With 1000 to 2000 share orders taking liquidity, it will be close to a wash with ticket fees vs per share. Not a big deal over the course of a month. I would start with TD and take their promotion of "$100 cash and 90 days of commission-free trades when you deposit $25,000" Then decide in 90 days what you want to do next. https://www.tdameritrade.com/offer/...40!25005612684&referrer=https://www.bing.com/ 1245
I'm sorry that SIG had a poor experience with Customer Support at IB but we've put great effort into beefing up those services and believe there has been a vast improvement as I've been receiving excellent feedback. You mention a margin account and everyone just seems to post commissions. You should also look at your interest costs (I won't discuss payment for order flow here which I can hurt you even more). Let's compare (I just pulled this from the internet) and you'll see a huge difference - with IB you'd currently be paying 1.87% vs 4.75-8.25% at the other firms mentioned: IB https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=1595 USD 0 - 100,000 1.87% (BM + 1.5%) 100,000.01 - 1,000,000 1.37% (BM + 1%) 1,000,000.01 - 3,000,000 0.87% (BM + 0.5%) 3,000,000.01 - 200,000,000 Greater of 0.5% or (BM + 0.25%) 200,000,000.01 + Greater of 0.5% or (BM + 0.25%) See note below http://www.optionsxpress.com/about_us/pricing_commissions.aspx Margin7 Rates $0 - $49,999 8.25% $50,000 - $99,999 7.25% $100,000 - $249,999 7.00% $250,000 - $499,999 6.75% $500,000- $999,999 6.50% $1,000,000 + 6.00% https://www.td.com/ca/products-services/investing/td-direct-investing/accounts/rates.jsp TD Direct Investing Annual Interest Rates Direct Trading Accounts US $ Margin Debit Balances All Balances 4.750%
DEF, I agree that IB offers the best retail borrow rate on the street by far. I would expect that the vast majority of traders in ET that have a $40K account are doing mostly day trading and not borrowing a lot overnight. If he/she is carrying a high debit balance, it would help his returns to consider this. 1245
Funny, I left IB because I was very unhappy with their service and their option monitor. Too hard to use DMA and they charge extra for it.