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If you want a real brokerage that uses technology to keep costs down, check out Interactive Brokers. (http://interactivebrokers.com http://interactivebrokers.c

If you want a real brokerage that uses technology to keep costs down, check out Interactive Brokers. (http://interactivebrokers.com http://interactivebrokers.com) With IAB, a small player (5k+ in IRA or 10k+ in normal account) can trade on terms comparable to what a mid-sized fund can get. When it comes to financial assets, I'd rather pay an established player $1 per trade than a fly-by-night operation $0.

noname123 13y ago
Not to mention good margin rates (not that one should ever go on margin if you don't know what you are doing). Also good for options trading too.
- PhantomGremlin 13y ago
  > Not to mention good margin rates Yeah, that's understating it. Here's the interest rate on a $100,000 margin loan: Interactive Brokers 1.09% Schwab 6.875% TD Ameritrade 7.25% Fidelity 6.575% Scottrade 6.50% Etrade 6.14% Having said that, I still haven't created an account there, because I agree strongly with what you said: not that one should ever go on margin if you don't know what you are doing For example, look at how the ex-CEO of Chesapeake Energy, Aubrey McClendon, got blown up by margin (from Wiki): It was announced on October 10, 2008, that McClendon sold approximately 33.4 million shares, approximately 90% of his stock in Chesapeake Energy (stock symbol CHK), for $16.52 per share to meet a margin call after the drop in the U.S. stock market that week. The stock had been worth as much as $74.00 per share in the year prior to the sale, a loss of nearly $1.92 billion. I think that last bit qualifies as #RichPeopleProblems
shogunmike 13y ago
I've had experience with IB in a quant fund setting. I was impressed with it. Significantly further ahead of the curve in regards to their API offering compared to other brokerages. At my last check it was mostly geared towards C++/Java with less than ideal documentation. However there are some good open source wrappers available (Python): https://github.com/blampe/IbPy https://github.com/blampe/IbPy As stated in the parent comment, the minimum account balance is $10k.
- noname123 13y ago
  Not to mention PDT requirement is $25K and more like $30K if you want to get a good buffer zone. You can also trade it via FIX. They open sourced their API here: https://github.com/InteractiveBrokers/tws-api https://github.com/InteractiveBrokers/tws-api
  - shogunmike 13y ago
    Thanks for the Github link. I hadn't realised they had become open source! Although (I had a 404), I think it's actually: https://github.com/InteractiveBrokers/tws-api-public https://github.com/InteractiveBrokers/tws-api-public Indeed the PDT requirement is a pain...
  - sseveran 13y ago
    Pattern Day Trader is a Finra/NASD rule.
- kevrone 13y ago
  There's a ruby client for IB, believe it or not. It's not bad, either. https://github.com/ib-ruby/ib-ruby https://github.com/ib-ruby/ib-ruby
ddispaltro 13y ago
I've been a customer for 10 years, awesome service. They had two factor auth back in the day, a card with a simple cipher. Specifically for options trading, they have incredibly low commissions, and instant execution. I was always impressed by their SDK and tools they exposed. I used the Java toolkit, I never made anything substantial in it though. They are extremely security focused as well.
- ramchip 13y ago
  I just registered my account and also got the cipher card. I think they also have electronic fobs, maybe for bigger accounts.

noname123 13y ago

Not to mention good margin rates (not that one should ever go on margin if you don't know what you are doing). Also good for options trading too.

PhantomGremlin 13y ago
> Not to mention good margin rates Yeah, that's understating it. Here's the interest rate on a $100,000 margin loan: Interactive Brokers 1.09% Schwab 6.875% TD Ameritrade 7.25% Fidelity 6.575% Scottrade 6.50% Etrade 6.14% Having said that, I still haven't created an account there, because I agree strongly with what you said: not that one should ever go on margin if you don't know what you are doing For example, look at how the ex-CEO of Chesapeake Energy, Aubrey McClendon, got blown up by margin (from Wiki): It was announced on October 10, 2008, that McClendon sold approximately 33.4 million shares, approximately 90% of his stock in Chesapeake Energy (stock symbol CHK), for $16.52 per share to meet a margin call after the drop in the U.S. stock market that week. The stock had been worth as much as $74.00 per share in the year prior to the sale, a loss of nearly $1.92 billion. I think that last bit qualifies as #RichPeopleProblems

shogunmike 13y ago

I've had experience with IB in a quant fund setting. I was impressed with it. Significantly further ahead of the curve in regards to their API offering compared to other brokerages. At my last check it was mostly geared towards C++/Java with less than ideal documentation. However there are some good open source wrappers available (Python): https://github.com/blampe/IbPy https://github.com/blampe/IbPy As stated in the parent comment, the minimum account balance is $10k.

noname123 13y ago
Not to mention PDT requirement is $25K and more like $30K if you want to get a good buffer zone. You can also trade it via FIX. They open sourced their API here: https://github.com/InteractiveBrokers/tws-api https://github.com/InteractiveBrokers/tws-api
- shogunmike 13y ago
  Thanks for the Github link. I hadn't realised they had become open source! Although (I had a 404), I think it's actually: https://github.com/InteractiveBrokers/tws-api-public https://github.com/InteractiveBrokers/tws-api-public Indeed the PDT requirement is a pain...
- sseveran 13y ago
  Pattern Day Trader is a Finra/NASD rule.
kevrone 13y ago
There's a ruby client for IB, believe it or not. It's not bad, either. https://github.com/ib-ruby/ib-ruby https://github.com/ib-ruby/ib-ruby

ddispaltro 13y ago

I've been a customer for 10 years, awesome service. They had two factor auth back in the day, a card with a simple cipher. Specifically for options trading, they have incredibly low commissions, and instant execution. I was always impressed by their SDK and tools they exposed. I used the Java toolkit, I never made anything substantial in it though. They are extremely security focused as well.

ramchip 13y ago
I just registered my account and also got the cipher card. I think they also have electronic fobs, maybe for bigger accounts.