alanm - While I am still learning the mechanics of rebate trading to see if it's feasible for me, I suspect you're wrong about how firm's charge on a per-ticket basis. If I place a bid for 100,000 shares, I would imagine that I would be charged the same commission whether someone wacked my bid in one shot, or whether it sat there all day and got filled piecemeal in 1,000 share pieces by 100 different people hitting my bid. Kind of like years ago when I would place an order in my Schwab account which charged a per trade rate -- I would place an order for 500 shares, and sometimes I would get a trade confirmation showing a purchase of 200 shares, 150 shares, 100 shares, and 50 shares for a total of 500 shares. This commission charge would be the same as when I got the 500 shares executed in one shot. Can anyone who pays on a per ticket basis confirm this, or explain the way different firms tend to handle execution charges when paying on a per ticket basis? Thanks!
I view it similarly, the difference is tickets vs. fills If you send a buy order for 1000 shares, that is a ticket. if that order is completed in 3 parts (i.e. 200, 300 and 500) each one of those was a fill. Each firm has its own quirks on how they handle the commission (min/max ticket size, vol thresholds, cancel fees, etc.) so your best bet is to get clarification directly from whatever broker you are considering to use.
For one thing it's doubtful that a large order (i.e. 100,000 shares) would sit there on the inside bid (ask) all day long, whether you were sitting there showing your size or if you had a reserve quantity and were showing only a small amount and refreshed. Rather, the market would likely move, as most stocks do during the day. So you'd need to cancel (or replace) your original order with an updated one with the net number of shares in the new order. And as the bid/ask continues to move up/down you may need to cancel/replace your buy (or sell) orders a number of times. And each ticket would cost you.
WildWally, I think RML's QuoteTracker-Meridian, QuoteTracker-TSG1.5 (and possibly more) platforms' deals can be from the very first trade with absolutely no minimum trading commitment. Just call them and ask for it. You can also go to Quote Tracker's web site and then go to RML's link to see more. You can do a bit more search on ET and Quote Tracker's message to find out more about them.
Since several people asked me about RML's deal with quotetracker, I will try to summarize what I know. -Both QT-Meridan and QT-TSG1.5 do not require any minimum trade-volume commitment. You get $2.95 per trade (+/-ECN fees) from the very first trade. -Both QT-Meridian and QT-TSG1.5 supports market, limit, stop, stop-limit, and trailing stop orders. TSG1.5 standalone also supports "reserve" order type. -QT-TSG1.5 has a monthly fee of $20. It also has exchange fees depending on what you choose to have and whether you need level2 data or not. -QT-Meridian does not have any monthly fees or exchange fees. However, it does not have level 2 data either. -TSG1.5 is faster than Meridian. Meridian's pre/post market trading hours are limited. -Unlike Meridian, TSG1.5 recalculates your buying power in real time. -If you choose non-direct routing option using specific market makers that RML currently offers (e.g., NITE and few others, etc.), then there is no +/-ECN fee. You can view the details of the deal in quotetracker.com if you follow the link for RML. The best thing is to call/email RML &/or QuoteTracker to ask for the details. You can also ask for a temporary platform trial.