I have been rebate trading for a few months now and just as I am starting to get net profitable monthly on C it is going away next month. Any suggestions on other securities rebate traders have been looking into?
I for one will be going back to my roots and start scalping WCOM and ENE again. That's where it all began for me.
There are hundred of rebates traders all sending orders down to the floor brokers as they are caught up in the pool fighting for the best prices among the other brokers. If you don't have a competitive edge in rebate trading and are just relying on a good fill those days are pretty much over. I have integrated some of the technical trading I do with rebates which has given me an edge on C I just need to try some additional stocks now that move the same.
I hope for your sake that your "technical rebate trading" strategy doesn't rely on floor brokers after C's reverse split. While floor brokers may be an effective source for liquidity in C, they won't bode too well in other symbols such as BAC, ALU, and S. Why? Because you won't see anywhere near the kind of liquidity at every bid/ask price level like you do in C. Instead of sitting in queue waiting for a fill as I'm sure you do in C, you'll simply get taken out as the stock moves right through you and on to the next price level. Remember, the floor broker routes work because they're able to provide you with NYSE liquidity that you couldn't easily access yourself unless you're willing to use other routes which don't fill until the stock moves levels. On other symbols with way thinner bid/asks and more volatile price action, there is no reason to use a floor broker. You can simply route to the floor yourself or to an ECN to collect an even bigger rebate when the stock rolls through you. Due to this simple fact and the ability to route directly to the floor yourself, I don't see any effective role for floor brokers in the near future and predict they will all become extinct in due time.