Brighton, I'm not trying to be argumentative but when someone talks about $1.10 all-in RT as expensive for retail it does not matter if the guy has 100 years of experience and a $20,000,000 account. Exchange fees make it impossible for a non-member. Once you commit to any form of membership you are simply no longer a retail customer.
actually, no... you can lease a seat quite cheaply... and with no volume pay $2/RT... do about 5K RT per month and that drops you close to that $1.1/RT... but that depends on FCM of course...
Understand. No argument from me. And thanks for the story about trying to do biz direct with RJO. I might try again (and OFTHOMAS provided some ideas) but it sounds like you and I might not be in one of their preferred segments, which seems to consist of newbies, institutions/large commercials and introducing brokers.
So, 5K gets you close to the $1.10. What do you think it takes to get to $1.10 on CL all-in? Are we pretending that 5,000 (or more likely a a few more) turns a month is not real volume for about 95% of those here on ET? If that is the pretense OK ... I'll go with it. As long as I know we have gone through the looking glass, it's fine. Is there any element that leads you to believe that this thread is aimed at 240 RT daily? I'm not feeling that.
hmmm... long ago, I would easily do 300RT daily, on TF of all things.. 2-3 lots a pop... scalping off the dom, just going with the flow... I dont that anymore as I spread on grains instead, but with spreading comes having to do more size and more volume as a result... I dont know what you do, not into a pissing match, I dont know who is on this board or who is not, etc not into guessing demographics... but I am beginning to find little value overall in many of the discussions.... everyone just has complains and criticism for the site and not adding much value in terms of arguments that will lead to constructive criticism... but since you asked specifics... you can get 6c-10c RT from advantage with around 40-50K contracts per month traded... clearly, this assumes you are a profitable trader ... exchange fees are always on top and will be based on your membership type and instrument traded... in the case of CBOT rates and grains (what I care about) 25-35c ... or 50c-70c/RT ... and with that, I bid a·dieu...
There's plenty in the middle but you need to trade some volume. I would say at least 5k contracts per month.
lol ... do you really think you need 'demographics" to have this discussion? We were through the looking glass at 5,000 truns a month so now it's 50,000 in conversation. For a guy that doesn't want to have a pissing contest you are sure wetting the freakin' bed. With that I bid you good luck.
hmmm... I guess I will have to agree with emg on the "education" bit... not sure what your issue is, but all I did was given you more details when you asked the "through the looking glass" question as to what will get you $1.10... mind you, I did said 5K RT (10K contracts) would get you close... that is not the same as it will get you $1.10 YOU said that, not me... I dont know about you, but perhaps you understood what you wanted to... because I also never said 50K Turns... but rather contracts... so for your "understanding"... 25K turns... lets do some basic math... exchange fees for CL are ~50c for a member $1/RT ... comms vary by volume... I will use advantage as an example since they were the last FCM I negotiated with... 5K contracts, gets you easily 30c, 40K contracts, gets you 5c... and 50K gets you 3c ... and this was over a year ago... and I am not wetting nor pissing anywhere... sharing this info does little to me or for me... you raised a flawed argument in the start and all I am doing is stating simple facts... not just talking out of my rear end giving my "opinion"...
The the thread was about retail rates. It was never -- except for your posts -- about members pushing 25k turns. If you didn't want to be 'in a pissing contest" -- your phrase -- you wouldn't have upped the ante and thrown in a membership to jumpstart the contest. RETAIL! That was the whole point of him going to RJO. I'll give you the math that is germaine to this thread. There's a guy telling me he thinks $1.10 retail all in RT on CL is overpriced when it can not be done at twice that price regardless of volume. Clearly if you are a member you are no longer retail.