Do you think these commission rates inside are acceptable?

I was wondering if you guys could let me know if you think these commission rates are any good.

These are basically my own thoughts on what commissions should be from a futures broker. My aim is then to find a broker with these commissions if there are any, as long as you think they are good prices...see below

I have priced all the commissions as round turn trades including all fees, clearing and commissions.

I have based the rates on the total number of contracts traded for the month.

E-Mini S&P 500 CME

0-350
$4.75

351-1000
$4.35

1001-5000
$3.95

5001-10,000
$3.75

10,001-20,000
$3.50

Do you think my commissions price ideas are good and can be gotten among the futures brokers. Or can you get an even better deal?

Any help much appreciated

Many thanks in advance

sopodo said:

I was wondering if you guys could let me know if you think these commission rates are any good.

These are basically my own thoughts on what commissions should be from a futures broker. My aim is then to find a broker with these commissions if there are any, as long as you think they are good prices...see below

I have priced all the commissions as round turn trades including all fees, clearing and commissions.

I have based the rates on the total number of contracts traded for the month.

E-Mini S&P 500 CME

0-350
$4.75

351-1000
$4.35

1001-5000
$3.95

5001-10,000
$3.75

10,001-20,000
$3.50

Do you think my commissions price ideas are good and can be gotten among the futures brokers. Or can you get an even better deal?

Any help much appreciated

Many thanks in advance

Click to expand...

Theyre not great, have a look here

http://www.tradewithvelocity.com/commissions/product-commissions.aspx?productID=46

pboyles said:

Theyre not great, have a look here

http://www.tradewithvelocity.com/commissions/product-commissions.aspx?productID=46

Click to expand...

Many thanks for your reply

Those are some amazing commissions

Can I ask you something else please

If a broker doesn't have listed on their site a trading platform which you would like to use, is it possible to use your brokerage account with your own trading platform?

sopodo said:

Many thanks for your reply

Those are some amazing commissions

Can I ask you something else please

If a broker doesn't have listed on their site a trading platform which you would like to use, is it possible to use your brokerage account with your own trading platform?

Click to expand...

They all seem very keen to get the business nowadays, why dont you go onto their live chat and ask them.

Hi sopodo,
I recommend you prepare a standard e-mail and send it to as many brokers as you can. Copied below is the e-mail I sent when I performed this exercise a few months ago. The response varied from no response at all, to auto-responders, to what I was looking for - a personal response. Everyone that I contacted reduced their rates when I told them that their opening offer was uncompetitive - which it was.

Remember, comm's aren't the most important thing at the end of the day. I'm with Infinity Futures now and could, probably, have got a marginally better deal from TransAct Futures - their parent company. However, this would have been at the expense of service. Earlier this week I had a problem with the platform and alerted my personal broker at Infinity to the problem via Skype. He replied instantly and sorted the problem in under a minute. Check out the brokers listed in the reviews section, most of the main ones are there.
Tim.

I currently trade the YM e-mini Dow futures contract and wondered what your fees are please? I usually trade 2 contracts and do 6-10 round trips (RT) per day which, roughly speaking, equates to about 250 – 300 contacts per month. I hope to increase the number of contracts traded as my account equity builds.

Please can you tell me the following:
1. Commission per RT.
2. Exchange and clearing fees.
3. Cost of trading platform. (I require Point & Figure charts)
4. Any other expenses.
Kind regards,

Interactive brokers has now dropped to 4 dollars a round trip.

sopodo those commissions are very high. like stupidly high. which company quoted those to you? they should be shot

Pento said:

sopodo those commissions are very high. like stupidly high. which company quoted those to you? they should be shot

Click to expand...

No one quoted those commissions to me, those commissions are my own thoughts. I thought if I posted them here then maybe I could get some feedback whether they are good rates or not which could then help me find a better commission elsewhere. And judging by your reactions these are not good rates.

I looked into the link that pboyles posted a few posts up. The commission seems attractive until you add exchange and clearing fees. As well taking into account exchange and clearing fees then amp futures, transact futures and global futures are only like 20 to 30 cents less to my commissions that I posted in my first post. Now of course 20 to 30 cents less can be a big saving when your doing many trades a day.

I have found that from all the brokers I have searched, once I add up the exchange and clearing fees and the cost of each trade per side then the total round turn isn't really that much cheaper than my own commissions. None of them seem to offer similar pricing.

So what is a good rate?

Would you say $3 or $3.20 per round turn including all exchange & clearing fees? or better than that?

I have a number of trading styles that I use through the day, I would also be making a large number of scalping trades as well. so I need good low commissions.

