What platform do you use for your personal trades?
1. I am sure quite a few of the monkeys on here maintain personal stock portfolios. 'curious what tools most people use & why? (e.g. TD Ameritrade, Scotttrade, Etrade, other banks' trading accounts, brokerage accounts where you make trades by calling in, etc).
As far as I can tell, ScottTrade is the cheapest right now @ $7/online trade.
2. Also, does access to an IPO depend on which broker you use?
Sorry if these are basic questions.. I would rather ask than lose money due to ignorance.
bump..
I'm currently using robinhood
I see.. Its a free stock trading platform, right? Any caveats or things to be aware of before using it?
Also, is it only available on iOS?
Yah, don't think you can short
Yeah here’s a caveat: they forgot to code for the leap year so the entire fucking platform was down yesterday for the entire market rally. Full day of no access to trading. Other than that happening every so often its fucking mint
Username and response are fitting. Anyway--I don't personally trade but I know some people that use Trade King (4.95 a trade)
I use Fidelity. $7.95 per stock trade (on the cheaper side) and I personally like the functionality/setup of the site/app better than TD (where I was previously). Also has a solid selection of bonds, ETFs, Mutual funds, if desired.
Some IPOs are available to retail brokers and i've seen a few on Fidelity, but as far as I know, its not typical. Also, larger clients tend to be the ones who get the allocation.
'looks like I cannot give any SBs. 'appreciate the answer, though. Thanks
Schwab for ira
Robinhood for personal trading
I have etrade for my IRA and robinhood for the get in get out trades.
Robinhood is awesome because obviously the whole no commission thing. The only downside to it, is if you're interested in trading pink sheets, they don't do that. And they're a little slow on updating new releases. A company I've been holding for a while just reorganized, did a reverse stock split, and is trading under a new ticker. This all went into action yesterday, and even today they don't have the updated ticker and the shares are still being held under the old ticker.
Also, They don't have the more "advanced" trade types. They just added in stops and GTC orders, but outside of that, that's it.
The platform is fairly basic, which I think you should be expecting given that it has $0 commissions. But I just use yahoo finance and etrade for all the charting and research and then just place the trades on robinhood.
Right now it's iPhone only and Android is in beta so you'll have to request access.
If you have any specific questions though, feel free to ask. I've been using it since the beta on iphone.
Thanks Skinnayyy .. 'appreciate the detailed response.. sucks that I am out SBs.
Looks like I will have to wait to get on robinhood for now. 'switched to an android a few months ago..
Sign up for the beta. I don't know how long it takes or what you have to do in order to be accepted for it but they are still accepting applications for it. My future brother in law just signed up yesterday.
Also, no one answered this yet, but not only does it depend on the broker, but it also depends on how much money you have in your accounts. I know etrade has access to some IPOs but in order to get in on them you need to have a decent account.
For the big IPOs like Facebook, Alibaba, etc, Fidelity was allocating to accounts with over $500k (if I remember correctly).
Exactly. If you have a few grand in your account, even the small IPOs you don't get access to. The threshold for every IPO is different as well so I didn't want to throw numbers out there.
I use Interactive Brokers. Basically, for anyone who is slightly financially savvy and trades at least 2-3 times a month, IB is a no-brainer over any of the brokers previously mentioned. Significantly lower cost than the likes of Fidelity, Schwab with great execution.
Thanks mk1275
IB really does seem to have very low trading fees. 'appreciate the info. 'would give you a SB if I had any.
"I use Interactive Brokers. Basically, for anyone who is slightly financially savvy and trades at least 2-3 times a month, IB is a no-brainer over any of the brokers previously mentioned. Significantly lower cost than the likes of Fidelity, Schwab with great execution."
Totally agree with this but unfortunately the one major downside to IB is that you need $10,000+ to open an account. Beyond that, they have just about everything you could want in terms of selection of investments, low cost of trades, and a lot access for feeds that other similar platforms like Tradestation charge a la carte fees for.
ETrade, 'cos it's (i.) cheap, and (ii.) the only one I can use from out here in the boondocks.
Interactive Brokers is good I think.
