CME Group - Review After 3 Months

[Brendon 146]

CMEG 3 month Review

 

I wanted to wait a few months before giving my opinion on CMEG. I have been using them since late February 2018 and am one of their initial client accounts. Let me preface this review by saying no broker is perfect but if you are using SureTrader...CMEG is far better overall and a solid choice for small accounts learning to trade with no PDT rule. Their client service is more than happy to talk/email you on any concerns. Who is to say other brokers do not experience the same issues from time to time?

 

I will begin with some issues over the months I have experienced:

 

1. Orders getting executed (I have experienced times where I could not close out of a position and had to call/email them to manually do it). This lasted for a few hours, sometimes until the next day but usually was fixed overnight. ~2-3 times since February. I was not given a reason why this occurred. Also they do not reimburse any losses incurred for being unable to close out.

 

2. Changes to their margin policy (without email notification or a phone call on updates to their trading rules). For example, some of my hotkey scrips use % of Buying Power. On a few mornings CMEG had updated their margin allowed and the requirements behind usage. As a result my orders were not getting filled and I had no idea why! Rule parameters could vary from how much margin is allowed with long/short positions/per stock price/maintenance requirement per share...etc. I had to troubleshoot scripts with a real/demo account to understand what exactly was going on...alongside email/phone calls to the broker. A good habit was to test orders in pre-market with the provided demo account. Just because you were able to swing with 4:1 margin without liquidation or use full margin short at the open on XYZ stock priced at X dollars does not mean you can the next day. It's best to check their policy regularly or even better just call to see if there was an update. There was no mass email to clients for rule changes. However, I believe they now inform clients by email for most updates. Excellent!

 

4. This broker is overseas so be prepared to face international calling charges. However CMEG did help and credit my account for me unknowingly incurring international phone charges. They are not toll-free. They also credited back some of their platform fees that I incurred for the inconvenience of any changes that affected my trading which was very nice. A sign of goodwill and respect to clients. SureTrader refused to credit me back their withdrawal fee $40 after having me wait 3 weeks due to an error on their end to receive my money...I will never go back.

 

3. Platform software updates - they should inform clients of all manual changes, i.e the Mobile DAS App Order Route had to be manually changed to be able to login on your phone. This had to be changed to route 5016 from 5010 when they released an updated desktop client. Probably just an oversight but I had to take hours out of my day to figure this out, work with DAS tech support, and groupthink with BB members. Also it is best to talk to DAS tech support for any issues related to all licensed DAS platforms, both mobile and desktop. I did not expect CMEG to know everything about DAS as they are a broker and license the platform.

 

4. Email responses can vary, sometimes less than an hour, sometimes more than a day depending on the situation. Sometimes their phone number doesn't connect through, and I need to call a few times, and I think some of the email signatures use an outdated phone number?

 

Something I'm not sure about that Lee W brought to my attention. I think IB can set up or the direct platform license from DAS has a risk feature you can right click on your account and set up risk parameters, i.e Max Loss, Max Loss Per trade. Not sure on this but CMEG does not offer that feature with their DAS license. Would be a nice feature for new traders to use though.

 

I listed these concerns so CMEG can eliminate them. I am not criticizing their services and am 99% of the time pleased and comfortable using them as my broker. I often email them with suggestions on improvements and compliments. If I am able to work with these issues as a new trader you can as well and should use CMEG.

 

Overall

 

The $2.95 per trade promo that Andrew got us is probably the best you can get out there, unless you scale out 10 times, then IB may be the better choice if you have the account balance, or perhaps Speedtrader. This makes new traders less worried about commissions and breaking even and more focused on trading the setup. SureTrader charges $5 per trade in the U.S. and this makes it very stressful to manage, trust me.

 

Performance has been getting steadily better (orders have been getting filled without issues for well over a month now). Closing positions has not been an issue for over a month as well. Excellent so far.

 

FREE SIMULATOR, when you open an account! SureTrader does NOT offer that.

 

The executions are very fast.

 

Short inventory is excellent (they route through IB and seem to have even more available sometimes)

 

I have not had any crashes of the platform. Windows 10 Pro.

 

They do not restrict margin with many stocks, only in very very rare cases is margin restricted. I think in 3 months I've only seen 1 stock restricted and that was LFIN lol R.I.P. This is a huge advantage to build up small accounts over other brokers like SureTrader and IB. You need at least 5K buying power to make profits over these $2.95 commission fees on most stocks we trade. With 4:1 margin for <2.5K balance and 6:1 for >2.5K that's not hard to maintain and slowly grow on 1-2 trades daily A+ setups.

