Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
Many of the stock brokerages like TOS have this option. I have not seen to many pure futures brokerages with this option. Although it would be nice. From my experience it is slower 2 to 3 days. But is great if speed is not needed. If you move money around often wire fees can add up so it would be beneficial if more had it.
"The day I became a winning trader was the day it became boring. Daily losses no longer bother me and daily wins no longer excited me. Took years of pain and busting a few accounts before finally got my mind right. I survived the darkness within and now just chillax and let my black box do the work."
I almost always ask this question first when evaluating brokers because it saves $25 - $50 anytime money changes hands. Most don't have it two ways (for example you can deposit to AMP via ACH but not withdraw, you cannot deposit to Optimus via ACH but can withdraw via ACH, and Mirus you can't do it either way last time I checked).
Most almost force you to use wire and the charges that come with it since checks take 10 business days to clear, so if you are in a "hurry" wire is the only option.
My stock account with Optionsxpress allows deposit and withdraw via ACH and it has saved me hundreds of dollars.
Not sure why other brokerages don't offer it at least one-way and preferably two way, but it's my first choice of money transfer in all cases.
One of the things everyone is talking about since PFG ... is taking excess money from your account. In that case it would seem to me that there will be a lot more money transfers than in the past.
I'm just a simple man trading a simple plan.
My daddy always said, "Every day above ground is a good day!"
This is where the "keep as little money at your FCM" idea could be flawed. My broker AMP charges $30 for a wire so paying $25 wiring money in and then $30 to get money out is $55 round trip! Do this 20 times and you are over $1000. You can however do a check which is free.
You also have to mess around with wires which can be painful. From what I can see all FCMs except Deep discount use wires which is another reason I'm considering doing away with FCMs completely. I'm not sure why their payment/money transfer systems are so antiquated. I thought it may be in the regulations whereby they have to use wires only and not ACH. Mind you look at how antiquated the regulator is mailing out pieces of paper to banks etc for the balances. Even 20 years ago I could get balances electronically from the bank!
The other problem for me is I need enough $ in the AMP account to cover overnight margin for holding 2 FDAX contracts which is quite a bit of $. To get around this, I'm considering just using the AMP account for index future day trades which will allow a significant reduction in the account balance.
With IB the funds are automatically taken out of the SIPC insured account and swept back after sale so one does not need to think about these logistical issues. Furthermore IB does ACH which costs $1.
Not sure specifically about ACH, but in Canada we have EFT (electronic funds transfer) and I believe it's the equivalent. I use it through interactive brokers.
It is fast for both deposits & withdrawals, and cheap. I make a withdrawal request by 9:30am and its available in my bank account by 6pm the same day. IB claims that it will be usually be available the next business day, but I have never seen it take that long. And they allows one free transaction a month, but after that it's only $1 per transaction (less than my own bank charges!).
For ACH withdrawals, IB states the same expected eta as with EFT, so I would it expect it is next day or sooner as well. From what I've seen, IB funds management is one of the better one out there.