Commissions - Watch What You Pay

After I work out which clearing member is financially strong enough to go with, then I have to look at how many complaints the broker has against them.

If the broker does not have too many complaints then I start trying to figure out how much they are going to charge for commissions.

The commissions should be easy, but it’s probably the hardest part.  I understand for every dollar they can get out of you over the long run, if you do thousands of trades, it really adds up.

But it really don’t like it when they are not straight with you about what they want to charge.

Many futures brokers will quote you a cheap rate then add on a bunch of stuff.

My worst experience was with Alaron, they quoted me a rate then just didn’t give it to me.

I called and complained when I got my statement and my broker said he would fix it.  After several more calls he said he fixed it, my next statement showed he lowered it about half what he said he would, so I was still paying too much.

Now I have all these over charged trades and he was going to fix those too only they would take more time.  Lots more phone calls and he lowered the rate to almost what I was originally quoted.

Then there are the fees to watch out for, make sure you ask and get:

• No ticket charges or minimum order size fees


• No charge for unexecuted or cancelled orders


• No monthly trading platform fees


• No minimum monthly trading quotas or inactivity fees


• No monthly account fees


• No quarterly account fees

If you find fees call your broker and complain or else you will just keep paying them.

All the problems I have had were with futures brokers, stock brokers I have never seen extra charges on my statements.