While down in Orlando last month, I had a few extra hours to spare. I heard a lot of good things about efloortrade, so I gave them a ring.
Tyler answered the phone. I asked if I could stop by to see their operation and he politely gave me directions to their office.
30 minutes later I arrived and was greeted by Tyler and Jonathan. Both were casually dressed and attentively answering the phone and emails. On slow periods, each would direct attention to my prying questions and curiosity.
The office was well equipped with new workstations and powered by two Dell 1650 poweredge servers. A dedicated T-1 with redundant connection was present.
I asked several detailed, inquiring questions and all were answered straightforward without hesitation.
The firm is relatively new and is a family run business. I was impressed with their business model and vision, offering the services of a full-priced broker at descent, competitive rates.
The guys there foregone the fancy office and invested $ where it's important ... in the back office - servers, lines, equipment, software. Everything in their office was top-notch. They have their office on the second floor a very upscale home in a posh, suburb neighborhood. Not paying $5k/month in expensive downtown Orlando office space allows them to offer great service at a good rate.
Some people may be turned off by this (a bad assumption), however I appreciate the model. I've teleworked from home for 5+ years, and I know it's not where you are located, it's how you are connected
I personally know of three individuals who are using their unique ,fully ATS system (Automated Trading System).
Essentially, efloortrade has a front-end for PATS API that will take a Tradestation Strategy and fully auto-trade it for you. Rates are really cheap compared to a full-service broker executing it on your behalf.
I understand two choices are available: one version of the ATS running on your pc with a rate of ~$9/rt and one version of the ATS running on their server at ~$13/rt. I don't know if these rates are accurate, just what's been told to me by a couple of their customers.
What's really neat about their ATS is that you can trade different systems in the same account and the system will recognize that ... so one system could be short a contract and another long at the same time (my understanding).
Of course, do your own research. Check with the NFA and CTFC ... I have ... no bad filings.
I have no relationship with the company or individuals ... just impressed with their setup when I checked them out.
I would not have any problem parking some of my $ with them.
Cheers.