If your account size is >= $10k, then Interactive Brokers is the best way to go, I think.
Interactive brokers is best
And re too tier IPOs good luck getting them if you're not a top end private wealth client at a bank... Even high end Goldman clients weren't getting their full full of Ali Baba. Also if you work in finance chances are you can't invest in IPOs
pretty much this. if you have a series 7 neither you nor any immediate family will be able to participate in IPOs.
on allocation, unless it's a crap IPO (FB for example, MS couldn't give those shares away when it IPOd), you either won't get allocation or you'll get something insignificant (like 25 shares or something), and that's if you're a top client.
here's the mechanics of IPO allocation for a lead left (personal experience, don't know if this is law or just policy). lead left gets 25-35% of the allocation to start, other banks get the rest. out of that say 30%, 90%+ of that goes to institutions and the uber wealthy clients (like a Mark Cuban), the remaining 10% goes to retail clients based on prior IPO participation & how much revenue the advisor does. and even then, at least at my firm, the advisor is allocated shares first, not the client.
all of that is not meant to deter you from participating (though I personally havent' seen a good IPO in the short time I've been in the business since I got in after the Visa IPO), just so you know the lay of the land. don't get butthurt if you don't get Angry Birds (Rovio) shares.
'appreciate the info... I started thinking about IPOs after shake shack.. If I were already investing in markets at the time and it was possible for regular folks like me to get in an IPO, I would have definitely gone long on that one..
Interactive Brokers has a good commission structure on stocks and options and very low margin rates.
Fidelity has free trades on a bundle of iShares products.
Haven't used Robinhood,
Robin hood is a joke. IB for anyone that has a tiny bit of experience should be a no brainer. I complement it with exante to trade a particular type of future. Robin hood is the equivalent of the 0 commission FX tourist trap at the airport. If you did a tiny bit of due diligence you would get that.
IB is USD 10k to open, then you can take most of the money out bearing in mind that you have a USD 10.00 minimum fee (in trading or they take it if you don't trade). At USD 100k you don't pay the minimum balance but they don't pay you any interest either.....
IPO most decent brokers will allow you to participate if there is a retail part that will go out.
ok .. now I get IB's operating model. Thanks
Enlighten me on why Robinhood is a joke? I have around five figures tied up in it right now
Whether you have 5 figures or 1 figure tied up in it doesn't make any difference - except only if those 5 figures are an important sum for your, if yes would have been wise to get some advice before trying to play with some half assed platform.
They don't clear their own trade so can't make money from their own order book. They can only make money from the cash you leave on their account, and overnighting it - in other words fuck all. They have no staff to deal with fuck ups, it's way too new and the list of potential cock ups are huge. The only thing that will keep them going is their VC funding. Oh... And selling your information to HFT so that your trades can be front run.
Given they arn't fucking clearing for you you'll get some orders going unfilled and I wouldn't be surprised to see pretty shit bid/ask, that's what I meant by: "Robin hood is the equivalent of the 0 commission FX tourist trap at the airport. If you did a tiny bit of due diligence you would get that." If I can't get proper execution prices (which you won't for a startup broker) then what's the fucking point?
You can't short yet if am not mistaken, basically it's great for teenagers and twenty something to buy some apple shares and feel like they are part of some revolution - best to trade with some shit beer brewed in some hipster's garage. I wouldn't be surprised if you need to have a beard to get an invite to trade on robinhood.
I wouldn't touch this brokerage company with a ten foot pole, maybe in 3 years time if they actually have a proper business model and they miraculously manage to get good exec.
If you have five figures in your investment account I highly suggest paying the 7 dollar commision fee at an online brokerage over the free trade at robinhood. On those sums you are paying more than 7 dollars trading with robinhood due to bid/ask prices. Also, Fidelity/TD/etc all offer a ton of free trades if you transfer a 5 figure sum into their account so I would suggest doing it, and like disjoint said, good luck with customer service on robinhood. I know at fidelity with 5 figures you would qualify for premium services, which basically means high level of customer service for no charge.
