Commissions for Asian products are $5/side plus exchange fees. For US products execution and clearing starts at $1.29/side + E.F., dearer than IB $0.85/side + E.F. I'll pass for now, but good to see someone outside of Asia offering access to some of the Asian markets. Haven't seen many offer connectivity to TSE for JGBs, mind you...
>benwm MFGlobal just became a TSE member in February. I contacted them regarding JGB futures last month. The product is in their system but they are still working on the details. You might want to contact rbaerman@mfglobal.com who is working on offering the product.
Thank you very much for that info. MF Global in London is a joke, rebranded here as "GNI Touch", with commissions starting at $6 RT BEFORE exchange fees! I think they're basically not interested in the retail trader unless they're willing to get ripped off in commission charges, and they can presumably afford to do this because of the many larger trading operations in London paying brokerage to MF Global. So for UK based retail traders, IB rules the roost. But the US operation of MF Global sounds like they are far more welcoming of smaller accounts (at least I hope so), so I'll get in contact and see what they say. Thank you again.
>benwm You're most welcome. Sorry, I forgot to add one other. Phillip in Singapore. They have a relationship with a Japanese broker here. But their margin rate is 100%, rather than 50% like IB. So I have never used them. http://www.phillipfutures.com.sg/en/products/index.html#interestrate
Thanks again learner2007. You have much to teach us. Not too worried about the higher margin rate, in some sense that is re-assuring. Let's see how competitive they are...I'll contact them too. I did enquire with another, Ong Futures last year, but they were not very competitive on commissions.
OEC is one of the broker on the expensive site. Their cost make Mirus (Zen) look cheap. And they justify their cost because they have a free platform.
Yes if OEC wants to develop the Asian business, they at least need to undecut the other brokers, so I was quite surpised to see them quote $5 per side. We're not talking Chinese futures here, we're talking Japan and Australia. But good luck to them because competition in Asian futures is overdue.
Anyone know of a US broker that offers trading on the SMX? (Singapore Mercantile Exchange). IB offers SGX, but doesn't list SMX, and I'd love to trade gold and oil in the evening (midwest based).