I wonder if you all realize that the comm side is not really the issue but rather the exchange fees that add up faster than comms.. simply put... retail $4.00-$5.00 on average for round trip all in (no platform)... member $1.00-$1.90 on average for round trip... or even better, DOW mini... $0.75-$1.20 on average round trip.. point being, exchange fees represent over 75% of the cost to trade... understand your cost to do business people, and dont just focus on the comms... if 50c make that much of an impact, lease a seat and drive greater profit still...
What would you say would be a good rate for 5000 contracts per month? What would you say would be a good rate for 10000 contracts per month? Thanks Frank.
ofthomas makes a great point re the cost of exchange/regulatory fees. this is unavoidable and the only way to reduce them is to lease/buy a seat which i would caution against b/c this subjects you to SE taxes which can rapidly eat up any savings. re the question from above, if you're paying more than $0.50 usd w/ that vol you are getting fleeced. if you want you can email other firms (besides the ones mentioned here) and tell them you're vol and ask what deal you can get.
I concur, but only to some extent... keep in mind that when you trade via the LLC and lease a seat, you can now also deduct a number of things from your trading income, and while yes...you will have to pay SE on a portion of the income, you will also reduce the overall amount of funds that gets taxed at the overall blended rate (depending on what you are trading of course)... so I rather expose myself to a bit of SE tax and reduce my overall "income" by doing so as well... expenses is where is at.. specially expenses that can defer taxes to later years... like funding your SoloK with ~$50K a year... your HSA with $7K.. and similar things... disclaimer, consult your accountant before doing anything (of course)...
I'm assuming you're all bitching about the Xtrader v.7 Free platform...All you have to do is pay $625/month (for 1 exchange) and your commissions are back to $3.65 ES vs $6.65...doing the math, that comes to like 10 contracts per day vs the free TT to break even commission wise...if you cant do 10 cars/day you're a piker and you should transfer your account out. Its pretty much the same for CQG Trader platform. CQG IC+CQG trader is $845/month, plus you get all exchanges...
Dale what is the reason for the increase for TT, shouldn't commissions & fees be moving in the other direction?