Staying With CyberTrader?
Since I wrote about looking for a new broker in April I’ve had several people ask me if I’ve made a switch yet, including Dave who left this comment yesterday:
Hey, I thought you were sick and tired of Cybertrader? What changed your mind?
I’m still not happy about the way CyberTrader administers their inactivity fees. I wish they’d just change it so that if a client does $200 in commissions during the month then their fee would be $50 instead of the entire $250. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about scalping a few thousand shares of SUNW or LOUD on the last day of the month just to make the minimum number of shares traded.
Having said that, the fee has become a non-issue for me for a couple of reasons. First, with the increased volatility I’ve been doing a lot more trading. Second is that I’ve increased my position size. The result of both of those is that I’m easily surpassing the minimum number of shares now. In fact last month I did over double the required 40,000 shares.
Tossing the fees aside what really kept me at CyberTrader is my familiarity with their system. I was dreading the thought of learning a new software package. The other options I investigated didn’t have any features that stood out from CyberTrader’s offering. In fact, as far as I could tell, they were lacking on two critically important points — server-held stops and a good shortable stocks list. There’s no way I could give those up by leaving CyberTrader.
So all is good with CyberTrader for now. If I get surprised with another fee I may feel differently.
This post has 8 comments
June 7th, 2006
Mike,
Have you tried tradestation? I think there fee is same as CyberTrader.
June 7th, 2006
TradeStation was one of the brokers I considered. But like I said there’s no advantage to me in going through all the trouble of switching. I’d still have the fee and I’d have to learn their system.
June 8th, 2006
Did you consider Fidelity’s ActiveTrader?
Right now they seem to be offerring 6 months (75 trades) free if you do 36+ trades a year or have $1M with them.
June 8th, 2006
MM,
Fidelity’s ActiveTrader fails on at least one of my criteria — commissions less than $0.01/share.
June 8th, 2006
Good post. Thanks, Mike.
Just one question. Why is it so important to have server-held stops (presumably simulated ones held on CyberTrader’s servers, when the order types aren’t supported natively at the exchange concerned)? What are the main differences and usage implications compared to orders held on one’s computer?
June 8th, 2006
William,
In the event of my PC crashing (Windoze? Never!) or losing my internet connetion my stops will still execute with server-held stops. Those things don’t happen often but I feel better knowing that I’m protected. That allows me to do things like, leave the house (gasp
) for a while without worrying about whether my PC is still connected & running.
June 8th, 2006
Mike
Thanks for the quick and helpful reply.
You might want to consider having Interactive Brokers as a backup broker. I did a thorough comparison a while back between IB and CT, and eventually settled on IB. It pays higher credit interest on account balances and has no software subscription fee (US data is free provided commissions exceed $30 monthly). Most importantly, IB allows the trading of more products (eg, Japanese stocks). I understand that orders are held on IB’s servers, too, but it doesn’t have as good a short stock list as CT.
June 8th, 2006
I like having my money in one place. But if I ever change brokers IB is at the top of my list