VMtrader

I have been trading for about 5 years and have had accounts at IB, Mirus and MF Global and have used Ninja and TT mostly. I trade the ES, TF and occasionally EC – roughly 200 contracts/day. Of the 3, Mirus was the best and I negotiated a good rate, but had some issues when my trading volume dropped one month due to vacation and that led to some unpleasantness. After that I was on the lookout for a new brokerage firm and after what I just went though it was quite refreshing to find a place with no brokers, no negotiating and the same rate for everyone. Even though I could do better than 59 cents, I was willing to give them a try because they seemed to have what I wanted. The biggest problem I had was giving up my Ninja, as they do not offer any but their own platforms. People that want auto-trading and advanced programming options won’t like what they have to offer (although I heard they are working on that), but on the upside they keep their strategies on their servers near the exchange so the fills seem better and no need to worry about my computer failing or delays in connection. Took me a while to get used to it, but now for my trading, which is pretty simple bracket trading, I find the experience faster and more intuitive. Their data feed is their own and is direct unfiltered, which is what I was used to with Zen Fire – so little change there. I have only called 3 times in about 9 months, once to the admin office and twice to the desk and all went well. I should also mention that one of the times to the desk was at 2a and he picked up right away and helped with my question – don’t try that at IB. To sum up: Pros: Great execution, stable and easy to use platforms, good rate automatically Cons: Limited platform options, no auto-trade, need to know what you are doing – just basic help

I used to trade with IB, but found the platform a bit archaic and some execution delays as a result. At IB I paid $1.70 RT plus fees; which were beyond exchange and NFA unfortunately. Also, when occasionally I had to call.. oh my goodness. Anyways, since I traded at Mirus and Man and ended up at Generic Trade. I was not happy about giving up my Ninja; but after getting used to their platform, I really like it quite a bit (its really, really fast). Anyways, sorry to ramble - I pay a total of 1.18 rt plus exchange and NFA ONLY.

I tried them and they want too much in commission. I currently pay $1.18 a round turn.

I pay only $1.18 commission for any market and I'm pretty sure SPI is one of them. I also have to pay whatever the exchange charges for fees. Vance

Radar66, Just out of curiosity, why don't you trade at a US broker offering the commissions and service that you want? Vance

I agree with TheDude that there should be no slippage with an e-mini in regular hours. Also, IB has direct connections and a good platform, so that probably isn't the issue. Although you have probably thought of this, double check your connection speed and try having no other programs running when trading. Here is a good place to check your connection: Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test I would say that you want to be at at least 1 up and 5 down. I guess it couldn't hurt to try another firm, there are several good ones offering really low rates. Vance

Radar66, Wow, I hate to say it but $30 is a lot if you are doing any kind of day trading. For my style I would need to have at least $5. I pay $1.18 plus exchange and regulatory (so $3.48 for e-mini). I'm pretty sure that its the same for any market and the best thing is they don't even have brokers there . Vance