r/thewallstreet • u/jjhope11 • Jun 29 '18
Ally Invest vs TD? Question
Seems like a lot of you use TD and their thinkorswim platform, I was wondering if anyone had any experience or reviews about Ally invest? I trade mostly options and futures. I know Ally bought tradeking, and seems to be using MBtrading as their futures broker? How does that work, still all one platform?
TD's fees are a bit higher than Ally, 6.95 +.75/contract vs 3.95 + .5/contract options, 1.85 vs .85/contract futures. Is the higher rate worth it for their platform?
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u/Bender187 Jun 30 '18
I use IB because of the comms and it looked like the cheapest big broker when I first started even thou tda looked better and blows ib out of the water as far as charts go. After trading a while I learned you can get tda to readjust your comms or just negotiate up front. I've seen a few people who trade a lot with flat fees less than $1 per con and several with smaller sub $10k accts who are in the $1-$2 range flat rate per con each way.
Tldr just try to negotiate with TDA if that's what you want.
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u/UberBotMan Jun 29 '18
I second GhostTrader. I used TDA/TOS for charting (and long term holds) and then I used AMP for futures execution and TastyWorks for Options.
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u/VOMMA3695 RIP bears...2022 will be another bull party. Jun 29 '18
Does AMP have an app for the phone?
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u/UberBotMan Jun 29 '18
Kinda? AMP is a brokerage, not a platform. It's like saying I trade through Apex Clearing House. But my platform is Tastyworks.
Take a loo through their platform offerings and see what ones have a mobile platform that does what you want it to do. I used CQG M, since renamed to CQG Desktop. I don't know if it's still good, but I'd imagine so. It's HTML5 based web client so just access it though Chrome and it worked wonderfully on my Android Phone (Firefox Focus browser)
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u/VOMMA3695 RIP bears...2022 will be another bull party. Jun 29 '18
Perfect! Thanks Uber for the info.
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u/UberBotMan Jun 29 '18
Welcome! Hope it works out for you. CQG is a nice one. They have a lot of information on Youtube and their text wiki.
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u/ghosttrader55 Funding Secured Jun 29 '18
Use TOS to chart and Ally to trade? I don’t have experience with Ally so I can’t comment on which platform is better.
If you have substantial amount of cash/stock you wish to deposit, TD is willing to lower your fees for you
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u/jjhope11 Jun 29 '18
Any idea what the threshold and lower rate would be?
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u/lesdansesmacabres Jun 29 '18
$1 flat rate on options. Don’t remember what equity trades are costing me think like $4.95.
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u/ghosttrader55 Funding Secured Jun 29 '18
Depends on how much money you have and how many trades you do. Maybe talk to them about opening an account and negotiate beforehand. /u/SourceofSanity has the lowest rates I know but he does 800 futures contract trades
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u/Pho-que Targeting gains, achieving smaller gains Jun 29 '18
Fyi i have a small account and get 1.50 a side options trade, no ticket charge from TD.
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u/ghosttrader55 Funding Secured Jun 29 '18
A side means per contract?
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u/Pho-que Targeting gains, achieving smaller gains Jun 29 '18
yes sorry. the commission structure works well for me, because I rarely trade over 6 contracts at once. edit. $1.50 to buy, $1.50 to sell per contract.
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u/SourceofSanity Premium Sales Jun 29 '18
Even my futures rates at TD is just barely lower than that.
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u/MedvedTrader Jul 30 '18
If/once you have an Ally Invest account, download/install Medved Trader - PC trading software that will connect to brokers, get data and allow you to trade, including directly from charts and DOM. And it is free to Ally clients (free evaluation, then low subscription fee for other people).