Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Posts: 12 since Aug 2010
Thanks Given: 0
Thanks Received: 6
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I've been with Generic Trade since 2010, I can't believe it myself. Sure, I've had a few arguments and there have been some technical issues over the years, but in the end, it seemed to work out ok. Every once in a while I will open an account at another firm that seems to offer better fees and software and some have been really good for a while, but I always come back to Generic. Here's why: In the almost 11 years I've been there, they have never (not once) raised or added fees on my account. Even if I take time off of trading and my volume goes way down. Some of the other places offered me $.29 commission (I do about 80-200/day) and no platform fee. Then I find out that the platform was $.25/side and they raised it to $.50 and my commission went to $.90 when I took a couple of weeks off for vacation. Then I got hit with some sort of maintenance fee. NONE of this was on the website! Unfortunately I've learned that this is pretty much how things go. One of the firms said no commission on the site and only a membership fee, but that was bs. Three places I emailed wouldn't even give me all of the fees over email. I don't have any interest in spending time on the phone with salespeople. Anyways, I'm happy to stick with my $.59 forever rate apparently. Aside from paying more when they change the rates, I have to deal with it. I'm forced to call and spend an hour complaining - that really sucks! The other important thing, is that with every other place, they have many platforms to choose from and then separate data vendors. I also found out that they then hook up to different infrastructures. When I've had problems at Generic, all the tech from me to the exchange runs through them directly so they can't blame someone else like other firms have. Man, one time it took days to find out the issue. The broker blamed the platform and the platform company blamed the data vendor. It was a nightmare. The bottom line is that there really are some places that offer a nice experience for trading most of the time, but for the reasons I mentioned, plus the execution is as good as any I've seen, I'm sticking around.
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