Please move this if this article is NOT appropriate here. *************************************************************************** I spent my time to search competitive commission, as follows 1)For unlimited $4.95 in TradeKing https://www.tradeking.com/ and in MB trading http://elitetrader.mbtrading.com/stocks.aspx 2) For limited 100 shares, $1 in IB https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=1590 A) Are these two the market best? B) Is there any criteria to choose, depending on the trader's frequency? I guess different traders will choose either 1) or 2), for cost minimization.
it's obviously depends on size. IB is good for small size active traders. if you trade 1000's of shares lots-you might be better off with fixed comm
Yet another ET thread on lowest commissions. Commissions are not your only trading cost. Execution quality , including no execution are also a cost. How do you think the flat rate brokers make money doing unlimited shares for a low price? They sell your order flow. No free lunch on Wall Street. If pay attention you will see that there are no flat rate brokers in the futures business. And the reason is simple, all futures orders have to go directly to a futures exchange, so futures order flow cannot be sold. Caveat emptor rules on Wall Street.
If it is worth to sell, someone pay for it. But if you not a VERY GOOD trade, then no one pay for your trading price, which is true for most losing traders ( at least 95%)
The lowest commission broker by far is Robinhood.com . Their commission rate is zero dollars, but currently there is a large waiting list to even be able to get access to their system. Still, this could be extremely competitive despite the potential disadvantages. If their model is sustainable, then it would be a means for any trader with 1000 dollars or less to trade on the same competitive level as anyone with much larger starting capital amounts.
An article on robinhood.com clearly stated that they sell order flow (what a surprise). This can (but not necessarily) result in a hidden commission for customers, you should know whom they sell it to. But you'll never know, as you don't with any other broker, including the high commission ones. So as always,you have to try and see for yourself which kind of executions you get: not an easy task, but doable.
Check out their FINRA Broker Check, P9. They also make money from the sale of your non-personal information such as demographics, trade and other marketing data that is gathered from their platform. You can only use a mobile device to trade. God knows what they are selling here. 1245
I thought it was clear that selling order flow was not the ONLY revenue. They also have a fee for margin trading, gain from interest on money you leave with them, and so on. I didn't mean to say anything bad about them (I don't know them), just pointing out a possible problem about a common issue (= sale of your order flow). That might not be a problem: dealers buying your order flow might give you wonderful executions if they think you are a bad trader (or if the total flow they buy come from overall uninformed trading). On the other hand, if your broker is also a dealer, or trades on his account, he might not sell your flow, keep it for himself and give you horrible executions, not to mention moving prices against you. Just wanted to stress an aspect you should do your homework on.
I'm not judging their model either. I think it might be a good deal for a retail trader that does not trade often, since they have no desktop platform. By the way, they will custody their account at APex clearing, so they will make NO money on balances or short stock. They might make a little from debit financing but with these accounts it tends to be nominal. They have said that this model keeps their cost down with everything being automated an electronic which means NO customer services. Not for me.