What brokerage company do you use?

[BARLI]

It's been a while since it was asked Let's see what's the best/chepest brokerage for futures today.. is Tradestation and Interactive brokers still the preferred choice? If not, what you guys found that is better than the 2 mentioned above? Mostly US futures markets..

[Kiwi]

Tradestation still isn't much loved for "good broking" at least by intraday traders. TS's good point is still the platform. IB still isn't much loved for Customer Service but is solid for everything else (most wouldn't consider their charting to be an important part of their offering and use Ninja, Sierra Chart, or another charting program with TWS).

There are a number that sprang up over the past five years offering lower commissions than IB. Great promise. They're still lower commissioned but execution is important and IB don't seem to have lost their experienced customers (except maybe options hedgers who find the automatic 10 minute response to margin violations on potentially well hedged positions painful). Most of the cheapies didn't seem to live up to their promises.

[RedRock]

IB still isn't much loved for Customer Service but is solid for everything else (most wouldn't consider their charting to be an important part of their offering and use Ninja, Sierra Chart, or another charting program with TWS).

In looking back 10 years I can say that IB has offered superb support when I had a valid issue. They were knowledgeable and professional on all occasion. I have heard rumor they do not suffer fools. Their charting is excellent and fulfills all my intraday visual data representation needs. That said it is not a tic by tic data feed, rather updating several times per second. Most adequate imo. Their API support is industry leading. They just lowered their commission rates and offer portfolio margin calculation. They do not reach all global futures, but are quite deep. They offer a universal account from which you may trade stocks, bonds, futures, ipos, whatever, from the same interest earning account. They develop and maintain their own technology. They make markets and clear their own trades as volume leading members of many exchanges. In a nutshell, they envisioned and implemented the online trading world we enjoy today.

Others find satisfaction in other places... Thats what makes the world go around

[marriot]

I had wipeout 2 times small IB Brokers accounts.
Maybe it is another of my silly/begginner issue, but i liked the automatic "You are out of margin, we will close positions in few minutes".
It feel me that my account is safer,

[7432]

IB has improved dramatically.
2 years ago if you made a mistake and traded a contract that expired shortly or was too close to first notice day for IB's taste your position would be liquidated and you would be informed the next day.
currently a window pops up before you confirm the order letting you know that IB doesn't support this trade. if you are holding a position they send out a note the day before liquidation letting you know what is going to happen.

another big deal is the margin reports. I've ask for years to have my margin available in the seperate currencies and was always refered to the margin page and told to figure it out myself. now the margin report breaks it down so I know how many euros, pounds or dollars I need to hold.

[BARLI]

Thanks a lot guys, seems like IB is still a preferred choice

[tigertaco]

I've been using Tradestation for 3 years. I mostly trade forex and TS is not a very good broker for that. Their forex spreads are about twice as large as IB's. But, I can't leave without their charts. (I don't use any tech analysis, only raw price). Finally, I had a revelation: why not look at TS's charts, but place trades in IB. That's what I do now and am very happy.

[marriot]

I tried more and more time, until realized that i can't have the choice to trade from home.
If i have it, i trade too much.
Now i am happy with Mfglobal and the old stlyle telephone trading , once per day.
You know: i pay more in commissions, but i have saved more anyway.

[bigsky99]

Hey gang. Along these lines... has anybody taken a look at "thinkorswim" lately? If so, would like to hear any opinions or thoughts especially in terms of how they compare or fail to compare to IB...

[michaelt]

Hi RedRock,

Appreciate your post re: IB.

Do you, or does anyone, have experience with IB trading FX?

I trade sending stops via an API -- naturally with FX there is no 'official' price so it's different from the exchange.

I used to trade with Goldman and MSDW -- and was a small potato, so found their executions good enough and found rarely was an order stopped that did not seem justified.

That's my concern -- a less than liquid / deep fx desk (tho their web site says they use 13 banks) -- I haven't spoken with IB yet -- thought some here would be able to share their experiences.

Thanks.

[RedRock]

Hi,

Ive only toyed with forex so cant comment first hand in a meaningful way. I'd suggest taking a demo account and try turning the knobs... The IB API is quite strong, I enter about a hundred orders daily without issues...

I believe LeviF on the forum and others specialize in forex and hopefully will opine...

rock which is red

Hi RedRock,

Appreciate your post re: IB.

Do you, or does anyone, have experience with IB trading FX?

I trade sending stops via an API -- naturally with FX there is no 'official' price so it's different from the exchange.

I used to trade with Goldman and MSDW -- and was a small potato, so found their executions good enough and found rarely was an order stopped that did not seem justified.

That's my concern -- a less than liquid / deep fx desk (tho their web site says they use 13 banks) -- I haven't spoken with IB yet -- thought some here would be able to share their experiences.

Thanks.