Generic Trade Futures & Options

[TL Staff 10]

Generic Trade is a discount brokerage firm specializing in online futures and options trading. It offers the latest technology with unparalleled speed, reliability and functionality, provided by a cutting edge trading infrastructure. All accounts regardless of size or volume are 59 cents commission per trade. Generic Trade is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and is a member of the National Futures Association. For further information, please visit the company’s Web site, www.generictrade.com

[VMtrader 10]

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