Is Ib Still The Best Deal????

[nitro]

Quote from Equalizer:

All this talk about RedSky has piqued my curiosity about them, especially when thinking about an IB replacement.

1). No platform fees.
2). API.
3). Insured Futures accounts (I thought IB was the only one able to offer this until now. A biggie for those with larger than the bog standard $5K Futures accounts).
4). In a thread a little while back, RedSkyS (one of the firm's principals if memory serves) impressed me with his conduct.
5). They are not self-clearing (believe it or not, in my book this is a good thing). Hence it looks like you have a choice to go with some of the big name firms (Goldman. Morgan Stanley, ML, Bear Stearns, CSFB, etc) for clearing - again a big issue if you have a decent size account.

Might have to check them out me thinks...

Thanks for the heads up on RedSky Nitro.

YW.

Redsky is a minituare IB in many senses. It has a prorpietary side and a retail side (the proprietary side is called Speed Trading Group,) it has it's own direct lines to the exchanges with dark fibre to the east coast ECNs, it has a better phone support staff, it has first rate programmers with a unique front end, it has both a proprietary and a FIX API, and here is the kicker, because the company is small you can talk to the principles of the company at much of the time about anything relating on how to make them better serve you, AND THEY LISTEN! The only difference between RS and IB is that IB self clears whereas, on the retail side, Resdsky is an Introducing Broker for ML, BS, GS, etc. BTW, I believe their proprietary side is an FCM, so as their retail business grows, it is just a matter of it being a good business decision to become an FCM.

BTW, I'm curious as to why there are no reviews for RedSky.

I don't know - probably because using Redsky is an edge, and who wants to let an edge out of the bag?

Is it because the majority of people here aren't able to meet their minimum requirements to open a Futures (or Stocks/Options) account?

This is probably one of the reasons. RS is set up to cater to institutions. Recently they decided they were ready to take on the retail side and have employed to meet the expected client volume.

Does anyone know what these are (if I was to check them out, I'll open a small account at first)?

Cheers EQ.

I have an institutional account with them that clears Merril. I don't know what the minimum is because I sent a non-minimum amount of money...

nitro

 

[larrybf]

I want to give a big thank you to everyone who posted to this thread. All the info is very helpful and greatly appreciated.