KK, so you paid .65 for comm and .54/.35 as index fees. Which makes 1.19/1.00. Is that right? (not including exchange fees) Not too bad in this environment but also not great.
Just curious what you mean by low income trades
I meant that if your trade brings $100 profits than increase in commissions hurts you more than somebody who gets $1K (all other things being equal).
what is considered heavy user ?
Is that something like day trading hundreds of contracts or you mean something else ?
I have no idea. I trade(d) average amount of contracts, nothing special, in last few months I even reduced my activity. Maybe they look at that I place some trades almost every day? Dunno. I suspect it is just marketing thing. I will use this occasion to get some info and test comm reduction. No high hopes though.
I share your approach to IB. I also admire people who start with IB having TOS available to them.
BTW Choice Trade do hold foreign to US accounts with $5/mo fee.
re Choice Trade Elite / Trade Tool. When I watched recorded presentations I wrote down some notes/questions/requests_to_make. I stopped on 3rd page ...
Still not sure if some options I look for wasnt shown for lack of time or are non existent. I trade options and this platform is not ready yet (again without testing it). Am of opinion it has great potential.
I think to experience paper trading you should create paper account with CT or, better, open account with them without funding
and try platform this way - you will have live data feed.
Commissions/COBE fees:
#contracts:
125 TDA - $162.5 CT - 143.75
250 325 225
500 650 306.25
Something like that... So with 100 contracts per month I'd stay with TOS because I think it suits me better than Elite if I trade 1000 I think twice. Want to get more insight on their other platform. I know that professionals are using them so they should be worth smth.
I keep looking for better commission/platform package. I want to test StreetSmart Edge as I noticed they offer it also in web form. Wonder what changed since I was using it.
Trading in quiet markets can be done on any platform even if one with steep learning curve. Problem is what happen in fast market where you have to construct trade leg by leg and market is falling... Analysis in that situation is not trustable on any platform but placing speed and ease of placing orders is very important.
I'll make some phone calls in next few days.