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MB Trading review 2010: decent commissions and excellent trading platform
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- $4.95 flat-rate per trade commission for limit and market regular hours orders for up to 10,000 shares
- Options commission: $0.95 per contract, per side, and no minimum ticket charge
- Mutual funds: $12.95 flat rate for no-load funds
- Bonds: $12.95 flat rate
- Futures: $0.95 per contract
- Pink Sheets & OTC BB: $8.95 per trade, no limit to number of shares
- Forex: $2.95 per $100,000 traded
- Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, Forex, futures, bonds, ETFs
MB Trading offers following accounts: individual, joint, entity accounts, cash and margin accounts, and IRAs.
MBTrading.com trading software, called MBT Navigator, is a stand-alone (non-browser based) application - you have to download and install it.
Because it's not browser-based, it offers much richer features than most other trading platforms
and many bells and whistles you would expect from professional trading software. Barron's has consistently ranked
MB Trading at or near the top of online brokers for trading technology.
Unfortunately, MB Trading is not offering a way to trade in the browser, which means that you always need computer
that has MBT Navigator software installed in order to trade. This is a major limitation, especially if you want to trade at
work (wink-wink): your IT department would most likely not like the idea of you installing software on your work
computer.
- Good, flat-rate commissions for market and limit orders (regular hours only and below 10,000 shares)
- Forex trading is available
- Excellent trading tools
- No inactivity fees
- Surcharge of $0.005 per share for extended hours, AND shares over the 10,000, AND orders
executed using the Reserve, Discretionary, or Pegged (Coming Soon) order types
- $30 annual fee for IRAs
- There is a $0.01 per share fee to exercise options contracts
- $2,000 minimum to open cash account, $5,000 for margin account
- No browser-based trading - you have to be at your own computer to trade
MB Trading is targeting professional, active traders with low commissions and powerful, versatile trading software.
But together with few educational materials, it does not make MB Trading a good
brokerage for new investors.
Because of annual IRA fee we can't recommend MB Trading for an IRA account. If you want to be able to trade
away from your computer, at work for example, this firm is not for you.
MB Trading has no inactivity fees, however it charges $0.005 per share for extended hours trading. This could
be a deal-breaker for many people and most
online brokerage firms don't charge this fee.
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