My data feed is essentially the $10 IBKR data sub. I easily meet the minimum activity. That's something like a 15 lot option trade without rebates. The LVX fees are pass-through. I see OPRA quotes and can sometimes tell which exchange my order sits on in the price ladder.There are no add-on fees. I go through IBKR account management portal and generate the same reports. It is very hard to beat IBKR from a cost standpoint. Even the TWS platform has strong supporters from guys who have made millions using it. However, there are many ways your broker can add value to you personally. Usability, data, research, capital, easier platform development, turn-key systems implementations and/or the white glove treatment. So, what keeps me going into these broker threads is always looking for something that can raise my productivity within reasonable costs. Really, IBKR should have a website banner " All your base are belong to us".
I trade a lot, a lot of options with Interactive Brokers. The fills are much better and the rates are cheaper than others. The easy fill on my options and combination with the low rates makes me realize, there is really no alternative, you have to go with IB.
Nice to have a back up broker that has the stuff IBKR doesn't. For instance, I think Fidelity a lot of the major volatility data vendors tools featured in its research section. ie Livevol, ivolatility. In fact, you may be able to access this information if you have a 401K administered by Fidelity. Would make a nice research dashboard. For more depth, you have to find the broker that has more historical and an API that meets your needs.
a car is a car is a car is obvious nonsense. the same is true of executions. now instead of the give me attitude, typical of people who are the product of an american education, use google +figure out how to get an answer as a 1st step and not ask others to do it for you.
---------------------------------------------- You're mostly right, but your comment reminded me of Grumpy Old Man. Dennis Miller: Here with a commentary is a Grumpy Old Man. Welcome, Grumpy Old Man. Grumpy Old Man: I'm old and I'm not happy. Everything today is improved and I don't like it. I hate it! In my day we didn't have hair dryers. If you wanted to blow dry your hair you stood outside during a hurricane. Your hair was dry but you had a sharp piece of wood driven clear through your skull and that's the way it was and you liked it! You loved it. Whoopee, I'm a human head-kabob. We didn't have Minoxidil and Hair Wigs, in my day if your hair started falling out when you were 16, by 19 you were a bald freak. There was nothing you could do about it. Children would spit at you and nobody would mate with you so you couldn't pass on your disgusting baldness genes. You were a public menace, a crome dome by age 20 and that's the way it was and we liked it! We loved it. Hallelujiah look at me, I'm a bald freak oh happy day! Not like today, everybody feeling good about themselves. I hate it! In my day we didn't have these thin latex condoms. So you could enjoy sexual pleasure. In my day there was only one kind of condom. You took a rabbit skin and wrapped around your privates and tied it off with a bungee cord and you couldn't feel nothing! And half the time you didn't even know your partner was there. And we used the same one over and over again! 'Cause we were ignorant morons! Just a bunch of hairless, head-kabobs standing around with rabbit skins on our dinks and that's the way we liked it! Grumpy Old Man: In my day, we didn't have video-games! We just sat around and watched a potata' bake!
Xand, can you explain the comment you made about: "The big negative is for hyperactive traders who will be swimming in KCG's private pool." What is KCG's Pool and how does it adversely affect a hyper day trader like me? Do any of you day trade Options and are you happy with Market Order fills? Market Order fills are better using the Auto/Best route (Citadel, UBSS) as opposed to using CBOE or ISE, I found NYSE and PHLX are not bad when you want to split the difference with Options as the following. Do your Brokers charge extra to route outside their Auto routes? This is day two of my new account with Options House, I get 250 free trades until September 29, 2014. I bought Apple's puts for $5.00 when the stock was $630 (Apple World Event) and Apple fell to $623.5 and i was too stupid to move quick enough and watched my $3000 gain turn in to a $600 loss! One thing I would like to share with you all is I am learning that Market Orders are not evil once we are deep in the money. For those who trade Apple and Facebook, Twitter and Tesla like I do every day, we try to squeeze or get the best price of the day only to allow the gain to turn in to a loss! Fidelity's Auto route gave me a better price than routing through CBOE, ISE or NYSE, two identical trades were sold from two different brokerages at the same time. With Fidelity I sold when the Market was $6.4 x $6.55 and my Market Order was filled at $6.44, the order routed directly to the Exchange was filled at $6.40. Ten contracts got filled at $6.44 and 10 contracts were posted after my trade at $6.49 (Bid now adjusted to $6.40 x $6.50), you think this was internalizing of the orders? The same thing happened with the Apple $637.50 Calls, Auto Route was $5.0377 and the direct exchange to CBOE was $5.00. Auto was matched with 7 calls at $5.09 right after my fill of $5.03777. How are your fills using IB's intelligent Smart Route? Do you all trade Stock Options too? Thank's for taking time to post, Xandman, did you ever keep trading ARIA, remember we had that stock at $2.00 and I had all those calls from $2-$3.50 February's. One interesting stock that keeps hitting the New High list is Mankind, keep a eye on Mankind, I would only trade this stock intra day since their FDA letter is due soon.
