I wanted to open my first small day trading account with TD Ameritrade but I recently discovered that they have had many cases of technical problems like traders unable to access their platform, enter trades, exit trades, etc. Apparently people have lost money due to these issues and I don't want to suffer the same fate. Does anyone use TD Ameritrade and if so, what has your experience been like? Which broker would you recommend for a beginner with a strong desire to learn and make day trading a full time career?
I think the recommendations are going to depend on what products you plan to trade, and how much money you are starting with... And of course, what country you are in. Some brokers do not offer futures or forex. Other brokers specialize in those products and offer nothing else. I trade stock and options only, and I have not had any significant problems at Schwab. Hold times for a live rep--by phone or on live chat when logged in--have been very long. And I occasionally have trouble logging into my account right at 9:30 eastern time when the market opens, when 75% of Schwab's customers are also trying to log in. But that kind of trouble usually only lasts a couple minutes. Assuming you are a US person, you will have more choices if you are starting with $25K or more. BMK
I'm starting with maybe 5k or 10k, trading stocks. Probably mostly blue caps. I'm American but I live in Brazil.
So you are a US citizen living in Brazil? I don't have any meaningful experience with international issues like that. You are definitely a US person, so it seems to me that you can open an account as a US citizen. But if your permanent home address is not in the US, that might create issues for some brokers. Plus tax issues.
I have account with IB , E*Trade, Schwab, Tradestation. I recommend IB + Tradestation combination are best. IB is most complete vendor, with access to entire world and cheap. Tradestation is still most advanced plateform out there, which still i don't have the knowledge to fully Utillize it's power and capabilities. Both have $2000 to $500 minimum. E*trade and Schwab are good if you not someone who wants to place over 50-1000 Trades a day.
I agree TDA has some issues but they are far and few in between. It's a solid broker and you would not regret opening an account with them. IB is more stable on crazy wild days but the platform does a fraction of what TDA offers, you'll probably need some additional charting on top of IB . I have no experience with Schwab or etrade.
I switched from IB to Think or Swim(TD Ameritrade)..Yes,they had a couple of major technical problems. But I am very pleased with them
ThinkOrSwim had some problems the last few weeks, seemingly due both to server screw ups and bad software releases. TD Ameritrade's API servers, though, are separate from TOS servers, and were very solid throughout, and any software connecting to Ameritrade's API ran uninterrupted.