Any further help very much appreciated

Many thanks in advance

sopodo said:

No one quoted those commissions to me, those commissions are my own thoughts. I thought if I posted them here then maybe I could get some feedback whether they are good rates or not which could then help me find a better commission elsewhere. And judging by your reactions these are not good rates.

I looked into the link that pboyles posted a few posts up. The commission seems attractive until you add exchange and clearing fees. As well taking into account exchange and clearing fees then amp futures, transact futures and global futures are only like 20 to 30 cents less to my commissions that I posted in my first post. Now of course 20 to 30 cents less can be a big saving when your doing many trades a day.

I have found that from all the brokers I have searched, once I add up the exchange and clearing fees and the cost of each trade per side then the total round turn isn't really that much cheaper than my own commissions. None of them seem to offer similar pricing.

So what is a good rate?

Would you say $3 or $3.20 per round turn including all exchange & clearing fees? or better than that?

I have a number of trading styles that I use through the day, I would also be making a large number of scalping trades as well. so I need good low commissions.

Any further help very much appreciated

Many thanks in advance

Click to expand...

Who told you exchange fees were additional?

pboyles said:

Who told you exchange fees were additional?

Click to expand...

Many thanks for your reply

It seems I have made a little mistake, I meant to say transact and amp futures don't include exchange and clearing fees. I got muddled around as I was typing up my previous post. I looked again at velocity, are you using them?

The thing about velocity futures is that it's $3.50 per round turn for x-trader subscription users and $4.50 per round turn if you are using x-trader free. Now something I forgot to mention in my first post of this thread was that I was basing my thoughts on commissions that were to be used with a free trading platform. My rates came to $4.75 which is 0.25 cents more than what velocity futures wants.

Anyway, I saw that velocity futures have even cheaper rates if your a CME member, do you know the pricing for membership?

Finally would you say there is any other broker out there that offers even less?

Many thanks in advance

Hi sopodo,
You have to haggle with the brokers to get the commission rate you want. That said, I'd be very surprised and extremely impressed if you can start from scratch with a new broker and agree a rate of $3.20 or less per R/T (inc. exchange fees and NFA fees). I suppose you might be able to do this if you're depositing six figure sums or more and can demonstrate a trade history showing that you're a heavy trader.

As for CME membership, that's not broker dependant. Once you have that, all futures brokers will waive the bulk of the exchange fees. CME membership costs a one-off fee of USD$2,000, plus a variable monthly fee of around $130.00 for each instrument traded. On top of that, I think you'll need to do a daily trade minimum which is tallied up on a monthly basis and equates to about 25 R/Ts each day for the ES. If you don't make the minimum, they kick your @rse out without any refunds!
Tim.
(NB: I'm not a CME member myself and I haven't got the figures mentioned directly from them, so they can't be relied upon for accuracy!)

timsk said:

Hi sopodo,
You have to haggle with the brokers to get the commission rate you want. That said, I'd be very surprised and extremely impressed if you can start from scratch with a new broker and agree a rate of $3.20 or less per R/T (inc. exchange fees and NFA fees). I suppose you might be able to do this if you're depositing six figure sums or more and can demonstrate a trade history showing that you're a heavy trader.

As for CME membership, that's not broker dependant. Once you have that, all futures brokers will waive the bulk of the exchange fees. CME membership costs a one-off fee of USD$2,000, plus a variable monthly fee of around $130.00 for each instrument traded. On top of that, I think you'll need to do a daily trade minimum which is tallied up on a monthly basis and equates to about 25 R/Ts each day for the ES. If you don't make the minimum, they kick your @rse out without any refunds!
Tim.
(NB: I'm not a CME member myself and I haven't got the figures mentioned directly from them, so they can't be relied upon for accuracy!)

Click to expand...

Many thanks for your excellent information,

Please tell me what do you think about $3.50 per round turn including all exchange and clearing fees? Do you think to get that from starting on scratch would be pretty amazing?

Lastly, is NFA fees the same as clearing fees?

Many thanks in advance

Fairvalue futures quoted me this. Hope they dont mind me posting this up:

Thank you for your enquiry with Fairvalue, Retail Commissions vary depending on the front end you choose to trade with , We have two free platforms that we offer (a) Ninjatrader with Zenfire with charts (advanced functionality i.e automated
trading is an add on of $60 per month) and RCG Onyx for is also provided free.

Commissions are as follows : ninjatrader +Zenfire : $2.40 per round trip + exchange fees (no additional transaction charge)

RCG Onyx : $1.54 per round trip + exchange fees

We beleive we are the only European based broker that currently is offering ninjatrader with the proper Zenfire feed ,which it was
developed for and the cheapest commission wise we are also only one of 3 brokers including the US to provide it, these rates are based on a retail account with no volume minimum required, please note that we are negotiable on higher volume accounts.

