When it comes to non-pdt Brokers your options are very limited I have an account with a non-pdt broker and it's not an account that I really use very often I only use it when I'm doing small account challenges like in 2017 when I do a small account challenge of trading with 583.15 I used one of these offshore Brokers So what I want to do is I want to break down for you some of the info about the broker that I use and by the way, I don't have any affiliate relationship with them, so if you use them, that's fine. If you don't use them, it really doesn't make any difference to me. and in fact, for 95 percent of you, this broker is probably not going to be the right fit. So what are the things that you want to know about it? Well, let's talk about it.

We're going to talk about the minimum account size, the fees and commissions, the platform you can use, availability of shorts, the hours that you can trade there, and I'll answer a few other questions that some of you guys have asked about non-pdt Brokers The name of the broker that I have an account with is Cmeg Capital Markets Elite Group and they're located in the Cayman Islands This is the broker that a lot of U.S residents will use. What's interesting is that if you go to their website, the first thing you'll see is this pop-up that says we do not solicit U.S residents We are not a registered Us broker dealer and they have to say that I think that's the world. They have to say that of course, if they were a registered Us broker dealer, they'd be required to enforce the 25 000 PDT minimum amount. So they make that very clear.

One of the things for International: Traders If you're an International Trader A non-us resident, you may want to open an account so you can trade the US market. and if you went to any U.S Broker dealer and a lot of them will open accounts for International Traders Well, you'll find out that you are also required to maintain that 25 000 minimum. It doesn't matter what country you are from or what you live in, those broker dealers enforce that rule upon anyone that opens an account there. So for International Traders you actually have a few more choices.

When it comes to broker dealers that do not enforce the PDT rule, the broker dealer that you could look at is trade zero. Trade zero is nice because they have us a commission structure where as long as you use a limit orders you have no commissions, you pay no fees, and then if you're taking so in other words, this is the maker taker structure with commissions. So if you put an order out it doesn't execute immediately, then you're adding liquidities to the market. The broker dealer receives a rebate and so in exchange they're able to basically give you free commissions for those types of Trades.

But if you're using marketable orders, where as soon as you press the order, that the order gets filled immediately, that means you're taking liquidity and you do pay. So a lot of International Traders will use Trade Zero because their commission structure is more favorable than CME Gene So in this episode, we're going to really talk about Cmeg because that's the broker that Most Traders are asking me questions about if you're interested in Trade Zero. I'll do another episode where I talk specifically about Brokers for international Traders and Trade Zero will be on that list. Okay, so Cmeg, let's start at the top.

What is the minimum account size? The minimal cap size is 500, so you can open an account and start trading with 500.. obviously at a US Broker dealer, twenty five thousand dollars is a lot of money to come up with and I kind of have this belief that a broker like Cmeg is a tool and it has risk and you have to do the risk reward analysis yourself to decide whether or not it's worth it. As I mentioned at the beginning of the video, I Don't think it will be worth it for most Traders The account size being really small, is great, but the fees are higher and that's where you're going to find a problem. But let's just talk about the account size for a second.

more. So, one of the things that I often think about is that as a beginner Trader you should always trade in a simulator before you put real money on one. You've got to prove profitability because once you open an account with a broker like Cmeg, the commissions and the fees are going to start adding up right away and those are going to start eating away at the balance of your account. especially if you start with a small account.

So I I Think that trading a simulator is first and foremost and then funding the real money account. and I do like the idea of funding smaller accounts because look, you're going to be a beginner. Trader Trading with real money for the first time, you're gonna make some beginner mistakes and doesn't it make sense to do that with a 500 or a thousand dollar account than with a twenty five thousand dollar account. A beginner mistake could be you mean to buy a hundred shares, but accidentally you buy ten thousand and if you have the buying power that or is going to execute and just like that, you could lose five or six grand, right? Twenty percent of your account is gone.

Now that's not gonna happen if you have a smaller account size and you don't have as much buying power. So I sort of feel like small account Brokers or Brokers that cater to small count Traders and non-pdt Traders There is a real value in using that tool. Again, you have to make the decision for yourself whether or not it makes sense. So from account size perspective, your minimum account size is 500.

