lightspeed v/s Interactive brokers.

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darwin666

i am thinking of changing from IB to lightspeed .
pl advice..
my IB monthly commissions run close to 2500.

i do options trades usually 50-100 at a time.

I do have >250K so will qualify for Portfolio margin.

so assuming I hit the lowest active trader -0.50 cent-Over 500 contracts

https://www.lightspeed.com/pricing/commission/


i think when they say over 500 contracts a month.
does buying 500 calls of qqq at 10 cents each qualify? i wud assume so.
hence if i do like 2000 a month - my commission wud be only 1 k ?
WHEN THEY SAY 50 CENTS A CONTRACT do they tack on unnecessary exchange fees.etc. for 100.contracts how much is the charge 52 bucks and change?
also is there any order cancellation fee?
on paper- it looks good.. any thing else to know.

(ib has a feature if u r short an option IB allows u to buyback 1 cent option for free.)
does Lightspeed have any such thing

any other FEES ?
i hate the IB exposure fee which is running me 300 a month...apart from my normal commissions,,,
 
You are being charged a IB exposure fee. That means a 30% move would cause a loss greater than your account value. You should check with L/S. They will have house rules imposed by their clearing firm, Wedbush. You might have to cut back to move your account. It might not pass risk.
 
thks for the reply, but isnt it straightforward calculation on the basis of portfolio margin if i am holding any short securities, they have a margin requirement and if i meet that, lightspeed should be ok? the exposure fee is a creation of ib to nickel and dime us,, plain simple if u dont want folks to do a lot exposure, just raise the margin requirements
 
Sorry, but that is not accurate. PM haircut is the MOST leverage a BD can offer. Most Prime Brokers offer less for naked short puts and calls, especially for cash settled indexes. Since a risk manager, in general, will not accept securities that will cause a risk call, they might block the transfer. Or, they might not ask, allow the transfer, then see risk is violated, ask you to reduce. You really should ask LS.

IBs exposure fee is interesting. They had a choice. Restrict your risk more and reduce your positions, or set up this fee to gain more revenues and provide an insensitive for clients to reduce. I'd rather pay the fee then have a risk call.
 
spoke to Lightspeed... PM requirements is 175 K and not 250 K...
(btw IB is 110K .) ..
they have some promotion of 10K rebate upto 50% off in first 3 months..
no exposure fee. no order cancellation fee...
there is a mandatory 21$ per month charge for stock /option data. and 100$ software fee -which is waived if u generate 100$ in commissions.
 
darwin666 said:
thks for the reply, but isnt it straightforward calculation on the basis of portfolio margin if i am holding any short securities, they have a margin requirement and if i meet that, lightspeed should be ok? the exposure fee is a creation of ib to nickel and dime us,, plain simple if u dont want folks to do a lot exposure, just raise the margin requirements
More...
that is your philosophy of life. people are out to nickel and dime me.
IB offers you a choice, if you don't want to pay the fee reduce the exposure. what is the issue?
 
Hello,

I'm a fairly new daytrader (stocks) and still trading in small size but increasing share size every 2-4 weeks as consistency grows. I was trading with a prop firm which recently closed (luckily got my $ back) but now looking for a broker to trade with. I have the $25k+ to open a daytrading account. With my current small size trading vol, I narrowed it down to Lightspeed and Interactive Brokers.

I heard Lightspeed has good execution & fills. Does anyone here have an individual account at Lightspeed with Per Share Pricing? They have a Refer a Friend Program where they group everyone's (Referrer and Referrals) volume together in order to get low Active Trader per share rates. Every month they look at the entire groups monthly volume and base price on that. If anyone has an LT account I would be interested in using you as a referrer so that they can combine our volume for hopefully better pricing.

My other option is Interactive Brokers. Their pricing is good too but I heard IB fills on early morning daytrading gapper breakout type plays are horrible. Such as no fill or terrible slippage. Does anyone here do those breakout type plays right at the open through IB. How are your fills with IB?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
Although a futures trader, I did have a lightspeed account a while back for some stocks/etf's for longer term stuff/investments when the vix was > 25. I was long only.

Where as I have no experience of IB, I cant recommend lightspeed.

For example, a stock has to trade through a stop to activate it. So if it gaps open below the stop, you're screwed. This was quite funny in hindsight as I was only checking the account once a week or so - like I said it was long term and I didnt want to keep looking at it. Fire & forget. So I got a nasty shock in one of the stocks in the portfolio.

Im too much of a trader to be an investor!

Anyway, their java/web platform is crap. Keeps crashing and some of the functionality doesnt work. But it seems like you wont be using that with your volume of trading. Just as well. But it doesnt say much for their developers or tech expertise as a firm.

The customer service was ok. In fairness they did refund some off the losses caused by their crappy platform.

Anyway, I decided stocks are for pussies and I should stick to futures. I closed the account.
 
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