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.

46 Comments
 

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.

 

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.

- Capt K - "Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, bait the hook with prestige." - Paul Graham
 

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.

 

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/

 
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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.

Jack: They’re all former investment bankers who were laid off from that economic crisis that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have zero real world skills, but God they work hard. -30 Rock
 

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.

 

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.

"Money doesn't talk, it swears." -Bob Dylan
 

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.

Frank Sinatra - "Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy."
 

Do not spam the forums, this will be your last warning. I've seen this same thing for about a week now.

Jack: They’re all former investment bankers who were laid off from that economic crisis that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have zero real world skills, but God they work hard. -30 Rock
 

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

 

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.

Jack: They’re all former investment bankers who were laid off from that economic crisis that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have zero real world skills, but God they work hard. -30 Rock
 

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