Received the email today regarding the merger and nowhere on the Streetsmart site do I see per share pricing. Seems to me like you can chalk another one up to screwing the little guy...
I am having the same concerns. It is interstering how the letter makes a big deal out of lowed data fees, but no says nothing about share pricing. There is also link to the announcement on the cybertrader main page, but won't let you read it unless you sign in. I will not stay. Other broker suggestions are welcome.
I feel sick. I just started with cybertrader. I also have a schwab account with streetsmart pro. That schwab account is crapola. The routing options stink. There's no cyberXchange routing, no Emini charting, no notification of short share availabilty when calling up a symbol, you can't short thru an ECN, SmartEx is much slower than cyberXchange to the point that I wouldn't use it to scalp trade, Schwab PreMarket & Schwab PostMarket routing don't mate up with the 9:30 start time or 4PM closing time of the markets, you can't cancel orders from the trading window, you can't set hotkeys for orders, etc, etc etc. There's also no per-share price option. I could go on & on. I got fed up with MB Trading & thought I found nirvana here. I'm calling Cybertrader tomorrow & if my fears are confirmed, I'm off to find yet another broker. This TRULY sucks. PS: Look in the fine print of the email for this sentence. "Not all features and services available to CyberTrader customers will be provided at Charles Schwab and Co. Inc." I also love this sentence from the website. "To prevent your account from being transferred to Schwab, prior to the conversion process taking place in December you will need to return the negative response card that will be provided and send instructions to CyberTrader for transferring the account(s) elsewhere. " In other words, if you don't like it, leave. PS Part 2: And the email started with this lovely phrase... "I am excited to share some good news".
Hard to believe they are going to screw around their heavy traders. Maybe IB was eating their lunch? I don't know. Seems like Cybertrader has been falling further and furter behind for years.
Yes it has been obvious to me for a while that cybertrader has little to no interest in improving their platform. They have however changed their faq's to say that cybertrader clients may keep their commission rate after moving to schwab. but honestly, i can't think of a reason any active trader would want to. i just checked out streetsmart pro and other than it being a dumb name, it has many failings. like 6 open charts maximum. And I thought 20 was limiting. Anyway, after trading retail for 3 years with cybertrader and finally starting to enjoy a little hard earned success, i clearly see it is time to move on. No complaints though, the inexpensive commissions and once decent software allowed me the chance to find my own strategy and style without high fees while learning to trade.
I would suggest that you wait for a while before making any definite decisions. There are pros and cons. $0.006/share up to 2,000 Shares $0.006/share up to 2,000 shares for CyberTrader clients Equities - Per Trade $9.95/trade $9.95/trade for CyberTrader clients Options $9.95/trade + $1.00/contract $9.95/trade + .75/contract Level 1 Access (Basic Package) $49 Waived at 20 equity/options trades or 100 options/futures contracts per month Free Level 2 Access (Premium Package) $249 Per month (Per Share Pricing)$149 Per Month (Per Trade Pricing)Waived at 40 trades a month or 40K shares a month $10 Per Month Waived at 10 trades per month or 1 million dollars in household assets As you can see from the above pricing will not be affected for current CT clients, CT pro premium package fees will drop from $249 per month to free assuming you make 10 trades per month otherwise $10/month. The cons at this point in time which may change in the future: The integrated street smart pro package may not contain all the features of CT pro and may not be as sturdy. CT pro integrates ARCA and INET books in their level II. I don't know if street smart pro will have this feature. If they don't this will be a major negative imo. Clearing will be done through Schwab as opposed to Penson Financial Margin requirements will change. Currently Schwab has a 30% maintenance requirement which is higher than CT's 25%
The Cybertrader API is not usuable in Schwab. Streetsmart Pro has no API available. I guess Schwab doesn't want as many executions. You also can't short between 4:00 & 4:14. So, forget about shorting those Earnings releases. I can see why Schwab would want to kill off Penson & merge some operations, but killing off key features & alienating your highest volume traders in your entire client base? Look at all the missing key trading features that don't exist in StreetSmart Pro in my prior post in this thread. Are those items irrelevant? Those are meat & potatoes items for traders who do high volume trading. Why doesn't Schwab/Cybertrader put THOSE items in their platform comparison of Cybertrader Pro & Streetsmart Pro? C'mon guys, list ALL the changes. What idiot, yes idiot, came up with this plan? If you want to merge, you merge, keep all the features, let your client base get used to the new merged operations, then tinker ONLY if necessary & ONLY if your client base won't leave.
I think they just hired a new head of the brokerage unit lol. Also I read trading commissions only account 15% of profits.