Can someone recommend a good broker?

In your opinion what is the best broker to start trading equities and options in the US? I need fast execution, reliability, low commissions and level 2 real time quotes. I can only start with $1000. Please do not comment on the sum or why I want to trade for that matter...
Thanks

 

Fly,

I dont know of any futures account you can open with 1k let alone equities.

Still, in answer to your question your 1/10th of the way to funds needed to open acc with IB. Probably the best retail broker all things considered.

In the interim start watching/attending the free webinars to learn their front end.

You might be able to trade options with 1k and if ThinkOrSwim lets you open acc with that sum, I would recommend.

Otherwise, save up and at least give yourself a chance to lose, or take the 1k to your local casino and work on managing your emotions. At least you'll know where/why you lost your $.

 

Scottrade will let you open with just $500, but to get level II you have to use the Elite platform - and to use the Elite platform you need $25K in your account.

Alliance will let you open an account with $2K, but I don't know what bells and whistles you get with it.

 

are you trading futures or stocks?

 

Thank you all for your replies. For reasons that I prefer not to mention, I can only risk 1000 today. Of course that I would try to save at least 25k to daytrade or at least 10k to open an IB account, but until then this is what I have. I would like to trade stocks, options and single stock futures. All brokers that I have found so far require at least 2k or they ask waaaay too much in commissions.

 

you have no chance in hell making any money with 1000. unless you just want to play around for experience save up some real money and then try.

 

well, that's what I want... play around
it's better than any demo

 

look into mbtrading, the minimum requirement I believe is $2k. The commission is decent .01 a share for first 500 shares than .005 after. They also offer futures.

 

If you want to "play around " with your money...go to a casino.

 

Try TD Ameritrade with Quotetracker. I have been using Ameritrade about 11 years now and love it especially since I started using quotetracker. I get excellent executions...usually 1-3 seconds and Quotetracker is awesome...By the way I started with $600.00 . I wont tell you how much is in my acct now but but put it this way I am extremely happy. You can make money starting with very little. I am living proof of that! And if your an active trader you can negotiate lower commissions with them. I did.