fhl, if I understand the commission schedule correctly, the price of $1.10 would only apply to sell orders. If I understand correctly, the SEC fees only apply to sell orders. If I had bought 200 shares of SPY, while offering liquidity, then my commission would have been a mere 70 cents. This yields an advantage, below the bundled commission, without meeting any minimum volume thresholds. The advantage is even greater as soon as we consider orders for larger sizes, like 300 or 500 shares. The advantage is also greater if we stick with 200 shares, but consider cheaper stocks, like QQQQ, which will have much smaller SEC fees. SEC fees are proportional to the number of shares times the price per share.
I reckon you can buy 200 shares QQQQ for 70 cents, offering liquidity, and sell 200 shares for 80 cents, offering liquidity.
I reckon you can buy 500 shares QQQQ for 0.15 cents per share, or 75 cents, offering liquidity.
I reckon you can sell 500 shares QQQQ for 0.4 cents per share, or $2.00, offering liquidity.
If you are buying and selling QQQQ in blocks of 200 shares, offering liquidity, your average price per share would be 0.375 cents.
If you are buying and selling QQQQ in blocks of 500 shares, offering liquidity, your average price per share would be 0.275 cents.
If you meet minimum volume thresholds, then it gets way better. But maybe I am all wrong on this, because the amounts I am being charged do not match with my calculations. So we will see what the help desk says.