Generic Trade futures & options broker - anybody use them?

J

joederp

Saw a link to them on ino.com - their site is http://www.generictrade.com

Aside from a $59 monthly platform fee, they claim that all trades of futures and futures options are 59¢ (plus exchange & routing fees I'm sure). Still, this probably works out to 0.60-1.00 cheaper than IB, and 0.80-1.20 cheaper than a few of the other retail FCMs.

I just keep wondering "what's the catch" - might they have some fancy back-office market maker tricks they're using with/against customer orders to keep a profitable business model (which plenty of other broker-dealers do), or is it simple as they claim with cutting out most of the overhead?

Any comments welcome...will probably give em a try before long unless someone throws out red flags.
 
I checked them out a few months ago but at the time they didn't have options on futures but said they were going to offer them. Very simple and basic and I would/am seriously considering adding them as another broker. Hope you do a review of them if/when you do open an account. I liked them from what I could check out.

I did not think they had a platform fee if using their "generic" simple one. If that were all you had to work with it might be tough so I think adding them to your existing broker/platform is a thought.
 
Thanks for the useful info, Brighton & RR. Brighton, you're right abt difference between IB & Generic's commission being close to 20c than 60...I had fuzzy recollection of IB's comm breakdown. I do remember that it was $2.32 total per trade for COMEX items, $2.40-2.60ish for NYMEX, $2.40ish for CBOT, etc.

Will def check out Ironbeam & compare against Generic before proceeding.
 
I think IronBeam has also added 3rd party trading platforms fairly recently. They have Ninja, X-Trader and CQG (sounds like CQG is in-process).

So if you're price sensitive and only trade futures and FOPs, and assuming they have good customer service, good trade accounting and financial stability (I have no idea), they might be a decent alternative to not only IB, but also Deep Discount Trading/Crossland.
 
Quote from joederp:

Thanks for the useful info, Brighton & RR. Brighton, you're right abt difference between IB & Generic's commission being close to 20c than 60.......
More...

The difference is zero because IB includes a comprehensive trading platform in its 85 cent cost.

Actually 50 cents (max. 60 cents) plus trading platform cost is the standard you can expect to pay at any futures broker (you will have to negotiate at some).

IB is 85 cents including a comprehensive platform.

Deep Discount Trading is 50 cents fee plus pass-through cost of your choice among all major trading platforms, many of which offer specialized dedicated execution infrastructures and *all* exchange-native spreads.

So overall I thing DDT is the better choice because you can have a much wider choice of outstanding platforms.

Just glancing at the Generic platforms, they do not impress me. Do they have option chains? Do they offer all exchange-native spreads?
 
Quote from comintel:
The difference is zero because IB includes a comprehensive trading platform in its 85 cent cost.
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Generic Trade is an IB for Ironbeam, Zumo is a division of Ironbeam.
With Zumo you pay 50 cents instead of 59.
If you use Firetip you have no cost for the platform.
I you keep at least 15000$ you have no monthly fees.
Though they don't show,they offer also Eurex (even though sometimes they say they don't offer it)
 
I tried out zumo for its try out period and liked it...however I sent them an e-mail to ask if the 15K cash requirement is net liq or including margin and didn't get a reply. When I priced in the platform cost the net savings didn't seem that great for someone who trades 100 contracts a month. Firetip seemed very user friendly but for me I would still keep my tos platform and account.
 
Comintel,

I just downloaded the Firetip demo from Zumo. Yes, they have options chains but they are stacked (all calls at top of window followed by all puts) as opposed to Ps and Cs side-by-side. I did not see any IV or Greeks in the 'select columns to display' section and you cannot attach HV or ATM IV at the bottom of the underlying's futures chart (to be fair, IB does not offer HV or ATM IV on futures charts either).

It seems like you're just getting the options chains in a spreadsheet-like quote list/watch list. You get all of them for a single underlying; you can't select half a dozen or so at certain strikes for the next three underlyings, for example.

On the plus side, the option chains include Last Trade Time, a Time column for both the Bid and Ask, Option Contract Volume and Open Interest, and the option's 52 wk hi and low and hi/lo dates. A couple of those are useful data elements you don't find everywhere.

Their futures charts are pretty basic. I think you're stuck with a black background and fixed gridlines. You can change bar colors. As an aside, they do offer KC wheat. I wrote to IB in August and they said they had no plans to offer it, even once it was completely a CME product.

Overall, at the fiddy cent per side price and assuming someone keeps $15K in the account so the platform is free, it's probably fine for a futures trader. Unless the DOM and advanced order features are top-notch, I don't think the platform is worth $59/mo.

An options trader would need to get his volatility data elsewhere, keep his trades organized elsewhere so he knows his aggregate greeks, and have an options calculator handy when he's about to place an order so he knows what the bid IV and ask IV are. If he has all those tools already and trades fairly frequently, maybe 50 cents per side at Zumo/Ironbeam is appealing. It's a lot of extra work, though, for a small trader, who might be better off paying a buck or two per side and having those tools built-in.
 
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