That's contrasted against the minimum account size in the US which is 25 000. All right, so that's a huge difference. Now there's another difference. and it's leverage in the United States We get four times leverage.

So if you fund a 25 000 account, you have four times buying power. Which means you could buy a hundred thousand dollars worth of stock as a day trade. And that's what I mean Where a beginner Trader with a twenty five thousand dollar account can make some pretty big mistakes. But at Cmeg they actually give you six times leverage.

so you've got six times leverage. So with a 500 deposit, you could trade with up to three thousand dollars. So three thousand dollars of of stock you could buy. However, what's interesting is and a lot of us Brokers will do this as well.

They they restrict margin so a US broker will show you a stock maybe like I don't know Ford and they'll say yeah. You can go ahead and buy a hundred thousand dollars of Ford stock and you can use your full four times leverage on that. but a small cap stock. you know, a petty stock.

They'll say you can't use any of your leverage on that. or maybe you can only use 50 of your leverage. so you could only buy fifty thousand dollars instead of a hundred thousand Cmeg is the same. And the reason Brokers both Us and International uh, it enforce these different margin restrictions is ultimately because they're trying to manage risk.

They don't want to have a bunch of traders that use four times leverage and go short on something like GameStop for instance and end up blowing up their account and then owing money back to the broker, Because that's what happens. if you trade on Leverage and you lose, you owe that money back to the broker. Now, naturally, the ability of a US broker to enforce that certainly a big broker is going to be a lot better than most likely an international broker, but it's still something you have to take seriously. So, minimum account size 500 versus 25 000 Leverage six times versus four times.

So this all sounds appealing. Well, let's talk now about the fees. The fees at Cmag are substantial. You're going to pay fees when you put money in, you're going to pay fees when you take money out, wiring fees in, wiring fees out, and you're going to pay monthly platform fees.

That's your fee to use the trading software, which we'll talk about in a second. It's usually between 100 and 150 dollars depending on which platform you use. They have a couple options, so you're going to pay your monthly platform fees, and then you're going to pay commissions on every trade you take. So essentially, in your first month, you're already definitely out of pocket.

at least 150 bucks or 125 dollars. Even if you don't take any trades at all, that's just your platform fee. And well, don't forget about I guess the wiring in fee. So if you actually started with 500, by the time those fees are taken out, you're already down to like 350 bucks.

So ultimately it's a 500 minimum. but you really need to put in a little bit more than that. Now the commissions are. This is a sticky subject because in the last year there was a change in the way the commissions were calculated with us Brokers every Us broker that I've ever had.

When you send an order, let's say you send a Buy order for 2 000 shares. What sometimes happens is that order gets filled in like four or five different executions. So just the way your order gets sent out to the market and gets back with fills can have like five six executions whenever it is. and that's fine.

You know you bought that many shares and you just filled at slightly different prices through different market makers. Well, Cmeg has now said that you pay 2.99 for each execution, not just for one trade for each execution. Although they say on their website up to a maximum of 12.99 per trade. But let's be honest, 12.99 per trade.

If you're buying a hundred shares or 200 shares, that's a lot of profit to be giving in the form of commission. So the fees really do add up. And the fee, you know. So you've got your your fees for um, for execution, you've got your platform fees, and then of course you have fees when you borrow shares to the short side.

And so for that reason, the way I sort of think of Cmeg is that it's a tool that is very expensive to use. So if you're going to use it, you need to be pretty confident that you're going to be able to maximize on it, right? that you already have a strategy that you know you trade well because you've been practicing in a simulator that you're going to use this tool for a limited period of time while you build up your account so that you can then fund an account with a US broker dealer where you might have free commissions like with TD Ameritrade or you know, Charles Schwab these Brokers E-Trade or where your commissions will be based on per trade, not per execution. So you know this is this is the reason why. Honestly I Think that for a lot of Traders now that there's free commissions that a lot of these Brokers there's a very compelling reason to just trade with those Brokers with a smaller cash account.

