Which Broker?
Anonymous guy replied to my last post with this:
Well, you probably can't be a daytrader paying $7 a trade. You'd need to consider Interactive Brokers or Tradestation or something similar.Actually $7 is too much if you are trading weekly screens too.
I've been thinking about this and wondered what everybody out there uses for trading and why. Just reply to this post. I think it will give everybody some good ideas (including me).
I'll start:
I use Scottrade because I'm comfortable with it and have been using it for 5 years. I'm the type of guy who feels weird about moving my money from place to place even if it means saving some money. I'm familiar with Scottrade Elite and I like the way it works (I really have nothing to compare it to). I like the guys at the office here in Omaha.
I'm realizing though that there are greener pastures out there. Seven bucks is a bit much for daytrading. Trader Mike says that he pays per-share commissions and saves a lot. I've read that other brokers offer 4 times my principle for margin (Scottrade only offers two times). Scottrade doesn't offer futures trading (which interests me).
So that's me and I'm dumb. What do you brilliant traders out there use?
Posts
6 comments:
I use mbtrading. Execution is fast and commissions are a lot cheaper than Scott. It's pretty much no frills.
I use TD Waterhouse (in Canada) at $8 per trade but am looking at Interactive Brokers. I am unimpressed by TD's reporting and weak order entry sophistication.
I've been working on an idea for a chart-based order entry system that I've seen on some FX platforms. Could you imagine setting horizontal lines (or a trend line) for your buy/sell/stops on charts of different scales such a 1min or 30min or day? Also, want the One-or-Other trade capability of saying if stock falls to X sell but if it goes up to Y sell. It is amazing how generic most platforms are really. Interactive Brokers is not perfect but has better order entry, reporting, futures, etc., but I too feel strange about switching.
Interested in seeing what you find out.
I use Tradestation and it is a nice platform with excellent charting and backtesting capabilities. It's ~$100 a month plus commissions of a penny a share.
So if you did 4 200 share round trips a day you figure that's $16 dollars a day x 20 days a month + the $100 fee = $420 a month.
Compared to $56 a day x 20 = $1120 for Scottrade.
I think IB has similar commissions to Tradestation without the monthly fee, but you don't get the charting, so it really depends what you need. Tradestation has screening capabilities as well for another $50 a month.
Hmm... I mentioned earlier that execution (e.g. commissions, you might enjoy reading Ed Seykota on the topic of timeframes) was very important for day trading. Unless you have a very large account, the trading costs can/will be a significant percentage of your trades. Since you insist on short term trading, make sure the broker dealer you select has very good market price execution (they don't all have the same track record)
These complications don't usually apply to your past method of trading weekly mechanical screens, unless you are trading a small account (< $50,000).
I use Just2Trade. its a division of Success Trades for the frequent trader. Commissions are $2.50 per trade, and drop to $2 per trade after a certain number of trades per month. They also have the best margin and money market rates, which alone can mean more to you than the trade costs depending on your activity.
Speaking of support, if you call mbtrading you always get a person.
Post a Comment