The commission and margin rates at IB almost seem too good to be true. Can anyone comment on the quality of their research tools/up-to-date information compared to something like TDAmeritrade or Fidelity? I currently use TD but now I'm seriously considering switching after looking at their fee structure. I mostly buy and hold, but make a few short term or macro plays a year.
If you don't make the minimum # of trades per month, you will likely incur fees. Part of the reason for the low commission rate is that a lot of their user base trades more frequently.
My account value is large enough to waive the fee minimum if I understand what it says on their website (>100,000= trading minimum waived). I realize this might only save me a few hundred dollars per year, which is not much for an account my size, but still worth it to me in the long run.
I guess I'm more curious about the quality of the service offered by IB. I'm reasonably happy (barely) with the access to information and research tools at TDameritrade. I just don't want to deal with BS like lagging quotes and inaccurate research tools, which seems more common at the cheaper brokerages. Can anyone comment on this?
Thanks everyone for the inputs.. Looks like I will have to stick to Robinhood (hopefully the andriod version comes out soon and I get access). Once I have $10k of play-around money, I will switch to IB.
Question about that: how easy/costly is it to have your investment in one brokerage account transferred to another?
Pretty easy, and usually free (depending on if you use ACH or wire, wiring their is usually a fee). Take2 7-10 business days. You may need to print and submit some paperwork, but it's never been a headache. I've moved a few times.
Great ..thanks!
IB is hands down the cheapest and best if you're actively trading a few times a month. Combine that with alert services like www.kcapitaladvisors.com and you'll be in good shape. Good luck. Keep us posted.
99% of the people at my firm use Interactive Brokers for their PAs
Thinkorswim is best options platform imo. It was built by ex CBOE floor traders and then sold to TD Ameritrade. Interactive Brokers very good too
My account is >10k and I use Interactive Brokers.
Good: •Huge assortment of possible securities/markets (additional markets cost money, however). •Very low commissions ($1/trade). If, however, you trade trading more complex/exotics, it gets worse •I've heard the customer service is terrible.
I've also used Options House (which is the best in my opinion). I left because the cost differential favored IB - I was still actively trading stocks. Even though now I trade minimally (mostly re-balancing my 100% ETF portfolio...Vanguard all the way), the break-even is still in my favor. I would strongly advise OH if you're trading less money, or very infrequently. The downside is they offer no research (very limited), so it's pretty bare bones, which is why the rates are lower.
TradeKing. It's cheap and I can trade options in my IRA.
If you don't have 10k beyond a savings cushion and emergency fund, you probably shouldn't be investing or speculating in the first place. I haven't heard any negatives about IB, fwiw.
What's the difference between Trader Workstation and WebTrader on IB?
None at the moment due to the extremely low risk tolerance associated with an MBA student's budget.
Previously I used Gain Capital's Open E-Cry platform. It's not very user friendly but it offers a near-professional toolset out of the box. The platform allows trading groups to install custom indicators and plugins that allow for a trading platform that are on par with professional platforms. I also found the platform to be extremely fast: even in Mountain Time orders for NYSE contracts would execute in under a quarter of a second.
The major caveat is that you DO NOT want to use any of Gain Capital's subsidiaries. Those subsidiaries are known for a lot of the shady practices typical of FOREX brokers such as front running and terminating the accounts of successful traders. Fortunately I was with a distance trading group that had direct access to Gain and benefited from that.
Tradeking. Good platform and the commissions and margin interest are reasonable. I have looked into switching over to OptionsHouse as well, which also seems to be a good broker, and obviously more focused on options trading.
I use OptionsHouse and its not bad, with good trade prices, but it was much better before the merge with TradeMonster. The mobile app also got much worse after the overhaul. As long as you don't rely on the platform to do your research it's fine though. Haven't experienced any problems but I don't trade very often and have less than 5k invested.
Wells Fargo, because I am grandfathered into free trades for life for both my IRA & regular brokerage account. Their platform is fucking terrible, except for the fact that its free for me. Cant trade 95%+ of international equities (no TX or LSE). Cant trade a lot of small cap or special situation equities if their compliance team deems it unsuitable for investors (no RESCU, for example)
Will probably fund an IB account because I'd say a solid 50% of the ideas I like are not executable at Wells Fargo.