So you trade with a cash account so you can trade as much as you want, but when you run out of cash, you got to wait for the settlement period. That's probably going to be a better way to get started because it gives you the chance to still gain experience trading with real money, but you know your fees are much more manageable. It's no big deal if you take a couple weeks off, it just feels like that's safer. Again, the fact is, a lot of people still use Cmeg because they feel the value offering for them is compelling.

The risk to reward ratio makes sense when it comes to the trading platform. There are two popular options: You've got Sterling Trader and you've got Das Trader. They are both very similar. They're lightweight software that runs on your machine.

This is Windows based software and they've both been around for a really long time. It's kind of like comparing a Toyota and a Honda their economy. They're very utilitarian. They work well, they're priced similarly, they function basically in the same way.

I Have used both with real money and they're both fine. So whichever one you use is your call, they're priced similarly. so if you're already comfortable with one of them, then just continue to use that. If you know you like the other one, then use that one.

It doesn't really matter if you're coming from a broker like think or Swim. it's a lot different than think or Swim. It's more similar to E-Trade but in any case, it's software that is very straightforward to learn how to use it, so that shouldn't be a big hurdle really for anyone. So the those are your two choices: Das or Sterling When it comes to availability of shares to borrow, Cmeg actually has a pretty good inventory, so that's something that's nice for short sellers.

Although when it comes to the top, Brokers for short selling, Cmeg is not on it top. Brokers For short selling include Cobra Guardian Center Point and Trade Zero Cmegs. The fees are a little expensive on the borrows and they don't have as many locates, so it's not going to be on the top four. Uh, the fifth would probably be interactive brokers, so it's not even on the top five.

But again, if it's a strategy to use a little bit, it may work. If you're an international Trader and you're an active short seller, then that's just another reason to use Trade Zero instead of CME Jeep The trading hours of Cmeg have recently changed from 4 30 in the morning to 7 30 p.m Eastern at night. They used to be smaller trading hours, which was really tough, especially during the hot Market of 2020 2021, even tapering in 2022 because I don't think you were able to start trading before 7 A.M So that was sort of tough. But anyways, now you can trade as early as 4 30 in the morning if you really want to, and there's not a lot going on then, but you know there are headlines that come out at 4am.

4 35 5 36 top and bottom of the hour all the way to the open. so you could trade pre-market You could trade hour after hours. And naturally, Cmeg being an international broker does accept International Traders So if you're from anywhere outside the US and you want to open an account there, there's a good chance you'll be able to. They, of course do accept U.S residents.

As they say on their website, they just want to be very clear that they don't solicit U.S residents because they're not a U.S registered broker dealer. So at the end of the day, you have to make this what's right for you I Feel like my job is to inform you of these various tools that are at your disposal, but you have to make the decision from a risk reward standpoint. Personally: I Really think that there's such a compelling reason just to use free commission Brokers When you're getting started, that's really the safer place to start. You've got no commissions, you've got no platform fees, you've got insurance because they're Us broker dealers.

It's easy to fund the accounts. You know it's easy to get the money out. It just seems like that's the way to go. But when I did my small account challenge I was in a place where I knew, give me this tool and let me see what I can do with it.

I had so many Traders saying Ross you know you've been trading with these bigger accounts plus you know 25 000 and up for a long time. Does your strategy even work with a small account? and I wanted to prove that I believed it did I wanted to put my money where my mouth is and actually do it and I did I was excited to do that but you know I hit the ground running I had the strategy I'd already been trading it I knew what I was doing. so I was able to make the most of the tool and and really use it to its fullest potential. So you know I think there is a case before that if you've got a lot of experience in the simulator or even with real money and for some reason you had to take money out to do something and now you just want to use a small account again, you have to make the decision what's right for you.

So if you found this helpful at all, please hit the thumbs up. if you subscribe to the channel, that'd be awesome too. And as always, leave questions and comments down below and keep in mind that some of the uh, the the figures that I gave you in terms of commissions and platform fees those are subject to change. so you go over their website and check the latest at any time that you like.

All right again. hope you found this helpful and we'll see you for the next episode! Right here.