Swipe, I don't think you'll ever be happy. However, as I mentioned in an earlier post, avg price should soon be showing execution price for futures. Our programmers and management continually listen to clients and implement new features. In any event, the pnl columns and execution windows provide all the information you need. Fees: futures, yes some firms charge lower fees for high volume. IB has a business plan that is profitable and sustainable - which in the long run is best for all parties. Perhaps someday we'll offer price breaks but IB has other advantages such the ability to trade global futures and equities on one screen from one account. Stock fees: yes another firm on this site advertises cheaper fees but when you look closely are they really less expensive? Do they include all ECN, SEC and software fees? What kind of interest to you earn? Do they charge for incoming and outgoing wires, etc? Remember you have to compare apples to apples. One other advantage IB offers that is often overlooked is account security. Besides being extremely well capitalized, IB's unique account structure allows all accounts to have SIPC and supplemental insurance on excess funds. There is no way IB is going to be all things to all people. Some firms may have a feature that you find essential. If you try the software and don't like it, by all means try using another firm. The best I can say given your comments is that given the firms growth of new active clients and ability to retain old clients, we must be doing something right.
I think we all (except for one person) agree that excellent executions and low commissions are way more important than display of the entry price on the main page or TWS playing you a song when you start it up on your birthday. But have any of you ever looked at it this way: A successful trader buys when the stock is likely to go up and sells when the stock is likely to go down. He doesn't buy or sell based on his entry price. And if he does, he could be a better trader than he is now. I'll give you this, though: The fill you get can reveal what the specialist is thinking or trying to accomplish. Therefore, you should monitor your executions. But just having your entry price on the main page is not as effective as a little execution window (where you can see times, sizes and prices of individual executions) in some not-so-crucial corner of one of your monitors. Is there a profitable trader here who would pay an additional $0.001 per share for every trade to have the entry price displayed on the main page?