I have been using Fidelity for three years now with no complaints. The interface is extremely clean and intuitive, the statements are informative, and the mobile app is quick and easy to use. I am charged $7.95 per trade, however Fidelity does offer 60+ iShares ETFs for $0 trade commission which I have found extremely useful in building a passive growth portfolio.
Choosing a platform has a lot to do with preference and intended use. If you're going to be day trading, you will want to use something with lower trade commissions.
To throw another name in the mix, Motif Investing might be worth checking out for those who prefer to play themes rather than individual names. I do not trade with Motif but find it to be a pretty cool platform. Worth checking out for sure.
To a point about day-trading, but that's not the most efficient way to do it. You get much better bang for your buck by day-trading on futures contracts....MAX of 2-3 trades performed during the first 90 minutes after the open and you'll see your account shift by a few hundred bucks(and that's if you're only trading 2-3 contracts).
I would say Thinkorswim (TOS), as you can combine equities with options, Forex, and futures all in the same account.
I trading with diamonds on "Alfa Diamonds" platform. if you looking for crisis resistant investment. I advise you to buy a diamond on "Alfa diamonds" because all the diamonds that represent on this platform are from IDEX. So everything is very trustful.
Since this got bumped, I'll add that I'm with ThinkOrSwim (TD Ameritrade). ThinkOrSwim has fantastic research tools that you have to pay extra for on the likes of Merrill Edge and ETrade. Very pleased with their offerings and would easily recommend them to anyone else.
Beginning Investor- Which brokerage account to use? (Originally Posted: 07/11/2014)
I recently graduated from college this spring, and I start work in September full time. My current plan is to take a small chunk of my graduation money and start investing. However, I'm not sure who I should open a brokerage account with. I have a Tradeking account but I was informed that in order to transfer money into it my bank (BofA) would charge me a wire fee. A colleague of mine (from when I interned) works at Merrill Lynch and has informed me that he can open a Merrill Edge account for me to start trading on. The thing is, are there better/cheaper platforms to use? Especially ones that won't require me to pay a wire fee to invest my own money?
,
Interactive Brokers. You can't beat the commissions and if you're under 25 you get a break on fees.
It depends on what the money you're using is for. If you're investing funds that you may need to dip into, I would suggest getting a brokerage account linked to your checking account so there is no transfer fee and it's easy access. If it's purely extra investing money, just with a discount brokerage.
I want to start a Roth, so I wouldn't touch that. But I'd also like a portfolio as well that I would likely not touch at all but to deal with taxes and readjust the allocation. So checking account linked to the roth, and the discount brokerage for the latter?
Best option to start personal trading account? (Originally Posted: 06/08/2013)
Hey all,
I'm looking to start doing some personal trading of my own. What do you all recommend? I have a Bank of America Checking account and so was thinking of doing a Merrill trading account. The prices seem comparable with Tradeking, e-trade, etc. but easier to use given my checking account. However, I wasn't sure if it's preferable to open some sort of IRA or Roth IRA.
Can people weigh in? For reference I'm a year out of college with a job at a large company and just looking to make some long-term trades totaling ~$500-1k.
Thanks.
I recently started trading. I do mostly swing and sometimes day trading of mostly large and mega cap equities and options. This market's been very exciting to trade, especially this past week.
For charting, I use ThinkOrSwim. For execution, I use OptionsHouse. I've done moderate research into the pros and cons of the various brokerages. A lot of them have great charting, but I like TOS. It has a lot of nice tools. Not that I use anything super sophisticated.
OptionsHouse has the cheapest trades I've found: $3.95 per equity trade. And they have various packages for options trades. The charting is ugly and not very efficient, which is why I have a free account with TOS which gets me real-time L2 quotes and charting, but execution is spot on. I haven't had an order fail to fill yet and the spread is the same as for any other brokerage I've looked into. Customer service is great. Their office is located right here in Chicago and I get a quick reply by somebody who actually has power to resolve my issue or knowledge to answer my question every time I've called.
