Apex is still 94% owned by Penson. Besides that Apex is being run by Peak6 and has made many changes. The most important to you is that they have more cash, very little debt and APEX has no trading desk. I'd rather be at APEX.
Yes correct, it's Lime. It will be very difficult to get better automated execution services than Lime offer. They provide rocket execution and great FIX API.
But there are few drawbacks:
1) minimum deposit amount is very high
2) u have to collocate your server with them
I received an email that Cobra Trading has recently signed a clearing agreement with Wedbush. Looks like a great option to get away from Apex. I'm going to look into the switch.