> Interactive brokers is what, a few bucks a trade anyway?
IB Commission is $0.005 per share, with a minimum of $1 total. The problem with IB for regular folks is a bunch of monthly fees if you don't have enough activity each month.
True, I forgot about the extra monthly fees -- though you can just use free, 20 minute delayed data. I also forgot that the US is so cheap -- I pay $6 each way with IB on the ASX.
Smallcap market here is fun (read: it's pretty stupid). Otherwise, I'm just more used to reading Australian news, more local people on twitter, etc. It's just more in my 'sphere', and I know a lot more about the local companies than I do about the U.S. counterparts.
I have an IB account, but even setting that up to trade properly requires owning a company. I did wake up early and trade the US options market a little while ago & that was pretty great. Might play with some algorithmic stuff I have that works on the ASX, but on the US, just need a load more data.
There are German IB resellers (e.g. CapTrader) who have slightly higher per trade minimums (2$) and commission (~0.01$ per share), but absolutely no monthly minimum. As I'm not doing trading, but only holding onto some Vanguard ETFs, that's rather sweet (for me).
Except Austrian tax laws, which will make me close all that anyway...