Quote from Maverick74:
No. By upfront, I mean paying the $625 the first of the month before you place a single trade. Traders HATE that. Let me repeat this. Traders HATE that. They would rather pay inflated commissions even if it costs them multiples more.
And by free, they mean you are not under contract with TT. Apparently you are not familiar with TT so let me get you up to speed. Let me tell you what I went through at my firm when guys used TT and then wanted to get off it, usually because they were in the process of blowing out. TT has this policy where they bill you one extra month after you quit. So let's say you start trading on Jan 1. You have to pay TT $625 before you get your first fill.
Let's say Jan doesn't go well for you. You lose half your account. You're steaming mad. So you decide to stop trading for a while. So you call TT and tell them you are cancelling. They say, sure, no problem skippy, we got it. Oh, but we are going to charge you another $625 because they have a 30 day out clause. So now you paid $1250 for software you used for 2 weeks. And that is what PISSES traders off. You have to enter into a contract with them.
The free part means, you are not entering into a contract with TT. If I go to firm XYZ and get TT for "free", meaning no contract but my rates are 7.50 instead of 3.50 and I also blow out two weeks in, the good news is, I can take my money and go home and close my account at firm XYZ. No 30 day out. No extra charges. You have no idea how irate traders get on that 30 day out.
So this is why guys pay more money to have the freedom to walk. It's also why people lease cars instead of buying one even though the fair value on the lease is way more then the cost to buy the car. This is why people rent a condo instead of buying one. In the futures industry, those of us who work in industry, we understand the lingo.