I have been over this but again CQG Trader would be $395pm = $4740pa in addition some brokers charge for 'spread routes' on CQG Trader. CTS would come in at $500pm = $6k pa. This is a lot of money to pay over 1 year considering I can transact the same trades through a free platform like TWS, Firetip or Infinity AT. Its just a simple exercise in cost saving.
There's nothing untoward about offering mentoring... and the fact that he can afford a Sponsorship puts him at a higher station than 99% of those on ET.
I went through the math of finding the cheapest option as I also only nee a simple buy/sell button and no charting. I started with DDT and CQG Simple Trader at 10$/month and $0.10 per side but eventually switched to Cannon Trading and CTS T4. It might seem more expensive but I pay lower commissions (44 cents on Eurodollar) and as I mainly trade spreads and butterflies the CTS per side fee is not as expensive (it is 50 cents a side, so only 50 cents for a spread or butterfly trade). IB offer the TWS for free but the commissions are at 80 cents and I do not like the platform as much as TWS. It seems that Firetip might be slightly cheaper if you don't get the pro version but I demoed it and found some bugs where as CTS T4 is super reliable! It also offers a free API and DDE link which I find useful. At the end of the day, some brokers might offer a free platform but their commissions might also be higher so it is something to consider.
With CTS T4 250 flies cost $125 and not $500 (that is if you trade the exchange traded fly of course).
BTW: This is not an option with energy flies. The exchange traded market is crap because they do not imply prices (both CME and ICE are super dumb about this). So even though there is an exchange traded instrument the book itself is pretty much independent and offers significantly worse fills than legging in using two cals. On top of that it's a pain in the ass to risk manage because you've got to have a platform that can handle these "synthetic" flies unless you want to take your changes with the native book (which sometimes even has bids and asks disappearing entirely). The only markets CME implies flies for are pretty much Eurodollars and Ag stuff and even then the two cals still seem to be tighter (atleast from what I've seen with Ag stuff) which doesn't make sense to me but it is what it is. Condors you're pretty much SOL. DFs Eurodollars only. One thing I did recently find out from CTS, which is a significant benefit, is that their newer trade-sniper client side spreader can apparently handle exchange traded cals as any of the legs and as far as I know this is the cheapest possible option which can handle such a thing (CQG and TT spreaders are not cheap whatsoever).
Really? Are you claiming non of such spreads have ever blown out? Never? Because if they have, and I know they have because I traded as bank dealer and later bank prop trader for over 15 years, then such spreads should be treated as separate risk, at least by those brokerages that care about their own survival and the one of their clients. The problem is not brokers who price risk of spread legs in a segregated fashion but it is undercapitalized traders who believe they need the leverage to survive.
I don't buy this argument. Even with a multi million dollar account I would never pay 500 dollars a month just for another front end that lets me enter my orders. OK, I am quite tech savvy and mostly peruse APIs to connect my custom applications so I do see a need for customization but what those platforms are offering is clearly not worth 500 dollars per month. I heard argument that states that those platforms are worth that money because they properly price risk and calculate more sensible margins for spreads and the likes. My answer the this is "hogwash", namely because a simple algorithm can calculate those numbers easily. One would not even have to hire a single additional human being to do that. Hence I find the cost absolutely unjustified. It does not matter whether it's an upfront cost or baked into each execution, it comes to the same expense the trader has to shoulder.
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Mate, to margin spreads is math a third grader can perform. Why do you keep on implying that it is a science that warrants money to be paid to a brokerage or FCM? It's like as if casino operator charges customers extra to cover the cost of the cleaning personell of the toilets. It's a negligible cost which is just part of the business and certainly does not warrant the relative cost that some are charging in this industry for some simplistic front ends.