I've been with IB and I am satisfied. However, I wish to open an account for long term swing trades using some funds that are not mine. The account will be funded with 30K. My strategies will be primarily selling options/covered writes and may involve using futures options. I will incur inactivity/data fees if I go with IB and I am trying to analyze the lowest cost broker to use for this account. I am considering IB. Any suggestions to help me in my research?
I believe inactivity fee for IB is only $10/mo and you will make it up with the lower commissions. I no trust other brokers after what happened to Etrade or almost happened. IB has excellent capitalization.
I agree. IB is my number one choice. I'm looking around for other possibilities. A couple of times over the years, I've been irritated at IB. But when I look around for another broker I don't see any that compare for my purposes.
I am with Sonic Futures & Options and have been for since the summer of '07. I short naked options for the most part and cover with a futures need be. I pay somewhere around $12 RT in commissions. They dont charge me inactivity or monthly fees. I phone in and have the trade desk call the floor for the bid ask and then place the order over the phone. Margins department is nice to me when I have a call and help me out a lot. Is this how it works for everyone else?
Yeah, but unlike IB, they charge (or used to, anyway) huge additional fees like clearing, exchange, and brokerage "fees" that seem twice as large as most other brokers charge, so your total cost per R/T (with fees) turns out to be pretty big.