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So I have an "ax to grind" because I point out that what you say contradicts what IB's own web sites says (or said, up until yesterday)? Or that represents a "conspiracy theory" or that I'm a competitor? You're right about one thing, in a sense -- as short-term traders, many of us are...

Yet your own company's Web site states precisely the contrary -- or at least it did, up until today. The FAQ on Timber Hill's auto-execuition was just taken down after I posted the link to it. Interesting, to say the least...

You must be joking. How many million (or should I say billion?) cancel/modifies does Timber Hill send to options exchanges every day? Yet IB "can't handle" the "system strain" (:D) of its own clients sending their orders to a real exchange? I would think that volume traders would want a...

You're either being disingenuous, or you haven't read your company's own Web site: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/education/faqs/timberhillAutoExeService.php

The human brain is excellent at finding patterns -- even when those patterns are entirely random and therefore produce no positive expected return (i.e., consistent profit). I think it will be a waste of time, but no one can say for sure.

Why would someone making markets use a broker that crappy? Charging extra for directed orders is an almost certain sign that the broker is shaving $ from their customers via either internalization or payment-for-order-flow, both of which I'm pretty sure will cost you far more, on average...

You may find something, but I'd say that you are very late to the game. The automated market is much more competitive even that it was a couple of years ago, with a number of larger players exiting the market completely and shutting down, not to mention the vastly curtailed profitibility...

I would say it is getting harder in many "purely mechanical" strategies, as there's so much competition from algorithmic traders as transaction costs go down and systems improve. But as the short-term market approaches ever greater efficiency, it may also make other types of trading/investing...

Evidently, you're the one who needs to start doing some thinking. Yes, it is possible, and an earlier poster gave an example of precisely this scenario...

There's no general answer to this -- it is completely case-specific. Would Jim Simons have been more successful opening a coffee shop than he has been at trading? On the other hand, I think that the vast majority of the millions of successful small business owners in the US have enjoyed...

Not necessarily you. I know it was a wild an unlikely supposition, but I'll venture that bearice's posts/threads generated substantial page views (and hence ad dollars) for the site. I read his treatise on Man vs. Wild with great relish.

I'm mildly surprised -- I thought he might be an ET mod's alias attempting to generate discussion.

It's not just new traders -- many very experienced, previously profitable traders also fail. To see this for a particular subgroup of failed traders (in this case, floor traders who can't/won't adapt to electronic trading), look for the movie Floored, which was recommended on this forum...

I am pretty sure unigeezer is joking :D

Internalizing broker/dealers and the payment-for-order-flow pentopoly can trade at sub-penny increments like this against their retail clients -- you, however, generally cannot. The practice, known as sub-pennying, is discussed below...

IB must love this advice -- as their Timber Hill division can (at will) happily trade against you for added profit, and your order never needs see the light of a real market, where it may enjoy much greater "price improvement" than IB is willing to offer.

Too true for comfort. Unfortunately, this point (along with a lot of money and time) will be lost on the vast majority of those who attempt trading. The notion that the right amount of "hard work" can make anyone succeed in trading is patently absurd. Look for the movie "Floored" to see...

It seems to me that the very shot-term market is getting ever more competitive and therefore efficient, as software catches up and exchange membership is no longer required to realize extremely cheap trading. Spreads and local volatility are collapsing. Even some formerly successful HFT's...

I was acquainted with a guy who worked for a bucket shop Forex place (and I mean a TRUE bucket shop) for a few years, and they did indeed examine the trading of those who were profitable over time, which he said was very small (1% or less?). Of those handful that they did examine, if I recall...

I think most brokers offer APIs now (except maybe Schwab). My understanding is that Lime, Fimat, MFGlobal, ABN, UBS all offer multple platforms/competitive rates/etc. for higher volume/balance accounts.