Tips on Saving on Commission

I was net +$ 15 for the day.

But guess what my total commission was? For 44 trades with 1 contract YM each = -$ 212.08 ($4.82/RT)

That comes down to -$ 197.08 for the entire day. Thus, that is it for my trading for a little while, I think. The only person benefiting from my trading is my broker.

I know I can get it down to $3.82 etc if I switch brokers etc and bargain with them. But that I think is still a bit too much. Anything under $2.50/RT would be optimal. I plan to scalp often and with a lot more contracts.

I have some unused equity in my car (way too much car than what I need) so I plan to sell my car and get a cheaper ride. So, anyway... I know that you can get a direct connection or something and put up some money as a deposit or something. And I think some FCMs have volume discounts or something etc etc. as well.

I am completely clueless, and not being consistent with my trading volume doesn't help much either. It would be great if someone could give me a worthwhile tip, direction etc. Plz feel free to PM me as well if you don't feel like posting it here.

Thanks...

 

I can't help on the commission dilemma but what kind of car is it?

 

lol, u wanna buy it?

Its a recent 4runner. I am also spending too much on gas.

 

Not a 4 runner I don't, but thanks.

 

Ripley,

You have several options:

1. You can either stop scalping and trade for bigger swings
2. You can buy an IDEM seat and get member rates and professional commission (an off the shelf rate would be about $0.60 per turn all in). At your current volume, this may not be a feasible way to go since the seat costs about $20k plus $1,500 for application and bidding. With the right volume, you can trade for pennies in commission per turn but will have to pay platform fees, etc which wouldn't add up to much per contract.
3. Lease an IDEM seat for $180 per month and pay the $0.64 in Level 2 fees, delegate fees and clearing costs + commission and NFA ($0.04 per turn). This means that if you can do the volume and negotiate well, you can get it for about $1.04 to $1.10 per turn.
4. Trade another market that gives you a much better tick value to per-turn cost ratio (notes, foreign indices, etc).

Good luck.

 

FuturesTrader, thanks s LOT for those tips. Definitely gives me a starting point.

It makes sense. I should look for a product where one tick is much greater than the commission. Thats awesome, I never thought about that.