2 replies to this topic

[zman]

I would like to find a good stable platform/broker for trading the futures/forex...with all the long time successful traders here, would you mind sharing a good one for me please? thanks

[Darris]

zman, I have been with Interactive Brokers for years and believe they provide high quality service. Excellent executions and seemingly plentiful liquidity. Very weak on charting, but have sophisticated trading software. For their size, I believe they have the lowest quality to commission ratio. Most futures round trips are at 4 bucks or less. For some of my new accounts I have been testing Think or Swim since April. Their charting software, which is free with the account, is top shelf. However, to get it, most futures trades are 7 bucks round trip, so if only trading a few contracts per month there is value over IB, but for me, the break even point vs my esignal charting software is 40 contracts per month. All real time quotes are free, so no extra exchange fee cost. ToS has Alert features that are easily coded to sent text messages to your phone, so if you wanted to trade 24/5 you could go to sleep and use the Alerts to wake you up at night if something set up. I do not know how the tax reporting features will work out for ToS yet, but IB supplies a completed Sch D for each tax year, and the normal 1099-B for futures. Easy print and attach. These are the things that are important to me. Good luck. PS. ToS in some cases has slightly lower margin requirements for futures than IB.

[zman]

zman, I have been with Interactive Brokers for years and believe they provide high quality service. Excellent executions and seemingly plentiful liquidity. Very weak on charting, but have sophisticated trading software. For their size, I believe they have the lowest quality to commission ratio. Most futures round trips are at 4 bucks or less. For some of my new accounts I have been testing Think or Swim since April. Their charting software, which is free with the account, is top shelf. However, to get it, most futures trades are 7 bucks round trip, so if only trading a few contracts per month there is value over IB, but for me, the break even point vs my esignal charting software is 40 contracts per month. All real time quotes are free, so no extra exchange fee cost. ToS has Alert features that are easily coded to sent text messages to your phone, so if you wanted to trade 24/5 you could go to sleep and use the Alerts to wake you up at night if something set up. I do not know how the tax reporting features will work out for ToS yet, but IB supplies a completed Sch D for each tax year, and the normal 1099-B for futures. Easy print and attach. These are the things that are important to me. Good luck.

PS. ToS in some cases has slightly lower margin requirements for futures than IB.

Darris, thanks a lot for the information...good stuff my friend...was just looking at interactive brokers..I agree with you on them...I may use ninja trader charts with them...cheers mate