can anyone help me explaining this:
Advantage futures offers so much better commissions for high volume, why no other FCM/broker can offer the same rate? Is there something wrong with AF, because all i can find out in different forums about them, are good reviews....
Can you help answer these questions from other members on futures io?
From a real quick look at their website, they are not cheaper than other FCM's.
As for high volume, if you are high volume then you should lease a seat and commissions become much, much, much cheaper. Once you hit 2,000 round turns a month or so I think it is beneficial to lease a seat (do your own math, this is just from memory when I last looked into it).
Even if they were cheaper, price is not everything. Make sure you continue to do your research before you open an account. The same goes for even if they are more expensive, maybe you like them a lot anyway.
Thanks Mike for response.
I am speaking only about commissions, NOT about CME fees.
They offer on there Volume scale after 10.000 Contracts a commission about $ 0.07.
i didnt find any other broker doing this.
they are clearing high volume, they have good funding from clients, neth capital is ok...etc.
My expirience tells me, that to be careful on exceptional deals ...
Anyone trading thrue them and willing to give me some insights?
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If you are trading 10,000 RT per month then why are you using their website tool to shop for an FCM? You should be leasing a seat which throws all the numbers on their website out the window. Actually, if you are trading 10,000 RT then you already own your own server co-lo'd at 350 Cermak and you'll want it to be on the same switch as your broker to minimize latency, so again why would you be looking at a website like this.
Have you called them and talked to them on the phone?
Do they open accounts in your country?
If you are in Europe, do they have European gateway servers?
What backend are they using? What data feed?
Have you looked at their statement services and online customer portals?
Do they have fees for cutting checks?
Have you tried calling them at 3:00AM as a pretend live customer with a live position on, to test their order desk wait times?
Once you do all these things, come back here and give us the report on how they are.
If someone else on futures.io (formerly BMT) is using them, hopefully they can reply to your thread and share their experiences.
-They open account for my country
- talked to them on phone
- they have one of the best TT architecture, access point in frankfurt
- they are feed neutral, so you can use TT, CQG, T4 and other feeds/frontends
- fees for checks dont care about
final question: what has a seat on CME to do with commissions? can i have both?
so, i have a leased seat, but i would like to change my trading frontend, which my actual broker doesnt offer, so i came out to find Advantage (also Velocity Vision and others)
- i dont need a colocated server i trade manualy and i dont scalp, i trade bigger swings with HIGH volume, but they offer also collocated server (but NO NEED)
Site Administrator Swing Trader Data Scientist & DevOps
Manta, Ecuador
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Custom solution
Trading: Futures & Crypto
Posts: 50,121 since Jun 2009
Thanks: 32,594 given,
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Leasing a seat will dramatically change your all-in expenses. I only think all-in, not just commission, as commission-only is like only calculating how much gas costs without calculating the cost of buying the car
Just call your broker and have them walk you through how to lease a seat. And yes, your seat is valid with any broker, it is not tied to one broker.
i HAVE a seat...
i am searching broker with CQG or X-Trader or Rithmic, so i found also AF. My only question is, why they are the only one with such nice commissions. is there anything wrong with them? please dont educate me, no need for it.
If anyone here is clearing with AF, please share your expirience....
They are indeed extremely cheap for high volume traders, but they are also a solid company. They are more focused on professionals, which you can see from their platform offerings, and high volume individuals.
I have nothing but good things to say about them!
Other alternatives would be Crossland LLC or Variance Futures' (IB for Vision) "Institutional Account".
But with your size, you might want to check out NewEdge (or some of the other usual suspects on the institutional level).
If you want to trade using CQG, you can see a list of their trading partners here: Trade with FCM Partners
But I digress... I've found Advantage to be excellent, and you have nothing to worry about!
Do a search on ET, there have been several positive postings about them over the years..
Advantage handles high volume(~200M+ cars per year), and their pricing model is based on how much $$$ you pay in comms, not how many RT you can make... that is the reason why they can afford to offer you low comms... see below to compare to what they quoted you, this is what I was quoted in Dec 2010.
Their setup with CQG and TT is excellent, technology wise, they are above most of ther FCM's on this forum that most small retail talks about... my only complaint is their account management platform as it is rather difficult to use, but at the same time... as long as you get the daily P&L pdf's, who really cares... besides that, they have over $450MM in customer assets, and their excess cash is about 1.4% if I recall. Keep in mind that with Adv you are one of thousands, not one of hundreds...as with most FCM's being discussed on this forum as well...
The only other guys that were willing to come close to Advantage were Crossland for me... and I went with them because I liked working with Ed Hague... and also because I could not always guarantee I would do 1100RT per day, if I was home I would do that, but if I was at work I would only do 100 or less or none at all ... so now that I cant be home as much I am glad I did it the way I did since I still leveraged the quote from Adv to get better pricing from Crossland...
btw, you dont mention what you trade... but if you focus on energy... you should look at MBFCC ... that would be another high volume FCM for that specific market.. and you can do options on all energies as well...
