Hello fellow forum members. I am considering opening a TDAmertrade account. Currently I am not an active trader. Considering opening an account with $25,000. Intent to invest and trade in equities. Anticipate not more than $4,000 in any one stock. Suggestions of what broker to use. Thanks, diggerdan
i have been trading with them since august. they are not a direct access company, which means they can trade against you and they do. if you put a limit order in anywhere close to the current bid or ask price they reach up and grab it. especially if you are in the right. i no longer use any loss limit or trailing stop orders. (even at a few DOLLARS away they will take it). there last sale is a joke. i am currently searching for a direct access company but may end up going thru The Traders Group and just pay there $50 monthly fee. unless ther is a decent direct access brokerage comp other than IB
Thank you for your input. What do you mean by "...there last sale is a joke" Have you had any experience with CyberTrader sponsor of forum Would the deficiencies you noted impact someone like myself who anticipates 3-4 trades per month Thanks
hi friend, for no more often than you trade, you will find TD Ameritrade hard to beat, or so i think personally, i use http://izone.com a division of Ameritrade with izone you don't get free streaming quotes like Ameritrade, you can get them if you pay i think 20 per month but you get unlimited live quotes, they just aren't streaming auto-updated and commissions are $5 instead of $10 that's about the only differences ------------------------------- i read alot on this board about the differences paid for stock at direct access brokers vs non-direct i've traded with both and can't tell a significant difference, but then i'm stuck on a dial up connection as that's all that's available in my neck of the woods if you are shooting for 2 cent gains inside of 3 minute spans then yes you need that direct access broker (if you trade small blocks) but for swing trading like you do and for big blocks, you gotta go without direct access or should i usually just read, but felt like giving my opinion, hope it helps
With Scottrade, you only need 500 to open an account, with no monthly maintenance fees, and streaming quotes come standard at no extra cost. cm69
when you look at Time and Sales real time, except for aggregated when the mkt gets busy, you can see if someone is refreshing their bid. if you descide to swing trade and you plan on watching the mkts every day this can come in handy. if you are not going to watch the mkts then using td ameritrade may come in handy as long as you set your routing orders thru ISLD (ISLAND) in their ROUTING BOX. but beware of where you set your stop loss because as i said they will reach up and grab it if you are in the trade the right way and they want your shares cheap.
tdameritrade is a total rip-off I used to have an account with them and they charge you for everything and nothing, fidelity is even worse
I have an account there but have not placed a trade in a long time and they still have me as an apex member so everything is free except for commissions. When I was trading stocks, I always turned off the auto routing and routed through inet with limit orders. I rarely had a problem with fills and could get shorts off quite easily on what seemed like on down ticks.
For all those who have posted replies - Thank you. Making the decision from using a live broker to an online system is confusing. I am not clear of the difference of using scottrade; TDAmeritrade and Amertrade izone. Can someone help explain the difference? Thanks in Advance DJC
they are always looking to their nickel and dime their customers. they have different accounts with different commission rates. I am willing to bet that most of the customers they got in the datek takeover are lone gone to direct access brokers.