Time to move to a new broker. Do not get me wrong, I've made good money on this volatility, but I am an amateur in many ways and just getting started. I trade mostly index futures right now and my commission with TD/ToS is $2.25 all in per side ($4.5 round trip). I got their fees down to $1 but paying $2.25 per side all in when I trade thousands of lots every day is kind of annoying. ((Also, _please_ dont bother mentioning how much of a nub I am trading futures on ToS at this size. Yes, I know, I've been told, a hundred thousand times. And don't bother mentioning how I am a fraud. You can join my livestream I'll send link privately if requested, or dont bother commenting regardless. I was a passive investor and barely knew about futures and just happened to be with ToS when the market crashed. I am a quick learn and got a hold of it trading 1 lot in March, then 3 lots, 5, 10, 20 etc. Now I trade 200ish every few hours on average and pay like $2k per day in commission.)) Am posting here because I have many different questions covering many topics. If someone can help I'd be very grateful. I trade multiple products, right now index futures but have written and bought options (got 25 cents per contract with them), stocks, etc. I grew my account size quickly but still remain a novice in many areas. ToS has many issues, but regardless of them I am wondering: For someone with an account size as big as mine, and with the number of lots, option contracts, etc. I am trading, is it worth opening a 'private brokerage account'? What are the benefits here? Does anyone know much about these types of accounts, with GSEC, or JPM Securities, or Bloomberg Tradebook or where I can find such info? My cousin works for Goldman and is asking around but works on syndicated loans desk or smthng or other so doesn't know much. Also, is it worth buying or leasing an IOM seat? How do I go about doing it? Is a private broker not worth it and I can find the same order execution, extremely low to 0 cost commission/fees across all assets classes with a retail broker? What are the benefits here? Order execution? Dark pools? Margin interest rates? Free top tier tax advice? Are the intraday futures margin requirements better? ToS has shut them off, no intraday on futures, ive literally never had the ability to use it. ToS has restricted other things too across the company, like not being able to trade the June oil contract weeks ago which really pissed me off. So many questions, so little information I have. Excuse the lack of sentence fluency, am trying to figure out so much in such a small amount of time. Thank you. TLDR: I want to buy an IOM seat and join JPM Securities or similar (private brokerage if thats the right term) but idk if this is even worth it and what the benefits are vs good retail brokers.
All your questions answered... https://www.google.com/ https://www.bing.com/ P.S. Also, your cousin can easily put you in contact with someone that can answer many of your questions. Seriously, invite him / her over for dinner, Skype, Messenger or whatever to get names, phone numbers, email address and any other contact info. Yet, its a Coronavirus environment...dinner not possible. wrbtrader
Call membership at the CME. They will send you the PDF’s that you have to fill in. $2,000 admin fee plus the seat fee. https://www.cqg.com/partners/fcms Contact details for Brokers
No, not all answers can easily be found on google, and people can provide easier access to advice and answers on a forum like this when it concerns many of the more abstract things I’m asking. This format is literally designed for such questions. As for your other advice, that’s a good idea. Waiting for him to get back to me first then I’ll bring that up. thank you
I wouldn't consider you a nub - just uninformed. They just don't give the level of discount you'd expect from a broker especially for a person trading your size. 60k is a lot of commission. Considering the line you must be swinging you probably want a seat. https://www.cmegroup.com/company/membership/membership-and-lease-pricing.html There are rules and regs to follow as well as fee schedules. https://www.cmegroup.com/company/membership.html You'll probably want to compare what kind of markets you're in to the seat price. You'll get better execution and rates with a seat but the cost is what's important. You may be able to go with IB or a futures specific broker and get similar execution and rates without having to own a seat and abide by a new set of rules and regs. To your point I find it hard to believe someone capable of generating 60k commissions profitably wouldn't be attracting the kind of attention that would make even asking the questions you are pointless. Assuming you're legit, you'll want to call the CME, IB, and a few others. You can probably even find a place to fund you further. You can go basically anywhere else and get better execution control and rates. Pinging @bone - he probably knows people.
The commission is negotiable. I pay them $0.75 per futures contract. I didn't think the fees could be negotiable, as that is set by the exchange not TOS.
Why is CQG the place to go to contact brokers. Confused by that if you could elaborate. Also an IOM seat is all one needs if 90% you’re trading index futures (when it comes to futures)
If you buy a seat directly from CME then you email IB and they take off the exchange fee from your commission. You can also choose tiered instead of fixed commissions to get a quantity discount.
If you're paying 60K in commies, call the CME directly. Lease a seat there. Then you do not have to worry about brokers.