Ameritrade to MBTrader

T

tradingblues

Need some help making decision:
I am thinking about transferring my Roth IRA to MBTrader. When I look at their commission (Plan A "per-share") it looks that I ll be saving a lot. And when that happens I get very paranoid and start looking if I am missing any fine print.

Here's my calculation:
At present I have on avg around 4 order executions per week in that account. Avg size of each order is 100 shares.
With Ameritrade I end up paying $44/week just in commissions.

Same will cost me less than $5/week at MBTrader. Am I missing something?

On MBTrader I ll have no monthly fees, $35/yr IRA fee.

Dont want to go thru the hassle and know that grass is not green on the other side.

I am also considering switching to iZone as an alternative, which may be less of a hassle to switch to but not the same savings.

Can I switch without affecting my trading activity? (e.g. Having to hold on to losing stock because account s being switched)
MBTrader guy said it could take 7 days for IRA transfer.

Thanks for help !
 
I highly recommend MBT but bear in mind it's very bare-bones. There's no charting, no research reports, no portfolio analysis. It's just a broker where you place your trades. Another disadvantage is that it's a small broker so it may go out of business someday.

The good part is that the trades you get are very high quality at very low cost.

It costs a dollar to trade 100 shares, there's no catch to that.
 
Do your due dilligence.

What is the financial strength of the company?

How often do they encounter significant glitches?

How well do they handle rapid growth?

What markets do they cover?

How is your account data available during non-market hours?

Compare commissions, execution technology, and the above questions to Interactive Brokers and Track Trade.

I've found the staff helpful and courteous. I've also encountered issues. I'm currently on the fence....

Cheers,
Peyton
 
Please let me know if I can be of any help and I thank you for your interest in MBT. Regarding charts and analytics let me please explain. We specialize if brokerage and execution. I am confident that you will be happy with the MBTX routing technology. MBT has ranked ranked the highest in "best execution" by Barrons a few months back and I can tell you it is used by many institutions throughout the world. With that being said we made a decision a while back to integrate into various data vendors because we wanted to give our customers a choice. This way you could benefit from our routing technology yet choose which charts or analytic front end that suits you best. MBT integrates directly into eSignal, Quotetracker, Stock Watch Pro, qcharts, Neoticker and DTNiq to name a few.

As far as being small I am not quite sure how that can be measured. Is that by account size or assets? Number of employees? MBT is a privately held company so we do not publish our numbers but we have been in business for over 8 years, have no debt, and are well financed. Your funds are SIPC insured and we must follow all the net cap requirements of the NASD. MBT is fully insured with additional insurance as well. Accounts are protected up to 25 million.

What I can also tell you is that I think you will find our service to be second to none. MBT does not have any voicemail or automated phone systems. It is important to me that when you call you get a courteous rep to answer your questions and be helpful. It is my opinion that this is overlooked by most firms.

I thank everyone for the kind comments. I wanted to use this as an opportunity to clear up and explain a few items. Again, please feel free to msg me directly if I can help.

Regards,

Steve
 
i have an account with mb trading ib and many other vendors. mb' quotes seem to freeze some but there customer service is very good.i find ib's platform much easier to use but to each his own. any full time trader of stock doing just a little research can find stock commissions 1/2 the price of either mb or ib. 1 cent a share for the first 500 shares is absurd in todays cut throat market. my question is how can cyber owned by schwab be much cheaper than either mb or ib? ib and mb are more for the caasual traders. a full time career trader would use the platforms of assent carlin etc. mb is good for options. mny people like mb so one most be comfortable were they trade
 
Quote from joeyata1:

i have an account with mb trading ib and many other vendors. mb' quotes seem to freeze some but there customer service is very good.i find ib's platform much easier to use but to each his own. any full time trader of stock doing just a little research can find stock commissions 1/2 the price of either mb or ib. 1 cent a share for the first 500 shares is absurd in todays cut throat market. my question is how can cyber owned by schwab be much cheaper than either mb or ib? ib and mb are more for the caasual traders. a full time career trader would use the platforms of assent carlin etc. mb is good for options. mny people like mb so one most be comfortable were they trade
More...

assent or carlin?? rofl


if your stratedy requires excessive leverage or consists of extreme daily turnover maybe a prop firm is appropriate. Otherwise ib, cyber, tradestation or mbt rule.
 
Ultimately, MBT is not really a small player. I'd say they're in the top 5 direct access brokers.

-Great customer service, both from employees and the president himself.

-Quotes, routing, execution, fees, downtime, are all roughly the same as the other top direct access brokers. All have good and bad qualities in varying areas.

--In the end, if your concerned about safety of capital, look at who they clear through. Self clearing firms can be riskey, as many are not well capitalized enough to do it, or there is reporting bias. MB clears through Penson--a solid clearing firm.
 
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