Generic Trade Review: A Viable Low-Cost Futures & Options Trading Alternate
Following the financial crisis of 2008-09, the level of confidence in the options, FX, and futures commission merchant trading landscape was badly dented.
Futures & options traders struggled to gain enough courage to jump back into the saddle and get back into the race.
Their challenge has always been:
- Finding the right brokerage firm/FCM to partner with
- Getting access to the right trading tools and technology
- Receiving a balance between fees charged and service expectations
With over 20 years of experience to lean on, Generic Trade seems to fit all those bills with great ease!
Why Would You Want to Consider Generic Trade?
If you are a futures and options trader looking for a straightforward vehicle to conduct your trades, you might want to give Generic Trade a closer look.
The company bills itself as a “no bells, no whistles” service provider whose sole aim is to “focus on the needs of the online futures and options trader.”
From our review, it seems that they are doing a great job of it.
Image Source: Generic Trade
As a member of Generic Trade, you’ll find yourself avoiding most of the restrictions that would be enforced upon you by some of the company’s larger (and more “prominent”) peers, including:
- The need to maintain unrealistic minimum account balances
- Unnecessary enforcement of minimum trading volume requirements
- Penalties for non-conformance with these requirements
What’s also refreshing is the fact that, in addition to comparatively lower fees, the company’s transparent fee structure means that you save yourself a lot of needless negotiations and haggling with salespeople and brokers each time you place a trade.
Since there are no “multi-tiered” fee structures, professionals and “casual” traders qualify for the same low rate – 59 cents a trade!
More Than Just Lower Fees…
One of the most talked about concerns, expressed by traders and investors alike, is around the stability and solvency of their trading partners.
When you put your money to work through a broker/FCM, you want assurances that your money is safe in their hands.
With Generic, that’s exactly what you get.
Generic Trades is registered with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the federal government agency whose mission is “…to protect the market users and their funds, consumers, and the public from fraud, manipulation, and abusive practices related to derivatives and other products that are subject to the Commodity Exchange Act.”
So, that means you are dealing with a credible partner.
What we also find great about Generic is that it is also a member of the future’s industry regulatory body, the National Futures Association (NFA).
This means that, as the industry watchdog, the NFA closely watches the policies and practices of each of its members and provides regular (daily!) updates to the CFTC.
With such financial and regulatory compliance monitoring systems in place, we are fairly confident that traders’ interests are well safeguarded.
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Technology Matters
Trading today is all about technology – speed and reliability – and Generic clients seem to get the best of both worlds here too!
The company has continued to keep abreast with online trading trends and technologies.
When it comes to connecting to CME Globex, Generic has a co-location agreement in place, which puts its clients as close (physically) to the action as possible.
That allows Generic clients to benefit from the lowest port-to-port latency connection of less than 500 nanoseconds.
In many trades, speed matters … because even a single nanosecond can be the difference between making a windfall and losing it all!
Therefore, the company has also invested heavily in redundant, cross-country data center technology, which gives clients a high degree of service assurance in the event that there is a service outage at a primary data center.
Traders can also access the same level of sophisticated trading tools on all platforms, including Macs, iOS devices, and Windows-based desktop and mobile devices.
Plenty of Choices
For the low prices it charges its clients, Generic Trade offers plenty of choices to futures & options traders.
In addition to the price attraction, you should consider Generic Trade if you are looking for:
- Choice of trading accounts: individual, joint, partnership, corporate, trust and IRA
- 24×7 tech support
- Integrated trading technology and tools
- Professionally-designed, downloadable as well as web-enabled platforms
- Blazing fast connection speeds
- High-end trading analytics support that offers a multitude of indicators for informed trading decisions
- 1-click trading, trading matrix, bracket trading, and depth trader
- Multiple devices supported (desktops, mobile, Mac, iO, and more)
- Multiple trading platforms: Generic Trader Online, Generic Trader Professional, and mobile application, depending on your preference and trading needs
Our Assessment
If you are a trader looking for a platform that comes with great service, leading-edge technology, highly intelligent trading tools, robust financial stability, and trading security, then Generic Trade is definitely worth exploring.
You’ll be paying for the trade, not for the frills that other similar platforms wrap under the guise of higher fees.
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