I'm looking for a firm that will let me expose $10-15 Million of their capital without giving me a bunch of crap over my losing positions, and I will reward them with thousands of dollars in profits this year alone. And oh yeah, I expect them to have a full time tech sitting behind me. I just don't understand why all these shops keep closing down with heavy hitters like me around.
good luck! I trade 5 million shares a month. I take no overnight risk and my open position risk is always monitored and my buying power is limited so that I really cant lose more than 5k a day. I take all losses, and am putting up capital that more than covers any worse case scenario. I'm a ticket-writing machine that loves to go up on expensive bullets. I love to pay 3c for bullets! I keep to myself and dont mind sharing one tech with 50 other traders. I talk to the tech about once a month because I like conversation once in a while. My current commission rate is .012, which means I'm giving my firm $60,000/mo or $720,000 per year to have the privilige of risking my money in the markets. I know I can pay lower, and save maybe 75% by going direct and looking around but my LLC does so much for me by teaching me how be consistent. They let me risk their capital and, boy, I had a lot of down $50 days! They were gut-wrenching experiences. At this point, I can consistently make money gross and write tons of tickets where I am net negative every day. Since I'm getting better, I'd like to 'raise the hurdle' and look for a firm that will offer me a higher commission rate, maybe .015?? And hey, money's not everything, I don't need a $540,000 payraise by cutting my commissions. Besides, I feel like I'm really growing as a trader. Who does Etrade think they are offerring people .0425 all in? some publicly listed corporation? And Andover, offerring .04 to people give me a break! it's not like they're a NYSE listed corporation either! geez.
Funny, since becoming a publicly traded company Andover seems to be raising prices, eh? At least, according to several posts on this site. Booted a couple of large groups with rock bottom rates, too. Or so I'm told. They don't seem to be as aggressively working this board either, I wonder if Sungaurd's compliance dept had issues? Enough with the $15 references, paying over $0.007 per share is ridiculous for real traders with real volume, but there does have to be a floor somewhere. And these guys paying sub 4's and breaking even who think if they had paid 2's they would be net up $500K are fooling themselves. That kind of selective hindsight is like the old "our team beat the team that beat the champions in week 3, so really, we were the best team"
agree, there has to be a floor, and for some people 0 commission rates still wouldnt be good enough (ironically those types of traders are the ones being produced by the daytrading firms). but think about it this way, maybe the whole pricing structure in equities commissions is artifically high. someone posted this idea before. compare our trading costs per 'tick'. average case scenario, guy doing normal volume is paying .005, round trip, that's .01 which equales the bid ask on an listed stock. if he does bullets that's way more. Now, look at futures, you can trade round trip for 16% the price of a tick in bonds. i've read some posts about andover raising prices but i havent seen anything to that effect. and Etrade just started to lower prices.
The futures comparison is intersting, but don't you have to also consider the amount of $ per tick? I think in the end it just underscores how much penny increments has screwed everyone. I am not up on the new pricing at Etrade - I wonder what kind of routes are available and if they are packaging that order flow to get paid on it? Anyone?
thanks for that dumbshit response, buddy......... that is the rate i know is possible to get from a few firms out there, its just that i need all of my conditions to be met and some firms aren't comfortable with my needs or will not give me unlimited BP- i really dont need unlimited, maybe 5 mil to carry out my strategies. I need to know exactly who can meet the conditions and offer me that rate, so if anyone knows, i would really appreciate it if you could inform the rest of us and if people who have smartass remarks could just shut up. thanks.
please tell me this is a joke, 'cause if its real, then getting a $540,000 raise through lower trading commissions, albeit you'd have to change shops and environs and go on your own, is the purpose behind trading. Namely making more money legally in this endevour than in any other. uh, isn't that the whole point of it all?
of course it's meant to be sarcastic. but no, it's not THE purpose behind trading, but if you're in this business to make money then, legally there's only two ways to make more money, increase revs and cutting costs. but yes, for a guy doing 5 million a month, every .005 is $25,000. you'd be a fool to ignore that.
Nobody is arguing that commissions don't matter. But if you stop your firm search when you find the lowest rate, you're either: a) a short-sighted fool (99% probability), or b) a professional with a time-tested strategy and simple execution/support requirements (if this means you then God bless you...keep milking it for as long as it works).