This site was a good tool for me for screening brokerages: http://www.brokerage-review.com/
And I use this site to screen stocks: http://finviz.com/
If you don't like OptionsHouse for whatever reason, TradeKing is another good low-cost brokerage: https://www.tradeking.com/
Here's a blog that's helped me in the past: http://chartsignals.blogspot.com/2012_10_01_archive.html
This one's paid, but there's a free trial. It can help you minimize and track your tax liability: http://www.tradelogsoftware.com/tradelog/
I use Scottrade
If you're in it for the long term(investing) then I would suggest optionshouse. Cheap trades and solid charts. But if you actually plan on day trading or whatever "trading" strategy, I would suggest using interactive brokers. Their fees are a little more complex, but its around $1 per trade if you buy under 100 shares. I think its a minimum $10 spent a month, and you need to buy a data package to see stock quotes.
I use scottrade for options. If you have any friends that work there, ask them how to get discounted option fees.
Personal investing? (Originally Posted: 07/08/2010)
For those who manage their own assets as a full time job- What tool/tracking device do you use? Personally I just used google finance couple with my Schwab, Scottrade, and Fidelity accounts, but I recently switched over to Wikinvest's free new portfolio tracker (you can check it out here: https://www.wikinvest.com/?_acn=portfolio&_acm=competition&_acs=shyrt ). It's been a relatively easy transition, and its nice that I can see all my investments in one place (in real time too), but I was wondering if there are other tools out there that might better serve my purpose?
depends what you trade
Well I'm mostly trading stocks. I have a decent options portfolio too, some mutual funds and etfs. This site is ok with the stocks, mutual funds, and etfs. For options this site doesn't show daily price movements... although I think they are working to add that in the future.
i like options trader pro (for options obviously) and wealth lab for stocks..if you don't know C# or C++ then wealth lab might not be useful for you..fidelity makes these available to you for free if you trade enough, or have enough in assets (see their website for specific details). plus they have fidelity anywhere so you can research, monitor, and trade smoothly on your phone which is badass..just out of curiousity..why do you have your assets so spread out between companies? all companies you mentioned will be able to offer you awesome services if you look in consolidating to one company..
i used to work for companies and have 401k accounts there.
What's a good brokerage/investment/savings account for a new college grad? (Originally Posted: 04/23/2008)
Like many of you I've been too poor to invest through my time in college, so I never really paid any attention to these matters.
I am starting my job this summer and was hoping to get in early on the savings/investment game (as many of you have recommended). Here's my current plan/outlook:
-already have a regular online savings account, I'll probably plough a good chunk of my savings (if I have any) into this thing
-will be opting for the 401K with my firm
-looking to invest "outside" in a mix of stock funds, ETFs, and bond funds for a decent portion
-looking to start trading on my account. I've been following a few companies that I think are good bets so I'd love to have a small part of my portfolio devoted to this kind of activity.
How are you guys set up for saving/investing/trading? Are people using a single account for everything (e.g. Etrade) or do you have different accounts for different things? What's recommended?
Some people might disagree, but if you are going to be working for a bank that has a retail banking arm (JPM, Wachovia, BofA) look into the employee banking plans.
Obviously not an option for everyone, but they may offer better rates, reduced/no account balance minimums, reduced/no fees, etc.
www.scottrade.com for a little mutual fund investing, equities, etc.
for your savings, choose a high rate online savings account 'INg Direct', etc.
for your checking, choose a local bank with alot of atm's close to where you think you'll be going out, close by work,
also get an overdraft protection up to 1K, any more and oyu may treat it like a credit card.
Working for a MM PE firm... don't have that kind of perk.
Wait until you start. Some firms require you to use a certain set of brokerages because they need to monitor your trades to ensure you're complying with securities regulations. (i.e., you're not buying up shares for personal gain before your company annouces annouces an offer.
