Originally posted by dlincke
If you stick to liquid names there will practically always be an ECN available within four or five levels in a fast market.
And what if my trading style is not to trade the CSCOs and ORCLs of the world???
When I did my DD on IB VS MBT, I came to the following conclusion:
If you trade more than 25 round trips a month and more than 300 shares per order on average, you should use MBT.
If you trade 100-200 shares per order, IB is the way to go.
I feel that you should improve your fills by 4-6 cents on average with MBT.
This is my opinion, and I am sure many of you have other opinions. But, when it comes to risk management on lots of 300 shares or more, you just cannot compare IB to RealTick + MBT. The key points are:
Routing Flexibility
Software Stability
Well-Staffed Live Trading Desk
What can someone TRULY expect for a buck per 100? The cost of doing business is much greater than that. Heck, 1,000,000 shares a day would probably be just enough to pay def's salary <g>
Bill