I like TS, except for the platform getting hung now and then. I do not make a living out of trading, but I still trade a lot. What I am looking for is low fees, an acceptable platform and a reputable trader (do not want to lose my money to a broker rather than the market). The only reason I am even going for a 2nd direct access broker is because I do not want all my funds tied to a single broker, it being TS. I do not like any of the web based online discount brokers, even $7 of Scottrade are a lot due to the way I trade. I have looked a lot on ET and find that IB is the most loved and hated broker, and I also got a call from Tuco for opening an account, but something is up with them lately I guess. I trade equities and ETFs and will venture into FX and Commodities on a limited basis. Any help and suggestions from fellow traders will be very much appreciated. Thanks...
IB is a good backup broker for TradeStation or vice versa. The usual situation is that traders keep a small account at TradeStation for the analytics and their main account at IB for trading.
I was thinking about IB too. But I had second thought after I read these threads ---> http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=120339 http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=65260&perpage=40&pagenumber=1
Yes, well, those threads are an IQ test. If you can't figure out the thread starters are , ahem, not quite right, then yes, you are not IB material. Muriel Seibert might do.
I got a give it to you, decoding the posts here is like decoding the market and you have to read between the lines. It is not too hard to get a genuine post, apparently the p!ssed off traders are overly negative and the pumpers are paid. Any how, please stick to the topic. One of the posters have said that to have IB as the main broker and TS for charts, what is so special about IB for the main broker. The trading costs are a bit more for the IB in fact.
I wouldn't invest in a company which would deliberately holding customer's money for years. I wouldn't invest in a company I have to post message here to get my money back. I wouldn't invest in a company which behave like a mafia organization, which refuse to return customer's money and apologize it, instead, viciously attack the customer here.
FutureTrader, I used both IB and OEC. OEC is a much better deal in commission, cutomer service and software (especially for Windows system). Don't even mention the fund withdraw difficulty with IB. . OEC uses streaming quotes and sending you every tick. IB only give you snap shot quotes, not every tick. OEC software is .Net based which runs much smooth on Windows system. IB is java based and runs quite clumsy and eats lot of resources on Windows system. OEC's charts are much much better than IB's. What's really important to me is that OEC's trade execution is faster than IB's. I am not sure if OEC trade stocks or not. I assume you only trade future from your name.