Since you mentioned moving from TRAD as a backup broker as well, here is some data that might help you with that decision.
Personally, I look at two main variables when picking an FCM...
1) how much excess Net Capital do they have?
2) what are the ratios of that excess net capital when compared to their peers across two variables
a) net requirement to excess
b) excess to segregated assets
In the futures markets, all client funds are "commingled", even if segregated from FCM operations; which means that if I blow up my account and the FCM doesn't auto-liquidate fast enough because their risk management/checks failed, the losses come from all of the seg funds first.
The buffer against all clients covering the risk failures and losses, is the existence of excess net capital, followed by the net capital of the FCM itself. Thus I care to know how much excess is available when compared to net capital and client funds. Greater relevance is placed on the excess to client funds % metric, as that determines IMO the worst risk case scenario.
I personally prefer a min of 50% to net capital and 2% to seg funds. Ideally, 100%+ and 5%+ for what I consider a solid and stable FCM. the alternative with anything less is to ensure that you draw weekly any profits and keep in the account only what you need to trade the size you need a 1.5 SD draw-down (if you ACH fees are high specially)
My personal favorites are below, along with the reasons, and anything with an * I have accounts with ..
- *Interactive Brokers (Institutional level safety, even if they are a pain with their margin calculations, sweep funds from futures to securities account automatically and setup a longer term portfolio)
- *Wedbush (being a client before the name, when they were crossland.)
- PhillipCapital (specially if trading Asian markets)
- FCstone/ADM (if trading aggs, the access to their research is valuable)
- *AMP futures (fast and reliable, but keep only what you need and sweep excess often IMO)
I hope the above helps. good luck.
the data was gathered from the following site:
http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/finan ... /index.htm