Having everything in one account is easier, but most firms make it easy enough to transfer money in and out. Depends on how much you're investing, sometimes it's nice just to have a real broker to talk to. They're not always the most knowledgable, I hear better trade ideas around the water cooler (figuratively), but they're great for the less exciting topics (tax effect of a trade, etc)
The bank that I will be working for full-time makes their employees transfer their brokerage accounts so they can be monitored. It has a retail banking arm so I will probably keep everything there because they usually give good deals.
Personal Trading Account - Advice on what platform to use? (Originally Posted: 04/16/2009)
Anyone have advice on what platform to use to open a personal trading account? Pros/Cons for Promotions, Transaction Fees, Research Center, ease of use, etc..
Depends on what product. Below are some suggestions. If you are looking for something in particular just tell me what your looking for and I can point you in the right direction.
Stocks active trading Lightspeed Genesis (Laser Platform) Assent (Anvil Platform) Interactive Brokers Tradestation
Futures Brokers Velocity Futures Global Futures Alaron Transact Futures Interactive Brokers Open Ecry
Futures Platforms X_Trader (The Best hands down) CQG JTrader TWS (Interactive Brokers) Open Ecry
Options Interactive Brokers Optionsxpress Think or Swim (Now TD Ameritrade?)
I hear it's only ~$4 for trades
Yeah its 4.50 per, used to be 10 free trades a month if you had over 10k, now its 10 free trades with 25k, otherwise 4.50 each
what's good for forex? I'm thinking of getting one with oanda
I use Oanda in my FX trading, its not too bad. Pretty reliable in my experiences, but be careful when using stops, because sometimes the spreads widen a lot and your stop will get hit even if the last trade never makes it there. A bit annoying.
Don't trade forex unless you are willing to lose all your money. I've known several people that were making money, then a sudden drop caused a margin call and liquidation. Be careful
I have two margin account PA's (active/swing account and long-term plays) using scottrade and E-trade. I trade stocks/options only and the platforms are as simple or sophisticated as you need them to be for a PA.
I prefer Scottrade for the following reasons: cheap trades ($7), reliable, good customer service, good execution time, good tools (esp. if you have an account over 25K for Scottrader Elite which allows you to set up a bunch of screeners and valuation devices, no min account, no inactivity fee).
PM me if you have any specific questions...good luck
I use TradeKing for my PA - allows margin trading, equity trades and a wide variety of options trades. All trades are $4.95, and the customer service is excellent. Never had any problems.
Only hitch is their research is not that good. I don't care though, I do all my own research, I only need a broker to put my order through.
yea another up for TradeKing....super easy to use and great interface
execution is a bit on the slow end, but honestly when you're trading with a pretty small amount, it's not a big deal
research is ehh, but i never use it so not a biggie
Trading Brokers Futures & Stocks (Originally Posted: 09/10/2014)
Hey guys, I'm looking for online brokers to begin trading from home. I've been looking for someone that I can trade both futures and company stocks.
As long as I can trade S&P futures (ES) and company stocks (Options would be a bonus).
I've found a few such as AMP Brokers, Interactive Brokers.
I was wondering if any of you guys have any recommendations for someone with a low spread not requiring more than $5,000 to open an account.
Thanks,
Do you plan on adding any more additional funding to the account? $5k will barely cover the margin required for an E-mini S&P contract. Unless you get a screaming good deal on your margin requirements. (which you likely won't upon opening up an account with that little amount of money)
I used to trade 2 contracts at a time with an account smaller than that. There's places that allow you to get stupid cheap margin, you just have to look around.
Interactive Brokers are by far the cheapest out there for my purposes (holding equities and options for weeks-months). I haven't calculated what the costs would look like if I were to trade futures, though. The important thing to pay attention to when considering the costs of all of these brokers is not only the $ per contract of a trade, but also the data access. IB has a ton of data packages and allows you to customize which ones you actually need to pay for (level 2 access, foreign markets, specific commodities,etc.). Some brokers will just provide you everything for a fat monthly fee.
I plan on adding an additional $500 a month and retaining my gains into the account. for AMP I see margins at E-mini S&P 500 Index ES CME/Globex (overnight)$4,510.00 (daily)$400.00
I plan on doing more daily trades (non-farms, initial claims, GDP reports) so more on the daily margin rates.