Additonally we can offer monthly subscription platforms such as TT X-Trader and Promark/J-Trader Pats and CQG trader

X-Trader or Promark : $1.16 per round trip + exchange fees
CQG Trader : $1.40 per round trip + exchange fees.

Regarding Financial protection when opening an account with fairvalue, you are fully protected by NFA and CFTC regulation
and any personal trading funds of Fairvalue proprietary are seperate to all retail accounts, we are introducing brokers to
Rosenthal Collins group with whom your funds are deposited and with whom you will open your account directly with,
they are a very large futures Commission merchant and clearer who are fully regulated and have an 83 year track record in the industry.
In the event of Fairvalue failing as a company, it would have no bearing on your retail account I can confirm this in writing from
our clearing partners Rosenthal Collins group if you would require.
If you would like any further information or have any other questions please dont hesitate in asking

What kind of volume are you doing?

sopodo said:

Please tell me what do you think about $3.50 per round turn including all exchange and clearing fees? Do you think to get that from starting on scratch would be pretty amazing?
Lastly, is NFA fees the same as clearing fees?

Click to expand...

Hi sopodo,
IMO, you'd be unwise to focus on commissions exclusively without weighing up the other pros and cons of the brokers you're considering. For example, my broker (Infinity Futures) provides a really good trading platform with a free data feed. (I realise there will be folks that disagree with this and think the platform is pants - so I accept this is subjective.) Also, I can Sim' trade indefinitely - there no time restriction and I'm not bound to a monthly trade minimum. As I've already mentioned, the customer service is first class. Probably, I could have shaved another $0.10 to $0.20 cents of the RT comm's by going elsewhere, but I wouldn't have got these benefits, all of which I value. So it really is horses for courses. That said, viewed in isolation, $3.50 per RT (inc. all fees) is a very good deal.

Re. NFA = National Futures Association - and their fees are insignificant when compared to the exchange fees. My understanding is that the clearing fees (e.g. Rosenthal Collins Group) are included as part of the exchange fees. Perhaps someone else can confirm this or correct me if I'm wrong?
TIm.

gedward3 and timsk, thanks very much for your excellent replies

I will now look into finding a load of brokers around the $3.50 mark, and see where I get. If they can offer all or some of the things I'm after then great.

Thanks for telling me what NFA stands for. Much appreciated!

If anyone can confirm if NFA fees are part of exchange fees that would be great?

Thanks again for everyone's help in this thread

sopodo said:

gedward3 and timsk, thanks very much for your excellent replies

I will now look into finding a load of brokers around the $3.50 mark, and see where I get. If they can offer all or some of the things I'm after then great.

Thanks for telling me what NFA stands for. Much appreciated!

If anyone can confirm if NFA fees are part of exchange fees that would be great?

Thanks again for everyone's help in this thread

Click to expand...

oops, I just completely over looked something. I was browsing a broker called global futures and I hadn't noticed this before. There commissions are based on per side, per contract. Is that normal. Does this mean all the quotes you have given me, these round turn trades are per contract? Is that normal?

sopodo said:

oops, I just completely over looked something. I was browsing a broker called global futures and I hadn't noticed this before. There commissions are based on per side, per contract. Is that normal. Does this mean all the quotes you have given me, these round turn trades are per contract? Is that normal?

Click to expand...

Hi sopodo,
All brokers (that I've looked at anyway) base their commissions on one contract. The two main variables are:
A) does the price include all other fees, and /or
B) is it per side or a Round Turn.
If they quote $3.50 R/T, that will be for one contract only, i.e. $7.00 for two contacts, $10.50 for three contacts etc., etc. When you think you've found someone much cheaper than anyone else, it's usually because they're only pricing one side or they've not included the fees and, if it's really really cheap, they've done both.
It soon mounts up!
Tim.

sopodo said:

oops, I just completely over looked something. I was browsing a broker called global futures and I hadn't noticed this before. There commissions are based on per side, per contract. Is that normal. Does this mean all the quotes you have given me, these round turn trades are per contract? Is that normal?

Click to expand...

Here the company fairvalue i was talking ab out.

http://www.fairvaluefutures.com/

You can trade from their offices also for 300 quid a month but i suppose you
wont get all the information. You would however be in a room with a load
of professionals and learning a hell of a lot from them.

Ged

It's not just about commissions, although what you should pay is in the 4 dollar per round trip range. I would rather pay a bit more but get a solid and reliable platform. Getting properly filled is more important to me than 50 cents. There are a few problems with the smaller futures brokers, and one of them is something that most people don't realize. Read the fine print and you'll find that they're not obligated to send each and every order to the exchange. Yes, many actually act as bucket shops and seek to drain accounts. Just try to confront them on this issue, and see the run around you'll get.