best platform to begin personal trading?
What's the best platform to start personal trading? Etrade? Scottrade?
Hope to begin Equities, prob start with $200-$1000, and will look for short term gains.
Thanks!
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Use sogotrade. 100 free trades for the first month and $3 trades thereafter.
i use etrade, but its only good if you are not an active trader otherwise the commission will add up. the platform is really nice and so is the service.
I have a more speculative/short-term account with Scottrade and my long-term account with E-trade. I generally prefer the E-trade software but you cant beat the price and requirements (or lack thereof) with Scottrade.
200-1000 is too little to start with. Especially if you are focused on short term gains. The tax man wont even make it worth your time or risk exposure. Unless of course, the exercise is purely academic/for your own entertainment. Otherwise, throw money into ING until you have around 10K...then begin building a portfolio.
If you have only 200-1000, then it is safe to say that you are still in school and probably don't have too much income, so therefore the tax man shouldn't be an issue at all (unless you earn more than 9-10K per year from salary + capital gains).
$1000 is definitely enough money if you buy only one stock at $3 per trade. That way you are only paying 60bps to buy and sell the stock (30bps for each transaction), which is more than reasonable. Even if you go with 2 stocks at $500 a piece you are still only paying 60bps to buy and 60bps to sell for a total of 1.2% which isn't too bad (unless you are planning on day-trading). I paid as much as 2% in transaction costs to buy stock, but I meant to hold it long term and it was a risky penny stock that would move more than 2% on average per day anyway.
You can't trade with 1k....trading costs alone will eat up your capital and gains you have any. If thats all you got, put it all in one stock and hold. Nothing more you can do.
need at least $5k, plus margin account for short term trading
I've been interested in sogo since it has $3 trades, but I'm not sure if their platform is solid or if their execution speed is good. Usually a low transaction price (like $3) means something else is lacking. I personally use scottrade and it's pretty good. Their scottrader and scottrade elite is pretty solid.
FYI, most of these places require a minimum $500 deposit. Like others have said, $200-$1000 isn't a whole lot of money since if you end up making, say 5% profit in the very short term, that's $10 -$50. If you only buy one stock, the in and out transaction costs will be like $14. If you're doing this purely for profit, then it's not worth spending all that time just to make a few bucks. But if it's for educational reasons or getting to know the market, you can give it a shot or maybe try a virtual stock site like updown.com.
Some people complain about it, but I actually like IB's TWS... though I think the minimum is above what you are looking at right now.
Think Or Swim...it is 3500 to open an account but after all the research i have done its the best value...you get realtime quotes, great charts, and a bunch of other tools.,..go download the desktop program, and ry it out with a paper money account. Also, the 3500 is a one time thing you can open the account but then pull out however much you want...BUT, if you are going for the lowest commision, I would go with Trade King.
I can't say I've had any problems with sogotrade.
yeah, i'm a student and just trying to learn. Maybe my best way would be through a virtual account-tried one platform awhile back but it sucked. Any suggestions?
I used Virtual Stock Exchange on Marketwatch-- it was pretty buggy but did its job. Got to talk a bit about a few things I did on it during my first (pre-finance internship experience) interviews.
Get a job and wait till u have 5k and then start trading futures not stocks. You will learn much more about trading, risk management, and position sizing due to the leverage that is inherent in futures. Do alot of research before you start...in fact start reading about futures markets and how to manage risk now while you are working to scrape together cash.
Bondarb can you recommend a book?
i am currently going through the list marketfolly posted:
http://www.marketfolly.com/2008/11/investing-trading-books-recommended.html
especially the ones blue ridge capital recommended. Is there any book that you would say a beginner has to read when it comes to futures? or just start of the same way as equities (intelligent investor etc., Warren buffet letters) and then switch to futures at some point?
thank you very much in advance
I think TD Ameritrade is great both for beginners and for experienced traders (because they acquired ThinkorSwim). You get lots of research tools, and the interface is extremely easy to understand. A good buy-and-hold platform (straightforward pricing).
ETrade is probably good if you're intermediate in experience. Similar research offerings to TD Ameritrade (a bit worse I think) but more asset classes and markets (futures, and 6 foreign markets). Less transparent pricing.
IB is the cheapest one-stop-shop for global trading across several asset classes. You'll get no help though.
Oh... and $200-1000... you don't need much to trade, but you need more than THAT.
Also has anyone tried Zecco?
yeah i've been using Zecco for the last 3 years. The price attracted me obviously. I left Scottrade bc the commissions were $7 at the time and that seemed ridiculous to me. I trade about every 3 months and am happy with Zecco. You do need to keep an account minimum with them which I believe is 5k.
It's not worth actively trading until you have about 5K that you wouldn't lose sleep over. If you trade often, commissions will kill you over time, especially if you're scalping. I started scalping in college, primarily stocks worth about 20-40 dollars. I'd buy 100 shares, it would go up a dollar, i'd sell and scalp $100 I'd blow later that night at the bars (- $14 for commissions, used Scottrade for $7/trade). It was all fun and games, definitely learned a lot the hard way but did get significant returns at the end of the day (during the days the market was going up/down 700 points a day, you had large swings in stock prices).
