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LatteLazy

You always pay your broker.

You pay commission.

If you don't pay commission, you pay in bigger spreads they offer.

If the spreads aren't bigger then you're getting worse execution.

All anyone can do is understand HOW they are paying and use that information to minimise what they ultimately pay.

"Free" isn't a thing.

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I wish there was a way to democratize direct access to the exchanges and their APIs. As it is, it's really an insider's club.

Make your own exchange.

What does democratize mean in this use case? Running direct access to exchanges isn't cheap, someone has to pay. Most "democratizing" seems to end up being opaque fees that naive customers don't realize (i.e. Robinhood)

Interactive Brokers offers a cost plus commission structure, where your trades pay the exchange commission (or collect the rebate, if you are providing liquidity) and they just take on a ~$1 fee per trade on top. Very few "regular Joes" actually want that - what you don't realize is that exchange fees vary a LOT, each exchange easily has dozens of different rates depending on security, time of trade execution, the state of the order book at the time, and order type. Placing a market buy order when the book is sell-heavy? The exchange will actually pay you for that. Going the other way? That's a very expensive order. What if you take the order to a different exchange where the book is more balanced but the price is worse for you? It might make sense when you factor in the difference in commissions. This is why online brokerages exist, to abstract all of this complexity away.

The level of confusion among sophisticated users regarding ibkr's fee structure tells you how suitable transparent commissions are for most folk

"What do you mean I can't know how much I'll be charged until after I'm charged?"

"I made two identical orders and the second one cost twice as much!"

"What do you mean there is a way to tell me how much I'll be charged, but at the cost of getting filled at a worse price?" etc.

How exactly is your magic API going to allow you to transfer money to and from the exchanges? An exchange is in the business of running a matching engine, not accepting customer deposits.

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