Does anyone know off hand if there is a threshold or volume where commissions lower because of the sheer number of trades made on any given account?
Related question: If any given strategy is a hi frequency type where many trades are executed, what is the preferred platform or setup for such strategy? What kind of characteristics should I be looking for in a broker or a platform if going down that road?

Thanks in advance to anyone that can comment or throw their 2 cents worth in.

Cheers!
Bullywig

Bullywig 

Does anyone know off hand if there is a threshold or volume where commissions lower because of the sheer number of trades made on any given account? Related question: If any given strategy is a hi frequency type where many trades are executed, what is the preferred platform or setup for such strategy? What kind of characteristics should I be looking for in a broker or a platform if going down that road? Thanks in advance to anyone that can comment or throw their 2 cents worth in. Cheers! Bullywig

With large banks, the major drop-off is around when you pay them about $250k in annual commissions.

For non-bank FCMs, the first biggest drop off is around when you can pay them $10-15k in annual commissions, then it's around when you can pay them around $100-150k in annual commissions.

What you should look for is quite similar to what you'd look for a retail account that trades manually. The ones I've found slightly different are:

1. In some venues, the broker itself is subject to volume tiers, so picking the right broker alone will give you lower rates than another participant who has higher volume than you on a participant level but has his/her account with a lower volume broker.

2. Market access.

3. Ease of compliance and risk due diligence process.

4. Staff you can directly contact with familiarity with the infra requirements of high volume, automated trading clients.

There's not many platforms suitable for this type of work. At best 5-10 vendors. If you don't know what you're looking for it probably doesn't matter what I tell you. However the main thing is that you're communicating with a module that is compiled into your application, over interprocess, and at worst, over RDMA.

artemiso 

With large banks, the major drop-off is around when you pay them about $250k in annual commissions. For non-bank FCMs, the first biggest drop off is around when you can pay them $10-15k in annual commissions, then it's around when you can pay them around $100-150k in annual commissions. What you should look for is quite similar to what you'd look for a retail account that trades manually. The ones I've found slightly different are: 1. In some venues, the broker itself is subject to volume tiers, so picking the right broker alone will give you lower rates than another participant who has higher volume than you on a participant level but has his/her account with a lower volume broker. 2. Market access. 3. Ease of compliance and risk due diligence process. 4. Staff you can directly contact with familiarity with the infra requirements of high volume, automated trading clients. There's not many platforms suitable for this type of work. At best 5-10 vendors. If you don't know what you're looking for it probably doesn't matter what I tell you. However the main thing is that you're communicating with a module that is compiled into your application, over interprocess, and at worst, over RDMA.

Thank you for your response. Greatly appreciated.

Bullywig 

Does anyone know off hand if there is a threshold or volume where commissions lower because of the sheer number of trades made on any given account? Related question: If any given strategy is a hi frequency type where many trades are executed, what is the preferred platform or setup for such strategy? What kind of characteristics should I be looking for in a broker or a platform if going down that road? Thanks in advance to anyone that can comment or throw their 2 cents worth in. Cheers! Bullywig

http://advantagefutures.com/open-an-account/commissions/

On top of that, exchanges give significant discounts to individuals who buy or lease memberships: Clearing & Trading Fees

... which is not as expensive as you might think: https://www.cmegroup.com/company/membership/membership-and-lease-pricing.html#cme