@HFer_wannabe I completely agree, S&P (ES) Price per TIK is $12.50 if i'm not mistaken, i'm mostly looking at those and T-NOTE (3Y). So day trading absolutely smaller margin requirements.
though requirements aside does anyone know other brokers besides AMP X TRADER. I had interest in INTERACTIVE BROKERS seems they have good data ^^ as mentioned.
So Futures and Stocks. let me know if you guys have heard of anyone trading based off these.
thanks,
Not all brokers are created equal for futures. Advantage Futures, NinjaTrader, Stage5 and Velocity are good. If you need an external feed DTN.IQ Feed is good. Despite its issues, ThinkorSwim has a good options suite. Make sure you have server side OCO order capability.
If you are going to trade an E-mini contract intraday a lot of guys (especially retail for some reason) will use 5k in equity per contract, I'd recommend 10-15k depending on volatility and your risk profile. You might be using less leverage at SnP 1100 but the volatility will be precipitously higher so you should reduce trading size substantially.
If you are going to trade treasuries, 10yr Notes are great, be cognizant of economic reports and auction schedules. When trading futures you are not subject to pattern day trading rules, on equities you need to maintain an account above 25k otherwise you run into trade restrictions.
Respect the leverage, they'll let you go down to $500 in equity per contract on the E-mini intraday. Put some risk controls in place with your broker about maximum amount of contracts and daily loss limit. What ends up happening is retail traders get caught in the headlights and just average down and you'll see guys who shouldn't be trading more than 4 contracts end up with 13.
Ready to Start Trading: Which Broker? (Originally Posted: 05/07/2013)
I've been paper trading for 2.5 years now and have made consistent returns. I can't stand seeing my fake money appreciate any longer while my real money sits in a checking account.
I use a basic swing trading strategy. I only have $20k now, but I'll have another $5k after I liquidate some sunglasses that I bought at my old job for cheap. I don't see why the strategy that I've been using on the $100k paper account wouldn't scale down.
Is there a consensus on which brokerage is best for a low-equity swing trader? Is there a reliable place to compare pros and cons of various brokerages?
Thanks a lot,
Just look for the one with the lower commission among those who fulfill the requirements you may have.
Oh, and be careful, paper trading is VERY different from trading actual money.
I really like TD Ameritrade. Think or Swim is excellent desktop trading software. Also with TD Ameritrade you can practically invest in any type of investment. It isn't expensive, but it isn't the cheapest one. That is my opinion on them. Here are some external links:
http://www.brokerage-review.com/ http://online-stock-trading-review.toptenreviews.com/
Hope this helps
Do you trade a variety of markets and like them for this reason? Is it their platform? What exactly about TD makes it worth the slight commission premium for you?
From what I can tell, Optionshouse seems like the best bang for my buck.
The only downside I see is no Level II Quotes. Will this prove to be a major disadvantage for a swing trader? I average about 10 trades a day, but I'll have to slow down until I'm able to come up with another $5k a week from now.
I also don't see any of the top 10 brokers listed on the site you provided as offering ForEx. I've never traded ForEx, but I want to get into it. I'm snooping around babypips.com right now.
http://www.brokerage-review.com/stock-broker-reviews/mbtrading-review.a…
Should I set my account type to "Unemployed," "Student," or something else? Is there a tax advantage? I've heard that student accounts can't use margin.
They want to know my net worth and such. This would amount to a guess on my part. Will this affect anything?
Not sure why they are asking you this for a paper account. Also not sure about the "Unemployed" or "Student" question. But these questions are to determine what type of account you have. But you are going to pay taxes either way. I do not think there is a tax advantage on a student account, but I do not know for sure.
Interactive Brokers
I looked at their site and they claim to have $1 commissions. What's the catch?
Be careful, very very careful. When I was younger I thought I was smart and tried to do swing trades with equities and options. You gotta be on your game and learning constantly. I got out because in order to make money, I would need to commit a number of hours that did not go along with my schedule. I prefer dividend investing and selling covered calls. Passive income is easier on the nerves
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