Hi...I am new to the community. This looks like the real deal for traders, so I hope I am welcome here. I recently retired from trading in NY. My career as a futures trader has been spent at 3 large Wall Street firms. It has been at least 5 or 10 years since I really knew the landscape for 'independent' professional traders (which used to mean just locals, a few cta/hedge funds and the larger Chicago clearing firms like refco, goldenberg, o'conner etc.) The industry and it's players have changed so dramatically in the last decade that I am a little low on current information now that I am trading on my own. I know that the introduction of Eurex USA could shake things up in the next few months as far as rates go, but I thought I would ask a few questions now. I hope there are traders here that are similar to me (see below for details) that might be willing to help inform me. I am interested in finding the right firm to trade through. Any other relevant information that would seem appropriate for me based on the info below is also welcome of course. My details are as such: --I make several 50 and 100 lot trades in the e-mini's and bund's each day (only trade intra-day this size). I often keep half size lots overnight. --I am comfortable funding my account with at least a couple hundred thousand dollars and I have very comfortable reserves. --I am currently trading through Interactive Brokers as a short term solution to bridge the gap between when I left my last job and when I find the right place for me to trade. I realize that these rates are high for my activity level, but I must say that I have been pleased with their trader work station and the consistent connection. --Lastly, I have many of years of profitable experience (over a decade). I don't need any handholding on the trading side and I have enough capital reserves to ride out any tough patches that come up (sooner or later they always do!). I'd love to here from or talk to similar traders that are out there. I'll check this forum and my pm's frequently. Thanks! Have a good trading day everyone.
Velocity, which is a sponser here, will decrease your e-mini fees by about a third with your volume. You may be one of the few traders here with enough volume to consider negotiating your own rates with the clearing firms. This is more important for CME trading then EUREX. If you are doing considerable size in the Bunds, you can get much, much better rates then IB.
I thought I would give this one bump to see if it has any life. Thanks to those who sent ideas via pm.
I was looking into the same thing a while back. I spoke with a few clearing firms that were located in the NYMEX building. You should look up Pioneer futures. They will give you a good RT. Also, you may consider buying leasing a seat with your kind of RTs. If you leased a seat, you would be charged the member rate by the CME, and then you would piece off the negotiated amount to your clearing firm. This way, you would essentially have no broker because you would be going direct through the trading firm. You don't need a seat to get a good RT from a clearing firm, but with your kind of RTs, you'd be better off with the seat.
I recommend getting a broker that offers X-trader like Pioneer, Advanced, or Velocity. It is a cheaper for high volume traders. I would also consider FFastrade's platform or J-trader as a backup.
This is the way to go at your level, we've facilited floor seats for several larger futures traders and they all seem very happy with this option... rttrader1-
as a backup if you do not wish to use them as main broker they offer prob more e contracts than anyone tradestation also seems to try to compete with IB the true scalpers and spreaders claim to need X Trader some firms will offer this to you for a fee if you wish to clear on the floor in nyc I am sure you have heard of MBFCC good luck and health to you sir in 2004 setharb
Ummm... large futures traders usually work with clearing firms... There are some large and good ones at Kottke and Fortis... Actually, most major clearing firms have individual large traders though large traders have their own membership at the exchange...
Hi, i can only recommend GNI London -- you can have great rates there when you trade a lot -- dont go to GNI Chicago , GNI London has much better customer service. O'Conner has also very good rates on futures. Best is to try to get a deal like this: ...If I trade more than x RoundTurns then I pay y $ per contract....If I trade more than xxx RoundTurns then I pay yyy $ per contract etc.