what's the best/cheapest online trading platform to trade stocks?
say I had 1000 bucks and wanted to buy some stocks, what's the cheapest online trading platform that I could use - buy and hold strategy, I'd probably put 500 into 1 stock and 500 into another and sit on my hands for a year.
ThinkorSwim or Zecco. Zecco is $4.50 per trade with no other fees, and ThinkorSwim is $5 (unless you're buying penny stocks) with no other fees.Zecco is pretty bare bones and ThinkorSwim has a lot of good analysis tools.
Either will work.
Try Zecco.com...$4.50 a trade isn't bad. I personally use scottrade... if you don't mind paying 7 bucks a trade...i'd recommend them.
I use OptionsHouse. They're one of the sponsors of the site and they charge $2.95 a trade. Also, if you're just starting out, they give you a real time paper trading account with $5,000 in it to play with.
Just find the OptionsHouse ad and click on it.
buy and hold with a thousand dollars makes absolutely no sense unless you are buying penny stocks. you are a junior in college dude, when you get your first real job you will look back at how stupid putting 1000box for a lackluster return was. just spend it.if you are trying to learn, just use a virtual money.
To your question, I use Boa/ml. Its 30 free trades a month with a minimum balance of 25k and $10 for less than 25k
I use TradeKing and have for years. $4.95 equity trades and $6.95 option trades - not many frills, but works well for me.
I second OptionsHouse. Dirt cheap.
If you really want to trade, and you only have 1k to start out with, put it all in a penny biotech stock and hope you can get lucky and get a huge return by the time you graduate. You may lose it all, but you may end up with 5k. You never know. It's also exciting to watch a stock like this.
Why don't you try Tradeking Group which comprises of Tradeking and Zecco. They are darn cheap, $4.95, and have good trading platform and customer service.
sogotrade is only $3
Best Trading Platform???? - Using their software? (Originally Posted: 02/11/2011)
So of these, which is the best day trading platform and why?
It seems that the general public thinks think or swim and options xpress are the best?
Is it true options xpress requires absolutely 0 minimum deposit to use their day trading software?
And think or swim has a 3500 dollar minimum deposit to open an account but only a 500 dollar account minimum. Does this mean I can deopsit 3500, then withdraw 3000 back out after the account is created with only 500 in my account, and continue using their software??
optionhouse
thinkorswim by far for analytics.
optionshouse for cheap commissions
TT baby
Interactive brokers is the best pure trading platform, however there are no charts/research etc. If you are making lots of trades, IB is the way to go; $1 commissions and you can get Level 2 quotes which is sometimes helpful to see volume/liquidity.
Think or Swim is probably the best overall platform. The charting is great, however I wish the commissions were lower.
I tried to open an account at Lightspeed as I have heard many good things about this platform, however I was denied an application because of Massachusetts laws or something. Anybody have any experience with Lightspeed?
http://www.lightspeed.com/
If you want to day trade Im pretty sure your account has to be at least 25,000. Id check out the regulations on that.
yeah you need 25k to day trade equities.
I use TradeStation
Online Trading Platform: Interactive Brokers (Originally Posted: 12/31/2009)
Has anyone used this site before? I'm thinking about switching from Scottrade to this site since it offers lower fees and seems to get better execution prices (based on NBBOs).
Here's a link: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/main.php
Thanks!
Yeah I use it, I switched from Scottrade too. I like it alot, I mostly use it for options and fx, some equities. The platform is pretty decent, it has a diverse product listing and pretty low fees.
I use it for sport trading options as well. I prefer RCG's platform for Futures trading though.
I use interactive brokers for equities and occasionally FX. Reliable platform, good fills and very low cost (I've compared commissions and fees of about 20 major discount brokers, and IB is by far the cheapest I've found). I'm pretty happy with it.
its not as user friendly as etrade or scottrade
Online broker/trading platform (Originally Posted: 06/06/2014)
Hey guys,
I'm thinking about starting trading on my own. Any online brokers that you would recommend? I'm based in Europe. Preferably one without a minimum initial deposit.
Thanks!
Wait for https://www.robinhood.com/ haha.
I highly recommend Interactive Brokers. $1 trades, $3 a month for delayed data. I think its $9 for live data. If you're under 25, the minimum deposit is $3,000. Second best platform is TD Ameritrade in my opinion.
Best Trading Platform - Looking to being more involved (Originally Posted: 11/28/2012)
Hey everyone, just signed up here at WSO. Looking forward to being involved with this site.
I finally have enough capital to open up a trading account and start trading stocks. I wanted to get some peoples opinion on what the best online brokers are to sign up with.
I've looked at E-trade, Speed Trader, and Charles Schwab. They all seem pretty good but the main attributes im looking for are Execution/Speed and availability to trade Penny Stocks/OTC-Markets.
Any information would be great. Any Suggestions?
Interactive Brokers (+ Lightspeed?) has far better execution & cheaper on per share basis, but really want 25K or more to make it worth activity fees etc.
Would take care w/penny stocks... easy to lose it all even if careful
If you can't determine what trading platform to use, I gaurantee penny stocks are not a good idea. TD Ameritrade Thinkorswim platform is the best one in my opinion.
Ameritrade is okay but I think there is an account min. to have streaming quotes. Their bond trading is a joke. Schwab was not a platform suited for "trading" when I used it for 401k account.
MT4. You should trade CFD's.
Don't you need to be abroad to do that?
Best online trading platform for commodities and equities/derivatives (Originally Posted: 01/03/2012)
I am a senior in college and a few friends and I are starting a hedge fund (if you can call it that) as something to do with our last 6 months of freedom. My question is, we are looking to trade both equities/derivatives and commodities. What is the best online platform to do this through? Thanks for the help,
Interactive Brokers
Case closed
Trading platforms (Originally Posted: 12/27/2010)
Trading platforms are softwares which helps online forex trade. Foreign exchange trading can be easily managed online by these softwares, where investors participate to trade. Forex trading softwares are meeting grounds for sellers and buyers from different parts of world. The buying and selling takes place through online accounts. forex signal
Do not spam the forums, this will be your last warning. I've seen this same thing for about a week now.
Those people who are looking for the cheapest and best online trading platform should have a visit at Tradebulls. It is an online website that deals with the trading services and can help you in getting effective results.
In the USA: Interactive Brokers In Europe: Degiro and Saxo Bank
Hello, there is a lot of trading platform over the market, however, I am a living testimony that some are not reliable. If you want I am reading a helpful article if you wish you can read it too so that you can get some helpful advice. To site, here's the article:Trading platform funds-money comtrading-platforms
Brokerage Account? (Originally Posted: 04/14/2010)
Is Scottrade ($7 / trade) really the cheapest stock brokerage account you can open up an account with?
Also, can you invest in an index fund (i.e. S&P 500), not just stocks using your brokerage account?
Advice would be greatly appreciated.
Zecco is cheaper but doesn't have all of the same perks. I use it for my IRA, because its perfect for buying Index Funds: cheap.
If you are straight up investing, either of these are fine.
Be aware though that if you work at a bank they'll make you move your accounts to one of their few brokerages so they can keep them monitored.
Zecco and TradeKing are probably the cheapest.
I use Options House thanks to this site. $2.95 stock trades (incl. index ETFs) and options trades for $1 per contract or less. Plus a really slick trading platform and a fake-money practice account if you want to test trading strategies, etc. Overall very satisfied.
day trade brokerage (Originally Posted: 05/25/2011)
whats the best/most common online brokerage site for day traders?
what asset class?
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