Avoid optionsXpress at all costs for futures trading. I was merged over to them from xpressTrade and have had nothing but problems. See my previous thread.
Today I called Man Financial Global and Etrade Futures. Both have competitive commissions; total round turn all in on the sp 500 is $ 10. Man had a great costumer service, I was given a contact name and the person answered to all my questions, right away. In addition to the telephone number they also have a back up server in case the main one is not working. I was impressed. Their platform is basic and web based it is called genesis. TT Trader / platform is $ 300 x month. Etrade gives you the tt_platform for free BUT...costumer service sucked !!! They don't care if you open an account or not they just want to get you off the phone, just horrible and not polite. It took me 15 minutes before I was able to talk to someone. I asked "What if the platform is not working and I need to call you, today I don't mind the wait, but if I do need to place a trade 15 minutes is a long wait and it makes a huge difference you know ? " He said " Today is a busy day " WTF ?! What should I do ? Better yet what would you do...go for the excellent costumer service or save big $$$ on the free platform and is the TT platform really the best to trade futures ? Maybe the costumer service is more important...please help every opinion is appreciated, thank you.
If you pick up the phone and nobody answers in 10-15 seconds, it's not the kind of customer service you can rely on for day trading purposes. A long-wait customer service is for non-day trading matters. If you day trade, you rely on an inherently reliable platform. If you have to rely on customer service, just forget about day trading. The only broker who provides instant customer service is Scottrade, as far as I know, but Scottrade doesn't offer futures. On the contrary, I called IB a few times and the wait time, I was told on the phone, is "Two minutes." Two Minutes? Fu@k, the market can collapse in 2 minutes, what's the point of calling the customer service when your system is down? Might as well pray. Like today, if you are on the wrong side and want to get out, but the system is down, you call the broker, and the answer from the machine is "The wait time is approximately two minutes," you will lose big money if you sit on a big position.
Thank You for your post. Let me clarify a few things. It took 15 minutes for the future brokerage part of Etrade, once I called the regular broker for stocks and options 10 minutes before expiration on a Friday and they picked up right away. I do not daytrade, I do hear a lot of complains when a broker/platform is not working for a few minutes costumers go insane and they are supermad. In a way I understand that things like that should not happen, however it is funny to see that a lot of people get real mad if the platform/service does not work for 10 minutes or so. It almost seems like they all missed the trade of their lifetime, yet when everything works, all such costumers do is to lose money. I do like tt trader platform, but obviously it is not the only platform to trade futures. I agree with you that costumer service is really important and they better be there when you need them. Do you have any experience with the tt trader platform ? Is it really that good ?
Go with Global futures. Best customer service around. A human answers the phone within four rings, and emails are answered promptly. The free J-Trader platform is excellent for trading Index futures. I trade the ES and fills are always on the money (limits, stops). It is incredibly fast for executions and market data. It does not have charts; my trading style does not require up-to-the-minute charts anyway. Commissions are as low as IB's. Daily statements are available that evening. I can't say enough. Intraday margins are the lowest, too.
I am not sure if Think or Swim offers the futures options you are looking for or not but I have heard they are planning on eventually offering everything. Also, everything is free with them other than commissions and they will price match that with other major brokers. The software is very nice and free. Free demo account. If you have to call and trade via a live broker you still only pay the normal commissions no additional charges, etc. Best of all if you want to call and ask them what they think of a trade they will even talk to you about that for free. Add in that if you make enough trades per month they even pay for your internet connection. All in all to me the CS seems unparalleled.