If you trade larger blocks of low priced shares, you're better off at a fixed fee broker that charges $4.95 per trade. If you want to scale in and out of positions, IB charges 50 cent commission per 100 shares ($1 minimum charge per trade). So five trades of 200 shares is the same $5 commission as one trade of 1,000 shares and that allows scaling in and out of positions without a flat fee penalty for multiple trades. . Option commissions are 15 to 70 cts per contract with free option assignment and exercise (bonus points for that from me). Sometimes you get ECN rebates for providing liquidity. And yes, they charge data feed fees. For me, it's 3 feeds for AMEX, NYSE, NASDAQ and OPTIONS so it's a grand total of $4.50 USD per month.
Ignoring the $4.50 per month, for a recent period, my average commission per 100 shares for non assignment/exercise shares was 68 cents per 100 shares. This is skewed upward a bit because I also trade some illiquid stocks and often, I only get fills of only 100 shares and after changing the trade price, it results in multiple 100 share fills which does not occur with liquid stocks I trade. Since I often buy shares via assignment and unload ITM options via exercise to avoid the B/A haircut, the average commission per 100 shares for ALL equity shares traded during this period was just under 40 cents per 100 shares. During this period, my option commission averaged 71 cents per contract but that is skewed downward by the free assignment and exercise. These numbers have been fairly consistent for the nearly 20 years that I have been with IB.
The claim of $3 and change per trade by someone makes no sense to me - unless that person is barely trading and not meeting the low threshold of trading frequency and getting hit with the $10 per month fee for not generating $30 in commissions per month.
Now, the Trader Workstation. Ugh, yes, it is a disappointment. It's user not user friendly and the learning curve takes some time. Most periodic platform upgrades tend to destroy some of my configuration but I've fixed it so many times that I feel like a garage mechanic. Because of this, I used to avoid upgrading versions until they no longer supported it and I was forced to upgrade. Now, the periodic upgrades are automatic (sigh). I know what I know and trade what I trade so most of the improvements don't benefit me.
Years ago, customer service was pretty sketchy. Some reps had no clue and it meant calling back and trying again. These days, it's far, far better and while it may take some time, they resolve it and I have no complaints (like installation of platform or DDE software on new computer with set up transfer, etc.)
As an old dog and I don't want to learn new tricks. I'm there and not going anywhere. But if I was starting out and if something user friendly existed with a similar commission structure, I'd be there.
