokerage.com) with your queries. They can give you the current limitations we use, and help you find a representative to work with you on account set-up. (To be clear: I work for Lime Brokerage, but not as a salesperson nor desk person. I can't give you trade advice nor can I set up an account for you. If you are having trouble contacting people you can feel free to email me at work - awexelblat@limebrokerage.com - and I can help you reach the right people.)
Lime will be flexible about the minimum if they think you are going to be a good customer. They allowed me to start small with the understanding that I would move more in over time if everything went smoothly.
Genesis is in the 1-2ms range. If you are not colocated AT THE EXCHANGE this is about as fast as you are going to get. Their trading protocol, GTP, works with java (or any other language). Same goes for their UDP feeds.
I enquired about opening up an account with these guys last year. They told me (I think his name was George) that the minimum account balance is $100k AND that the min volume requirement was 100k shares a day on a monthly average. I didn't proceed with it coz I don't do that sort of volume (I trade large caps) but can somebody confirm whether the volume limit is 20k or 100k ?? Cheers.
Lime. Was attracted to them coz a friend told me their commissions are half of IBs. Never heard of Genesis. Perhaps you can enlighten me.
I was told 500k is min... 100k min turnover... My account is 50k so its way too high for me... Monthly tilurnover is not too bad... I do between 60k and 100k on daily basis...
For the record. A friend of mine was told 500k minimum capital too. As Maxdama suggested, "You may have signaled you were going to be an unprofitable customer for them and they wanted to chase you away. ". I asked my friend if this was the case with him. And he simply said, "I don't know how they would come to that conclusion." He represents a small HFT firm. So, to me, it sounds like they are telling individuals (Chronos), and firms (my friend) the same 500k figure. If they are indeed telling some people 100k, I wonder what gives.
Feel free to call them and ask for your own arrangement, but here is what I have been told. First off, they clear through separate entities like Goldman and Penson. Due to these relationships a minimum account of $500,000 is usually needed. However, the key number is how many shares you trade a day. Currently for them to profit enough off of your account the number is roughly 250,000 shares per day. If you are quickly approaching this number you may still be okay.