I know Etrade is the most popular online trading broker; however, their commission is very high!!! As a beginner like me, their price is too high for me. I kind of narrow my choice between "ThinkOrSwim" or "TradeKing". I attended one of the courses that was offered by ThinkOrSwim, and I like their trading software. On the other hand, I learned about TradeKing on SmartMoney magazine, and I like their cheap commission price. Which one should I choose? Please suggest me a online broker that is cheap and worth trusting. Thank you so much!
I doubt anyone can beat Thinkorswim's platform. Btw, I think Thinkorswim still runs that promotion where you can choose their competitor's commission schedule rather than their default.
Wow! Would you please give me more explaination on that promotion? It sounds very interesting. Is that mean I could use TradeKing's commission price and trade it on ThinkOrSwim?
If you have a good system the type of broker hardly matters. Just Buy, and Sell; that's it. $5-$10 ain't gonna kills you either way. I recommended using 2, one as a back up or to hedge.
I'll backup ThinkorSwim in any barfight brawl They are hands down the best as far as their service goes, as far as their software goes, and just their general thinking and logic. They do what matters to the people using their platform, not what they think should matter to us. They take suggestions and impliment them into the software regularly, and are hands down some of the coolest folks out there. They make life so much easier. Just today, in fact, I was entering a spread on SPX and it didn't get filled. I'm thinking...WHY?! I wrote to them and within 30 seconds, they called the floor, and got me my fill. Just truly amazing people. When you run across something that's like this, it's tough to go anywhere else. Just my 2 cents.
A lot of traders on these boards, including me, use Interactive Brokers. You can trade just about anything, relatively low commissions, decent software, etc. You can check their ratings and the ratings of most all the other brokers in the brokers rating section in the left hand column on the homepage of this site. Good luck to you. BTW, FWIW, IB's customer service hasn't always been the greatest (not everyone there but some people were difficult), but I don't talk to them that much and the other features make up for this for me anyway. Also I'd be careful of the recommendations from magazines who usually don't know what they're talking about. I've used lots of brokers over the years and received a bad recommendation from a magazine when I first started.
I agree, IB is very cheap and has been very reliable for me. I trade stock and options through one account at a very competitive commish. Also it does matter if your a serious trader and paying $8 to $10 flat rate commissions. Trading is like any other business where you would like to keep overhead as low as possible. So why pay $8-$10 per side when you could be paying much much less....
Yes! Like any business, why give away money you don't have to? Would you invest in a company that paid 5x what they could have for goods and services? Why not pay $5/gallon for gas?
Depending on what you trade...for otpions I dont think anyone can beat thinkorswim overall. IB does offer other products but overall fees (when added together) may not be less. You might onsider taking the top three choices and putting some money in each and decided for yourself, Certainly test run each co...but it is the test of time that proves itself. I have nothing negative to say about anyone (other and e-trade) but I LOVE thinkorswim. I couldn't trade without their platorfm. Mixed reviews on MB. However its not a life or death choice...you can always Swiitch