anyone trades stocks in more volume as opposed to other instruments with thinkorswim? is 0.015/share worth it with them?
IB = $.005 - free data (level II extra) tradestation = $.01 plus platform and data feed (platform fee waived for minimum trade activity) TOS - geared towards options, however, I believe you can negotiate fees for high volume stock trading.
yeah, that's why I'm asking... I am choosing between IB and TOS now... I've read a lot of stuff about IB. Good and bad. Nearly got a brain damage processing all the information absorbed. Still in the process.
I agree, Bronce. I'm a beginner at trading, online, or otherwise. What's attractive about TOS, is that broker-assisted trading costs no extra. I know that IB is cheaper, but at my present level of experience, TOS might be the better choice.
Hoof, Broker assistance will not overcome inexperience. IMHO, if you have no experience trading, obtaining a broker at this stage may be pre-mature... you will need to paper trade for quite some time prior to trading live, more importantly your time would be better spent, studying and gaining a thorough understanding of the market. You first should determine your trading style, be it position, swing, end of day etc... then you will need to determine the instrument you intend to trade and the hold period (hours, days, weeks or months) which best fit your experience and skill level... At this stage you must develop your personal trading rules and trading plan. When this is all accomplished... you begin to paper trade and test your strategies, you must become consistently profitable on paper prior to trading live. Others may disagree and say just jump right in, however, it never hurts to make an honest self assessment and proceed with care... the market will always be there... but once the capital is gone.... you may not.... good luck and safe trading.
ThinkOrSwim (ToS) hands down. Have you actually used the two platforms? Have seen the modeling and analysis tools that ToS gives you for free? Easily the best freely available software platform out there. Oh yeah, their brokers and support folks are in Chicago and native english speakers. No need to deal with the Pakis and Indians half a world away. No contest, ToS is the superior experience.
I like many things about TOS. They are likely number one in many respects. But their commission on futures trading is way too high for active traders, and time and sales is not an option for their retail customers, even at an additional fee. I consider this a major shortcoming. They are very good on trader education for both options and equities, so i could definitely recommend them to novice traders. Their incidental fee structure is very low and reasonable: free money transfers, mutual fund transactions etc. But they don't have automatic sweep of cash into MM funds so this can be a hassle, or money loser, if you maintain lots of cash in your account. You will have to manually buy and sell MM funds if you hope to get a reasonable return on cash. They clear through Penson. I should add that TOS does not take payment for order flow and supposedly routes your orders to the best bid or asked. Execution is usually excellent. Compared to a broker that sells from their own inventory or takes payment for order flow (Scottrade) your equity trades will be effectively free.
Thank you piezoe, very informative summary yeah, their futures commission is the mother of all commissions.
Not true> Disclosure with Respect to Payment for Order Flow All broker dealers are required to disclose their policies with respect to payment for order flow practices. Under the SEC's definition, payment for order flow may include all forms of arrangements compensating broker-dealers for directing order flow, including monetary payment, reciprocal agreements, services or any other benefit that results in compensation or consideration to a broker-dealer in return for routing of customer orders as well as exchange rebates and credits. thinkorswim, Inc. and its executing brokers Citi Group Global Markets, Citadel Execution Services, Knight Execution Partners, Merrill Lynch and Interactive Brokers LLC, Automated Trading Desk Financial Service LLC (ATD) may participate in programs which result in their receipt of remuneration, compensation or other consideration for the placing of orders with other broker-dealers, exchanges and market centers for execution. Finally, the executing brokers mentioned above may internalize customer orders as long as the execution results in a fill at the prevailing market price or better. Under SEC Rule 606, upon customer request, thinkorswim is required to provide information regarding the identity of the market center to which any customer order (or all orders) was routed in the six months prior to the request; whether the order was a directed or non-directed order. If you wish to receive the above information for any order(s) within the past six months, please email support@thinkorswim.com with the subject line "Request for Order Routing Information" and please include in the body of the email your name, account number, date the order was placed, the security, quantity and any other information you feel necessary to identify the order such as the order ID.