My husband and I started trading live in CMEG in mid August, were not being charged ECN and other fees, which then CMEG began charging on Aug. 22. We were very surprised and angry at first, but after some research, their fees are reasonable and competitive, so we continued trading with them.
CMEG:
$115/mo for platform, including simulator
$0.0045-0.007 per share in all fees (based on our own calculation from statements)
<=1000 shares, $2.95/ticket
>1000 shares, $0.007/share
Sure Trader:
$104/mo for platform, $100/mo for simulator (simulator starts at $100/mo, depending on add-on's, it can cost more)
0.0000256% times total market value/dollar amount on each sell ticket (a short order, or a sell order of a long position; eg. I buy 60 shares of TSLA at $298/share, when I sell my 60 shares at $304/share, I pay 0.0000256% x 60 x $304 = $0.0047)
$0.000119/share on each sell ticket up to $5.95 (eg. with the above TSLA trade, I would pay additionally $0.000119 x 60 = $0.00714 when I sold it.)
<= 495 shares, $4.95/ticket
> 495 shares, $0.01/share
As you can see, CMEG is still better than SureTrader.
Lastly, for us, we prefer higher priced stocks because they help minimize the per share fees. Eg. With the above TSLA trade, I traded a total of 120 shares, fees will be between $0.0045 x 120 = $0.54 and $0.007 x 120 = $0.84; versus if I traded CRON with a total of 1600 shares, fees would be between $0.0045 x 1600 = $7.2 and $0.007 x 1600 = $11.2
Update:
As of today, 10/3/2018, we've lost about $400 in PL, but paid nearly $1000 in commissions and fees, we've kept our size small too after the first week and half. It's not working, we are closing the account and moving what's left of the money back. It makes sense, these offshore brokerage companies don't really want you to build up a small account easily and transfer it out to Interactive Broker or some other US firm.
