Here are a couple of links for you. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_access_trading http://www.investopedia.com/articles/trading/02/081902.asp http://www.investopedia.com/articles/trading/03/020503.asp Direct access may be a good idea if you are trading short term. In direct access you are filled almost immediately, your round trip fees are lower although you pay a monthly fee for access. To me it is the cost of doing business. There is a section on direct access here. Almost all of these brokers have a demo platform so you can test drive it first. Maybe you should check these out. Here is a picture of my interface from Tradestation. Basically point and click and you are filled.