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)
Trading: Primarily Energy but also a little Equities, Fixed Income, Metals, U308 and Crypto.
Frequency: Many times daily
Duration: Never
Posts: 5,059 since Dec 2013
Thanks Given: 4,410
Thanks Received: 10,226
Isn't charging a 9c transaction fee and then claiming they don't charge commissions false advertising?
Surprised a US NFA regulated IB is allowed to do this.
Also of interest "We currently do not offer SPAN margins but we are currently working to add this functionality. You are given SPAN margining on your account statement." So no spread trading there!
I have been looking into Tradovate as a potential IB.
For those who do not know, Tradovate is a new IB (open only a few months) that charges a flat monthly fee (for example, $99/month for one trading account if you pay for a year upfront) plus $.09 per side "clearing" which goes to their FCM, which is Dorman. This is really cheap.
I can come up with several disadvantages of going with Tradovate:
- Their platform is very limited right now. But, with the savings, you can easily afford another data feed/charting package to do market analysis. (You can trade Tradovate's platform on the web or on a mobile device in addition to on a computer; that's not a big deal for me but it is "better" that what you get from many other IB's.)
- Tradovate is "new". I do not have any idea what the success/failure rate is for new IB's. I have no idea how many customers they have to sign up and how quickly to stay in business. I do know that Dorman is a substantial firm and that customer funds are segregated at Harris Bank. I just don't know how much of a problem it will be for me if say seven months from now Tradovate shuts down.
- A combination of the prior two reasons: the platform is new... therefore it has not been tested through all sorts of market conditions. (Although I guess Tradovate was already open for Brexit... any war stories out there?)
- Position limits. $500 day trade margin is available on emini index contracts, but only up to 20, with a max position limit of 75. (Contracts 21 to 75 are 50% margin for day trading.) Other contracts are 50% margin for day trading, with a 50 contract limit. These limits are not a problem for me (for the near future? hope springs eternal!) and certainly one does not even need to trade near that size to enjoy substantial commission savings from Tradovate's model. I do not avail myself of day trading margins so that is not an issue for me either.
I will say that customer service has been very responsive and helpful.
So, the point of this post: In your view, are any of the reasons listed above (or any others I have not thought of) important enough that I should avoid Tradovate? Does anyone else have any experience, good or bad, with them?
It is my pleasure to welcome Ryan Hansen, President of Tradovate, for a webinar on Thursday, September 22nd @ 4:30 PM Eastern US.
This webinar is meant as an introduction to Tradovate, and to give everyone an opportunity to learn about their tools and ask questions.
Tradovate is a modern, cloud-based futures trading platform offering unlimited, commission-free trading for a flat price. No per-trade commissions, platform licensing fees, order routing fees, or mobile app fees.
Bullet points of the webinar:
- How commission-free trading works
- Desktop for Windows & Mac, web for Chrome, and mobile for iPhone, iPad, and Android
- DOM, charts, quotes, advanced orders, and more
- Third party analysis & trading tools
Is it somehow possible to connect from another platform like Ninjatrader, Multicharts or Jigsaw (standalone)?
THEN this would be very interesting!
Given that the actual FCM apparently is Dorman it is highly unlikely that
they have invented new technology for the data and execution feed.
So what is it? CQG? Rithmic? Is there any actual user out there who could comment?