Generic Trade Review (discount futures broker)

Just thought I'd give a quick review of a broker I've been using for the last month.

Generic Trade (http://www.generictrade.com/) are an 'introducing broker' for Ironbeam (http://ironbeam.com/). As you will see they are a good option for those of us not trading big volume that just want decent commission, minimum costs and no frills.

Commission
59cents for everything per contract per side. For AUD exchange/clearing fees 1.62, so all inclusive costs per side is $2.21 or $4.42 per round trip, everyone gets this, no min volume requirements

Platform/Data
Fire tip. No frills, if you like your bells and whistles you probably wont like it. If you just want something that is easy to use and functions well you will probably love it like me. It says platform costs $59 per month on website, but as of yet I have not been charged and been with them just over a month. No other data fees, standard US/Eurex products.

left click for limit order, right click for stop order. Bracket orders, static dom etc.

Here is a look:



Min Account Balance

None

Day trading margin
one quarter of full margin (For AUD is about $500 per contract)

Custom Service
Have never needed to call them. I trade Asian session, have emailed them a few times during Asian session and they have always emailed back probably within an hour.

Any other questions let me know.

Who's data is it hav?

Thanks Hav, appreciate you taking the time to post the review here.
They don't have the products I trade but thanks nonetheless.

CanOz said:

Who's data is it hav?

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No idea! lol My technology IQ is probably in the single digits, so you may be able to understand this better than me (sounds like ironbeam have their own feed?)

http://www.generictrade.com/technology/

captain black said:

Thanks Hav, appreciate you taking the time to post the review here.
They don't have the products I trade but thanks nonetheless.

Click to expand...

No problem!

I emailed Generic about some questions in this thread and some via PM, here are the responses

RE: Data

"... the data provided is not like other data vendors since we use Certigo for all technology and they offer direct, pure unfiltered data direct from the exchange trading engine. Since they are the data handlers and platform vendor (as well as own the network and all hardware/software), the data coming into the platform does not need to be reduced in any way as it does for popular platforms like Ninja Trader."

RE: $60 International wire fee

"As for the wire fee; unfortunately this is more than a domestic wire since the bank has additional costs for international wires and passes them to us; you will find that other US futures firms charge a similar fee. Many of our international clients have domestic bank accounts (including stock trading accounts) to which they transfer funds and therefore bypassing the international fee."

I have made a withdrawal by check (which is free) last week, will update with how long it takes to receive it to Australia.

RE: Commissions

"Please note that even though there are firms charging less commission for higher volume traders, it is generally in tiers and not exclusive of other transactional costs (proprietary brokerage fees, processing, etc). When developing our structure, we used the leading online discount firm Interactive Brokers as a reference. They offer lower commission as you trade in greater volume, but the savings are not retroactive and only for the tier (i.e. trades 2000-2500 are charged a lower rate) and we averaged the costs after a client traded 10,001 trades in a month and it was $.59. We also attract many traders that can receive a lower rate because they do not wish to be concerned about hidden fees or being hit with ‘low volume’ fees if they do not trade much one month; which can be substantial."

RE: Markets Offered

"Currently we offer the major markets traded through the CMEGroup (CME, CBOT, NYMEX, COMEX), ICE, MGE and KCBOT which you may find here: http://www.generictrade.com/commissions/margins

We will be offering soon through our new Firetip platform, all markets traded at these exchanges, which are remarkably abundant. http://www.cmegroup.com and www.theice.com and include more foreign index markets and all currency pairs."

RE: Platform Fee
Just to update, I have been charged the $59 a month platform fee, so website is correct.

Edit: something else I didn't realise about the platform, you can trade from the charts, if you're into that kind of thing...

Thanks hav for the review.
Can you tell me what their reports are like? Is it as detailed as Interactive Brokers? Certainly very cheap. I am a high volume trader with IB but my commissions would still be higher.

payday said:

Thanks hav for the review.
Can you tell me what their reports are like? Is it as detailed as Interactive Brokers? Certainly very cheap. I am a high volume trader with IB but my commissions would still be higher.

Click to expand...

Sorry, didn't see this post.

Reporting is only an email with trade/transactions for that day and in text format within the email body. Looks like you can only get a report for a single day too on the platform and there is only one standard report in a not very useful format. PM me your an email if you would like me to send you an example. Reporting is actually so lacking I'm wondering if I am missing something (which is entirely possible).

havaiana said:

...I have made a withdrawal by check (which is free) last week, will update with how long it takes to receive it to Australia...

Click to expand...

13 days

havaiana said:

13 days

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+28 days clearing with CBA...

Starting to wish I didn't have such a big weekend