Stephen - E-mail me & I'll give you alotta data & complete TorS vs Tradestation including how they compare with regards to execution, support and charting. regards, hlu
I have used all three, IB, TS and TOS. Currently IB and TS. When I opened the account with TOS they have not been set up for futures yet. If TOS would let users trade all instruments from one account like IB I would close my TS account in a second because the segregated account feature of TS is cumbersom. Based on my own experience so far- TS over 15 yrs IB 7 yrs, TOS 6 mos - I rate them as follows (scale 1-10) Speed, economy, convenience: IB 10 TOS 3 TS 2 With TS one has to subscribe to each data feed separately which is getting more and more expensive, specially for a backup platform Charting: TS 10 TOS 7 IB 2 Cust. service: TOS 10 IB 4 TS 2 (most of my CS needs are met in chat at IB while I get incensed at the insolent TS people) Option Features: TOS 10 IB 5 TS (I have not used it) Scalping convenience: IB 8 TS 8 TOS (I have not used it) Margin rates: IB 10 TOS 5 TS 1 TS requires full margin for day trades. Accounting: I am using a third party software TradeLog to generate tax forms (important for a scalper). At this point all three brokers are supported by TradeLog. IB was first, Pension(TOS) second and RJ O'Brien(TS) was third because of the way their reports were formatted. But I think the reason one should not use TS as a backup is the data feed issue, paying hundreds of bucks for data each month while seldom using it. Since I have been using IB for the last seven yrs or so it was down only once or twice for a couple of minutes. So a scalper would do well to go for TOS as a backup. Just my 2c. Replying to this thread made me realize I should not have an account at TS if I would not recommend it to others, so I am transfering balances from there to TOS. GC
While I agree that TOS is not geared towards scalpers, they have added an optional feature to speed up the trading by bypassing the order entry and confirmation screens and trade directly by clicking on the quotes. You must first enable it in the setup window and then just hold down SHIFT and click on the quote to trade the default size.
In one of the recent webinars they were talking about improving the futures end of their platform with a bunch of new stuff so it should be interesting
I trade YM with them their customer services is great! (especially for a newbie) they are cheap the r/t feed is ok - I have found Ninja/DTN IQ better for my purposes but I still execute all of my trades out of my TOS account - it is very reliable - has not gone down once while I was trading in the last 3 months (I see alot of complaints about downtime on IB ) account setup was painless compared to Tradestation - (I tried tradestation and abandoned it simply because everything was so time consuming to do on TS) hope this helps
... they suck... but i am still using them unfortunately.... .... but they claim to have options on futures in a few weeks ... they already have the quotes going now
Excellent review, I have used all three as well and the ratings are spot on. Couple of points, TOS requires full margin for intraday futs as well, TS's only saving grace is the easy backtesting and the depth of thier historical data. TOS customer service is incomparable in the discount brokerage realm. I only live about a half a mile from their main office and they are for real. Great free and almost free options education. They are options people and know thier shit. You have to be doing some very complex stuff to trip their reps up. One last point is that for IRA accts, they let you trade options strategies that i think you would have to move to a self directed acct to trade anywhere else. IB reliably does what it is supposed to do, but you better know what you are doing as well. Great rates, no hand holding. I've dropped TS completely as well. My new $ is split between TOS and IB. I like both. If you're stocks and futures and comfortable, go IB, if you have an interest in learning options, go TOS. If you're a complete options pro and have nothing new to learn, go back to IB. TS is a dying platform. ancient code that needs a complete teardown. dead end. TOS is the rising star. I hear fututres improvements on the way, backtesting maybe (optionetics watch out), steady stream of improvements. The options analytics is super powerful for the price, spend the time to watch the video tutorials. Their math is sound and margin friendly, portfolio margin too. Back to the OP, I'm not sure a comparison was asked for. TOS rocks, well worth the extra commision up to a few trades a day. I'm usually a broker-hater, but I don't have a bad thing to say.
That's one of the things they mentioned recently for future improvement for the platform. So hopefully in a few months