I'd recommend just sticking with a virtual account, maybe set up a challenge amongst friends and have at it. If you're working with a few hundred dollars, no way you can scalp stocks in the 20-40 range and those that are worth 1-5 range don't get the % moves that you'd like to be profitable. It's certainly possible, but at the end of the day, its like vegas....the longer you play, the more likely you're to lose....and you definitely don't get comped for the night
Brockerchooser’s five best trading platforms in 2017 include:
All five are very different but these are better suited for Europeans. Nevertheless, you can read the full article here:
Beginner in Trading- How to learn? (Originally Posted: 03/26/2008)
If you are a beginner in trading and investing, how would you learn about it? You can't really just open an ETRADE account and start trading, or you will just lose all your money. So, how do beginner learn how to trade, about stocks, etc. ?
open a mock trading account (google it there are many) and read read read (Market Wizards series is a good place to start)
vse.marketwatch.com
vse=virtual stock exchange try really hard to win. it'll get you to follow the markets naturally. note that it's not real time though.
Find something you like that is the main thing I would say. Because often the best traders, know one product better than anyone else, they may not know much else, but they make their money off that 1 product.
Also find out how much math you can take, and how much programming.
Do you mean try to take as much programming and math in college that is related to trading? Is both really necessary and concentrate on a mathematics minor and perhaps a MIS major.
advice from one of my trader friends:
Learn how to play poker, if you don't know already. Learn what it feels like to have a perfect situation go against you and watch someone take your money. Develop your skill at choosing when to take big risks, and when to take small risks, and when to simply do nothing. I think poker is probably the best way to learn. Other strategy games might work too. Investing some of your own money is also a good way to go, though the commissions will eat away if you're not trading big size. But think of the money you put into investing or into poker as an "investment" in yourself and your education. It will more than pay for itself over time. Also, learn how to manage your ego when you win. Or you'll lose everything.
For practicing investing/Asset Management, you can make a mock portfolio (long or short) at www.marketocracy.com.
"It is a fine thing to be out on the hills alone. A man can hardly be a beast or a fool alone on a great mountain." - Francis Kilvert (1840-1879)
"Ce serait bien plus beau si je pouvais le dire à quelqu'un." - Samivel
You do not need to be a CS major to have enough programming knowledge for trading.
But having a MIS (management information systems) couldn't hurt right? The only reason why I'm even double majoring in it along with Finance is because I heard programming is a plus.
Do you think it is a waste of time and I might be better off if I dropped MIS in favor of accounting, while trying to land a S&T or Fixed Income offer next year?
Strictly for trading, MIS would be much more useful (that isn't saying that there aren't people with accounting backgrounds who trade, but it means that knowing things like SQL or VBA will be solid skills).
If you are going into M&A, equity research, coporate finance, anything like that - go for the Accounting - you will know your statements and how they link infinitely better than an Econ major who best case scenario took Intro Financial Accounting.
"If you are a beginner in trading and investing, how would you learn about it? You can't really just open an ETRADE account and start trading, or you will just lose all your money. So, how do beginner learn how to trade, about stocks, etc. ? "
ignore the comments above. you are talking about personal investing, and for that you dont need math or computer science. follow up on a couple of companies, or mutual funds and see what you like and what makes sense to you. read peter lynch, Buffett and graham.
and remember that the act of saving, especially at this stage, is the most important thing. whether you get 5% or 10%, the main thing right now is that you save.
programming is a plus. Agree with Jimbo you don't need math computers or rocket science. Though if you're interested in algorithmic trading you might want to take a look at metatrader.
interactive brokers + MATLAB = money
Best online trading account for a Beginner? (Originally Posted: 02/25/2013)
I realize I could consult the search function, and I will, but for the sake of receiving input from others who have not shared previously, which online trading platform do you recommend for someone new to trading? ScottTrade, Fidelity? Is there a specific membership type you recommend?
Sidenote: Any BofA platinum privileges clients use MerrilEdge to trade?
If anyone wants an SB I can oblige...thanks
Think or Swim is good and has free paper trading.
I use MerrilEdge but I usually go long ETFs with reweighting of sectors/geographies (so not the type of trading you are likely looking to do). Probably doesn't have the bells and whistles of other platforms but the 30 free trades a month are nice.
Optionshouse has a virtual platform that starts you with 5,000 dollars, not a bad place to test the waters a little before jumping in with your own money. If you're opening a small, individual type account I would go with somewhere that has lower commissions, like tradekings, although there research platform is definitely lacking.
Fidelity has a list of over 100 ETF's that you can trade for free. Just starting out being able to trade in small amounts with no transaction fee is a really nice thing. A lot of places let you trade ETF's free, but in my experience Fidelity has the best list across the most ETF providers.
I use Tradeking for equity purchases since their commission is only $5 each way. They don't have much in the research department, so make an account at other brokerages (you don't even have to fund it) to get access to their research info.
i'm not an avid trader, but i really like tradeking. as zuckerberg said, only $5 per trade. but light on research.
i have an optionshouse account and I love it. It was my first online broker account and provides a simple interface with cheap equity trades(3.95). It also has good prices on option trades, although I don't frequently use it.
TD Ameritrade. It doesn't come with a helicopter, but free software is the next best thing.
Heard good things about Fidelity. Used to use optionshouse but will switch to Fidelity/Interactive Brokers/Trade Station.
Cool story, bro.
Thanks to everyone for the advice.
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