Newbies don't realize the price of their fills is adversely hurting their accounts. I posted how my Options were internalized by Fidelity to my benefit. There are Brokerages I won't post their name who never provide price enhancement. Let's say your interested in trading a slow moving stock to hold, PPC is trading at $25.3 and you love the news they are going to combine with Hillshire Farm's. The September Calls are $2.20 x $2.60. You decide to pay the Market Price with a giant spread, there are Brokers who will fill your order at $2.60 though a sell orders exists in (Dark Pools) at $2.45-$2.55). Your $12.00 commission plus $1.25 per contract really screwed you over. Somebody at IB send's out a Market Order and IB's intelligent order sweeps around until the Trader get's the best possible fill, maybe at $2.43 while you paid $2.60 (10 contracts, IB Investor saved $170 plus commission). This happened frequently when Citadel took all Etrade's Option Orders in 2008 (Etrade has done much better, they are doing a great job and will adjust their commission for Active Traders or accounts with Six or Seven Figures. In my opinion Citadel has gotten better and their orders and fills are much better than 2008-2010.) Option Market Making, I remember almost never getting any price improvement when back in 2008. Think about this, buying 100 contracts below $1.00, you reckless throw a Market Order out when a high volume stock is $.84 x $.99 offer. You get filled at $.99 while somebody with a intelligent order routing platform are getting filled at $.87 or $.90 while your order get's filled at $.99. One of my friends was piggy backing one of my trades, I got filled at $.87 and his Broker filled him at $.985 (Wow!). This happen's all day long, if you don't know where to place your order, your gonna get wiped out if you are day trading with big spreads like these. Last Year I had asked about trading stocks like MPAA with the following spread. 90 days left to expire. MPAA was $22.50 per share, the $20 Calls I had to hold until OP-EX. The Market for Motor Parts Options was: Bid $.80 x $5.00 Ask Stock Price was $19 August 2013 When I bought Motor Parts, I used a GTC order for two days! My buy order was filled at $1.40 when Motor Parts was below $20.00 per share. This option was held to expiration and I shorted near $30. These Options still had over a month of time and the Market Markers (thin stocks are dangerous, don't know who was making a market for MPAA, maybe Roth Capital or Cowen?) Buying and Selling Options requires you know the average spread, know what to price your order and how to get the best execution, when to use Market Orders and know you will get the best possible fill price a Market Order can get you. Trading stocks options like POST, MPAA, FIZZ are bad ideas! Avoid them unless you have enough cash to created a boxed position! Hope this helps you!
About day trading: Bid/Ask on options are as wide as the Grand Canyon. Slippage as a proportion of contract value is quite large. Sure, you can sometimes get better than midpoint b/a. But the pace of day trading probably forces you to give up a nickel or 2 most of the time. Also, tail events are the equivalent of giant meteor from space or Krakatoa. I don't need that during my day. Now if you trading in a private pool, You might be able see the OPRA quotes, but KCG has first look on your order before it gets shared to the market. You have to do serious post-trade analysis on the quality of your fills. Yeah, I'm back in Biotech since we don't seem to be having a correction in the broad index. Vertex is the big trade. Given that it's on my short list of the biotech majors, I think the soon to be announced drug approvals will reverberate though the industry group. INCY volatility dropped nicely today, I am gonna go from short gamma to long gamma.