 

The growing pains of their risk/margin policy changes has settled down. I think they compromised what they can manage and what traders feel comfortable using. It has been over a month I think, since the last big change, and I like what their rules offer! Makes new traders at ease. Rules are available on their website to view.

 

I can pretty much use margin on almost all stocks I trade without issue. I don't trade stocks less than $10 too much and their rules tend to be for very low priced penny stocks. So if you trade from Fernando's watch list you may not be able to use too much margin.

 

Also be aware that in the past you may have been able to swing positions using full margin, that has since been reduced to 2:1 margin, you get an email warning around ~3:48PM and ~3:53PM their system automatically brings you within that limit. When I asked, forced liquidation was not a part of their procedures but came into effect without me being made aware...so it's best to double check their rules weekly or you can learn the hard way. Remember they sometimes update their rules without emailing clients. If you were able to swing with margin in the past, give them a call to make sure you stay within guidelines come market close...if you're caught in a bad trade but like the daily swing. This really doesn't matter because you shouldn't be swinging with much margin anyway right?

 

All in all, I would continue to use this broker and recommend them to new traders wanting to build up their accounts, learn to trade, practice in a sim for free, and use an excellent and tested platform. They are constantly improving and love to receive constructive feedback. It can only get better from here as they develop. Oh yeah wait times on the phone are usually pretty low, couple minutes at most, unlike some other brokers and their service team remembers you!

 

Thanks Andrew for working with CMEG to help us small account holders be able to day trade along side the big boys.

[Robert H 453]

Thank you for taking the time to write such an honest and comprehensive review!

[Brad 1]

Thanks, Brendon!

[Benjamin 0]

Thank you Brandon for taking time and writing this up! Very useful and insightful. One question that I left in my mind is whether you or anyone else ever tried to cash out the fund from CME and how was the experience?

 

One of the fear is when you grow your account after months of hard work or  when you want to cash out some profit how they deal with it. I know for the fact that there were instances where off shore brokers prevented and blocked a client (sometimes with arrays of ridiculous and BS excuses and sometimes with merely not responding at all) when he wanted to cash out his account after months of building it up. Don't want to send negative vibe, but probably it is better to cash out every once in a while and don't leave a considerable sum of money somewhere outside your actual living jurisdiction.

 

Thanks

[Brendon 146]

Hi Ben,

 

I have not yet, but did inquire all the steps needed and options. It seems you can wire money out or they can mail you a physical check within a few days. Once I do withdraw money I will share that feedback as well.

[Rich H 3]

I’ve had the issue of not being able to close a position. I sent them a video of the trade. And I called them. They had to close the position manually. But they did refund me.  This happened about three weeks ago and they promised me it would never happen again.

 

They called me Friday afternoon to make sure that my upgrade of the platform went smoothly. I found that to be very nice.

[Troy.Hollon 0]

Awesome review. I am also curious about withdrawing money from CME. It seems like there will be no issues, but you never really know. Thanks for taking the time to write this up.

[yamihm0v 0]

that is nice thank you for your brief about the CME .

[vancehunter 0]

Thank you, Brandon, for this thorough, and current, review. Especially since I'm about to fund my CMEG account! 🙂

I feel more confident now about CMEG.

[Shelilyn 0]

Thank you so much for this contribution, Brendon, your comprehensive review is most appreciated! Your review definitely makes me feel more comfortable opening my account with CMEG.

[daniel lindegren 27]

Not being able to close your positions - how is this not a deal breaker for you guys?

[traderTKM 5]

Thanks for the review Brendon!

Anyone with more feedback, please provide it regarding....

1. How to set up the account/a trade to prevent great losses if their platform refuses to close a position.

2. Your experience pulling money out after making gains

[Skye 28]

Anyone considering signing up with this broker should be aware that there is a serious problem with shorting stocks with SSR. I have been with them a few month and am finding that I cannot short stocks much of the time, to the point that I really can't trade effectively. See Robbies post here:

 

[Miguel Angel 65]

Thanks for the heads up fullmoonguru!

[Fernando Samora 11]

Hey guys just read the review and some forums posts. Any new developments concerning SSR? Seems to be a good choice to avoid PDT Rule, since IB enforces it on Mexican residents. 

 

Would love some feedback from anyone currently using it