Just a word of warning...if you open an account with SureTrader, the only option for withdrawing funds is wire transfer. (Supposedly you can also withdraw via credit card.) And the charge for a wire? $100! On top of whatever your bank charges to receive an incoming wire. They tell me they are working on other options in the near future. Time to find a new broker...
And they charge 3.5% of the withdrawal amount to withdraw to your credit card...which is the equivalent of brokers that charge you ecn fees when you add liquidity, because they are getting a rebate, and charging you. They are charged by the bank to process credit card transactions, but when they send money back to the customer, it's considered a refund...so they're getting a credit, and charging the customer.
They are an offshore brokerage who is set up there to get around U.S. laws. You have to expect shady firms to have ridiculously high costs and do everything they can to make money. Not for nothing...but trading with a firm like this you should know what you are getting into. They cater to people with little to no money who want to trade an account with a few thousand dollars. People who cash advance their credit cards to trade. Basically...people who have no business trading.
actually, the $100 wire fee is what their bank charges them, so they can't get around that. i know that credit card fees on the vendor side are around 3%, so they are probably just keeping .5% for themselves. it's not really a shady business practice, it seems that they're just passing the wire and credit card fees to the client because they dont want to eat it