Think or Swim vs Lightspeed vs Interactive Brokers

[Catoosa]

estfx:

Thank you for the link to the greencompany.com information on FX tax reporting considerations. There is a lot of information and I did not read it all but enough to conclude the IRS still has not taken a clear position on the tax treatment of FX spot market trading. For now I will stay with the currency futures and the very simple clear tax reporting.

You still may want to check with MBT to see if you can still get check writing on your account. It is a great feature to have.

 

[elovemer]

TOS is total shite !

unless used for end of day charting

unfortunately... TOS won't allow outside data feeds


----------------------------

for intraday trading... stability is unacceptable ...

also... the data feed is throttled back for the retail customer... thanks TOS !!!!


commissions are horrid

 

[HowardCohodas]

Quote from elovemer:

TOS is total shite !

unless used for end of day charting

unfortunately... TOS won't allow outside data feeds


----------------------------

for intraday trading... stability is unacceptable ...

also... the data feed is throttled back for the retail customer... thanks TOS !!!!


commissions are horrid

I only trade 15 to 20 spreads a month. I get good executions in terms of price and speed. How would I detect if I were subject to the problems you describe.

What would you consider good commissions on options?

 

[elovemer]

This is a quote from an email from Tom Sosnoff.

Notice how he tries to make it sound like a good thing that they are throttling back their data to all retail customers.



.......................................................................................
Thanks ....! I believe that you are mistaken.
The quote speed on TOS Is configurable by the client. Just use the Setup Box in the upper right and corner and you always select real-time streaming.

I think that this person is referring to Charts only where we will throttle data delivery so you can effectively use all the tools offered and still trade.

I hope this helps,

Tom

Sent from my iPad

 

[Landis82]

Quote from elovemer:

This is a quote from an email from Tom Sosnoff.
Notice how he tries to make it sound like a good thing that they are throttling back their data to all retail customers.

Thanks ....! I believe that you are mistaken.
The quote speed on TOS Is configurable by the client. Just use the Setup Box in the upper right and corner and you always select real-time streaming.

I think that this person is referring to Charts only where we will throttle data delivery so you can effectively use all the tools offered and still trade.

I hope this helps,

Tom

Sent from my iPad

His logic is downright mind-boggling.
I had a similar conversation with him over the phone.
He acts as if people are still using 1 Gigabyte of RAM and a Pentium 3 processor.
I hate it when someone makes excuses in an effort to be cheap.

 

[uptickk]

It’s been a while but last time I tried trading FX with TOS you had to transfer money to a separate account. I found it strange because I got FX approval on my an account but then tried to place a trade and was told that I need to transfer funds (I believe it would take a day or two as well for the transfer to process). Other than that, TOS allows options, stock, and futures all under a single account.

I have been thinking about switching to IB because of their commissions but I cancel quite a few trades while trying to work vertical spreads and am worried that cancel fees would be to prohibitive. Might try them out later this year.

 

[HowardCohodas]

Quote from uptickk:

It�s been a while but last time I tried trading FX with TOS you had to transfer money to a separate account. I found it strange because I got FX approval on my an account but then tried to place a trade and was told that I need to transfer funds (I believe it would take a day or two as well for the transfer to process). Other than that, TOS allows options, stock, and futures all under a single account.

I have been thinking about switching to IB because of their commissions but I cancel quite a few trades while trying to work vertical spreads and am worried that cancel fees would be to prohibitive. Might try them out later this year.

I filled out the transfer request on the weekend. Called them Monday morning and we were done.

 

[tickmagnet]

They both are great companies , I like both , but remember commissions have nothing to do how good you are as a trader. Trading million times a day is stupid .

 

[elovemer]

if you are intraday trading with TOS ... you are a paper trader

Quote from tickmagnet:

They both are great companies , I like both , but remember commissions have nothing to do how good you are as a trader. Trading million times a day is stupid .

 

[tickmagnet]

As I said both companies are great , for pricing IB is better, but still if you trade large volumes you are better off with TOS. IB is more for daytaders , and hey their margin is 1.69 percent , but this is very big" intuitive software" that's definitely TOS.