Schwab referred me to these guys. After a brief look on their website I had quite a few questions. Does anyone have any experience using their services to trade in a personal account. I sent them an e-mail and will be talking to them on the phone. Tomorrow. But if anyone out there has an opinion I would love to hear it. I hate it when you can open an account with a company online, but I can't even find commission prices and a detailed list of services. The days of brokerages standing behind the curtain ala Wizard of Oz are over.
Future brokers seldom give out their commissions on the web, 'cept for those deep discount ones. You'll have to contact them by phone or email, and try to bargain (saying things like you have an account with another broker and are not satisfied and wish to change, ect...). I think the commissions are from 12$ to 25$ + fees. Lind Waldock have been bought by Refco, a very large and reputable broker. After getting a quote from Lind, try to ask Refco directly, to see if they could give you a same or better commish. To give you an idea : I am with Gamma Futures, 'a division of Refco', and am paying 20$ rt (all fees included except Globex 2$), and a friend is with Refco, paying 12$ + fees, depending on what he trades, the commish could go up to about 19$ all included. I hope you're not planning to day trade, because with those commish, it will kill you. Cheers!!
We trade Refco and RGC. RGC rates are more attractive. Globex fees are $10 per RT at the most. jbarry@proedgeonline.com
Lind Waldock rates are more attractive if you open your account thru Tradestation Securities Inc. The rates can be found on TS website www.tradestation.com Not a bad choice for trading commodities or "swing trading" ( I hate this expression ... ) futures like YM or NQ.
FX, Could not find rates for LW at TS website. Do the improved rates include pit-traded contracts or only electronic? Thanks. O.
The rate that TS charges is the LW rate for your account! $3.99/side for eminis. I used to trade the Big SP and ND contracts thru Lind but the commish was $25/RT which is equivalent to about $5/RT on a emini basis. I decided the emini was preferrable to trade and am now at IB...much better IMHO.
TS website: Low Fees ---> Futures Commissions You can trade all commodities (CME, CBOT, COMEX, NYMEX, ...) as far as I can see at 6.99$ per side (plus fees) during RTH. CME E-Minis at 3.99$ per side (incl. fees). Sooner or later they want to change order entry for futures (currently webbased), i.e. integration into TS ("TS7").
Thanks FX and RTS. Do either of you know what the "security futures" category refers to, maybe pit traded bonds, S&P, etc? If so, 1.99/side seems an attractive rate for the large S&P contract. O.