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I'm considering consolidating most of my trading into one platform. I'm interested to know if anyone actively trading futures, stock/etfs, and options has a commission structure with TD that they are happy with.
The futures commissions are out of bounds vs what I currently get from NT. My stock and options trading is also a lot cheaper via schwab. And obviously tastyworks has great costs on options which I use but not as frequently.
I'd really like to have all accounts in one place but the cost difference in fees is huge for full time trading. Has anyone successfully gotten competitive fees across these product classes thru TOS//TD?
your commission cost is based on your volume, not account value. I believe tier 1 is 0 to 100 and tier 2 is 100-250 per month. 250 to 500, 500 to 1000+. The more turns you make the lower your commissions.
is by far the low cost broker. When you consider rates along with commissions it's hard to not use IB as primary. However, I have negotiated with ToS on commissions and rates to the point where I feel its just less than a crime when I consider how I use their platform.
I'll never stop negotiating with ToS. When they stop moving my way, I'll keep an account there to access the platform and consolidate most things back to IB.
You are correct to consider TastyWorks. In my opinion some of the smartest and nicest people in the business. Their content is the best.
Thanks for responses. I agree IB is unbeatable cost-wise. It's just not my favorite platform. But neither is TOS for futures execution, always seems slow to me vs Ninja on the execution side.
They do shine in some other areas as mentioned so for one stop shop it's possibly viable with fair commission structure on futures. They need to be a lot more competitive on futures costs. Even $5 per turn isn't great but anything higher is ridiculous to me so when I looked I decided to ask here and see how others were being treated.
Tastyworks - I really like the platform for options. And stock/etf too. I think it's great. For futures it doesn't look like the best choice and would take some getting used to for sure, but I have not placed any futures orders with it so far. Given the costs and content if you haven't tried it definitely give it look especially for options. Really smart views and excellent costs.
I tried again and they said my rate of $5 RT is as low as it gets for me (equivalent to 1000 contracts a month).
I brought up account value, years with them, etc...didn't matter.
Futures:
I don know how to see individual confirmations so I had to grab from last months statement. To me that looks like $6.40 for the round trip one lot.
The commissions and trade related fees only bother me a little bit. Its the margin interest at TD that makes it a non starter. I've found a MM fund that currently pays 1.9%, just like IB does, but TD wants to charge me a $50.00 redemption fee every time I move money out of the money market. That also is a non-starter when IB pays 1.9% in their regular sweep.
The margin rate, when all the cash is deployed will be a real problem for me. I need to make the spread on the guaranteed risk free rate...NOT pay!
Its interesting that I was just thinking about Tom Sosnoff and Tastyworks/TastyTrade in your earlier "expectations vs reality" post where you spoke of the benefits of thinking in terms of higher timeframe strategies. Sosnoff is always sharing his knowledge of the trading business across all kinds of products and I've always come away with a positive feeling hearing him talk. I've found Tastyworks customer-service to be excellent, friendly, and always helpful. For futures, you don't (yet) get all the tools and functionality of other platforms but I'm not yet to the point where I've found their platform to be holding me back from growing as a trader. If the Small Exchange gets the go-ahead soon, then I'd imagine their platform is going to add lots of additional futures trading support.
As for higher-timeframes, I've strongly considered the premium-selling strategies they talk about as one part of my overall trading strategy but it just seems a little too daunting for me at this time.
Sorry to ramble in the TOS thread but I just wanted to share that experience.
