I strongly recommend IB. I trade a portfolio of stocks and issue more smaller trades. IB's commission structure is unbeatable. Their TWS software is also very stable: I've had very few problems in the past. Nothing compared to the hassles I had with CyberTrader. If you trade few stocks in larger volume ( >1000 share trades each time), I'd also recommend CyberX2. CyberX2 worked well for me, but the higher commissions were enough to drive me away.
Regarding Ron's posting, I was looking at elephantx online, has anyone hear anything about this firm, good/bad?? Spoke to a rep today, $3.00 per. trade for day traders after rebate, shorts are ok, no options. Anyone have an account there and or know anything about this firm, the info would be appreciated. Thanks, Vader123
Ron, Most of my trades are single day or multi day swing trades, I do about 12 rt per week. As you are not a scalper doing a huge number of trades per day/week commission should not be a determining factor. Yes, IB commissions are cheap but the software provides no level 2, no charting, no time&sales, no intraday screening, limited order-routing, extremely awkward interface, and their Java based system (both in the web version and the standalone) is stable on some computers while very unstable on others. You might consider more mature direct-access software that, of course, costs more per trade (usually around $15 a pop). Those include RealTick, CyberTrader, TradeCast, etc. I've had experience with the first two and both are now extremely stable, full-featured, very versatile platforms. For someone who mainly swingtrades it may be the way to go.