I can agree on what you said. despite button trader is much harder to learn, but seems more people are still using it and with reasons, thanks http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=22333
Xoom has online MSN and ICQ handle for customer support, which makes contacting C.S much easier than IB, and they don't have as much calls coming in. I'm trading stocks at the momenth and i am paying .75 penny per share pluse .0837penny per share for SEC charges, so total is .837 penny per share and not much differernt than IB for 1 penny for first 500 shares. (i'm in Sub-LLC trader account). Commision is not an issue for me. it's the line of products that IB offers are matter to me. With Xoomtrade i can trade US equity market only and i hate trading at night in my time zone. Plus you get to learn about so many 3rd party staff that offered for TWS, differnet worldwide exchanges and their feeds that can be used else where, integrated trading, mobile trading,....
I see. I have different rates. I am paying 0.5 penny per share plus on average 0.06 penny for SEC so total is 0.56 penny per share compare to 1 penny for IB. At the end of the year it makes a big difference. So I plan to use Xoom to trade US equities but will keep my IB account to trade futures or other products as you do. Thanks for your reply. DT1
You see these are terrific arguments. If IB has anything superior to the competition, then it's the Universal Accounts that feature trading all over the world, as well as having your $ in any currency you like. Since we are both living pretty much in the same time zone (You Dubai, me Australia), we were encountering the same problems - Such as the will to see sunshine from time to time, and not just at sunrise, an hour before going to bed. If I hadn't used my IB account for having a look into the European, Asian and Australiasian markets, I would have never or much later discovered the DAX as a medium that I now trade almost exclusively. The Eurex markets are great, because they enable Asian time zone residents to trade late afternoon till late evening, then go to bed. I have now scheduled my time so that I trade the first 2 hours of DAX, which is from 4pm - 6pm my time, then take some time off for study, research, or leisure and then trade again the US opening first 2 hours, from 10:30-12:30pm my time. A big difference from staying up till 5am+! I now spend considerably less time on the computer, have better scheduling, more time, more sun and still make more money. That's what I call improvement. So, you might wanna have a look into that, too. The great thing is with IB, you can just subscribe to IB feeds all over the world, and chart them in Button, or QuoteTracker, for testing, or sim trading. If you like to get up early, you could even try the HSI futs in Hong Kong - If you're tired of life that is. I got a bit burnt there, but maybe it's for you... Have Fun! Scientist.