Brokers for trading stocks

Opinions for brokers you have worked that offer international and US stocks.
Opinions for platforms, commissions and spreads, withdrawal services, reliability and others.

I am looking for a broker that will be reliable to work with them, but I want to have access at least for US stocks. (The more the better)

for access to multiple equity markets without them bending you over too hard on commissions:

interactivebrokers.com

However, they have steep account minimums and charge for data. So it's really for active traders, not dreaming investors.

You can check some proprietary trading companies (I believe there is plenty of 'em around). They usually offer higher leverage and strict risk management. I live outside US, and i trade throuh KSG invest (www.ksg-invest.com) the comissions are quite comfortable for me ($0.0045/share and free trading platform). They recently started an english-language outlet at www.traderbonanza.com

They are more of a broker-dealer than a 'prop' firm, or at least hard on the BD side of props. I'm not crazy about the broker dealer model in this industry to be entirely honest, since their primary interest is in increasing transaction volume, instead of their traders profitability (just like a retail broker, sure it's good if a trader doesn't bust out, but brokers love losers as much as winners so long ask they keep turning volume.)

BD's are really best for vetted stock traders who are already profitable and can depend on their trading income.. without this, you'll have no idea what makes a BD's commission structure or offering 'competitive' as a trader's style will have a lot of say in what's a good deal and what's shitty. Someone learning will just focus on things like commission costs and platform fees and have no idea what's actually best for them.

I mean, with US prop firms (a few even will take overseas remote traders without requiring them to be licensed) you can do a profit split and get starting commissions near $0.03 per 100 to $0.10 per 100. That's "starting", as in they expect you to do minimal volume and still be learning... they'll cut that down even more if you're a big fish. Now, is splitting your profits for such a low commission structure good for you? That entirely depends on your trading style and strategy.

There's one thing I found to be true in this industry: the decent firms with decent deals (heck, even the example I just gave) are often the ones that don't post their rates on a sales site, they don't advertise online outside of having a simple 'contact us / about us' website, and don't try to gun for retail clients in how they are presented... They are also not nearly as numerous as the droves of shitty broker dealers that advertise all over the net.

The firm you linked charges 10 cents per 100 shares for clearing, which is insanely high... That makes no sense to me.. my clearing costs are 1/50th of that, if I recall correctly (so little I don't pay attention to them, like pennies per thousand shares..) :S

Yes, exactly. For me their benefit was trading with small account and high intraday leverage available.

Still think you're getting hosed on clearing fees. That's nearly as much as commission at some places.

OK, let's see. Here is one of my trades with complete comission and fees. Can you please tell what fees would I pay if I switch to another broker?

"Comm" is total comission for the trade, "Clear" is clearing, NSCC, SEC and ECN fees also shown.

So for clearing, even interactive brokers charges 1/5th of your rate, and that's clearing retail:

http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en...tocks2#america

(look for the US clearing section.)

$0.0002 per share, vs your $0.001 cost. On 100 shares, that's 2 pennies vs 10.

This is important since the fees are passed through from their source (NSCC, DTC.) So either your prop firm is getting hosed by their market execution provider, or they are marking up your clearing fees for extra transaction profit (not entirely the legality of this.)

I'll have to double check what I'm being charged for clearing but I believe it's in line with interactive broker's listed fee, if not a little less.

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As for the commissions you'd pay with another prop firm, that's going to depend on a lot of factors and you'd have to shop around and let them know how many shares you averagely trade per month and such... If you're willing to split the profit, some firm will go really lean on the commission side, like $0.10 per hundred for a ~60/40 split. But with profit splits, if you prove to them you're profitable with a trading record, they will be very willing to work with you on a deal that gets you on board..

All that being said, by the sounds of it you might even benefit from going with an active trading broker, like Interactive Brokers, instead. You'd pay $0.0035 a share starting (which goes lower after 300k shares in a month), no platform fee for their TWS system, proper clearing fees (lol), and no need to profit split since they are a SPIC deposit protected retail broker that accepts non-US clients. Really, the only hurdle is the $25k deposit requirement to comply with PDT rules and then the 4:1 leverage max, but I find that very acceptable for the extra SPIC protection on the account and low cost of trading.

I'm actually hesitant to suggest going prop to anyone unless they are proven profitable and know their style of trading very well, the industry has so many options and payout structures it's hard to say which one is 'best' unless you know your style inside out.