The question is should I stay with Scottrade.? I am new to trading, very new, no doubt clueless, I started in February of 2003. I daytrade scalp with some success but I am on a definite learning curve. Trade 2500 shares of MSFT or INTC at go, commission to Scottrade roundtrip is $24.00 the fills are good, they happen instantly or in seconds. The charts and streaming quotes are adequate for my level of expertise. What advantage is there to changing to say IB? thanks for input
Once upon a time, I am ashamed to admit, I had a Scottrade account. No more. Its like going from 486 computer to a Pentium II. Direct access all the way, preferably with a universal account so you can do the e-minis as well as stocks (IB and MB Trading for example). And a separate charting system like eSignal.
agreed. in about 3 months of trying, NOT ONCE did scottrade have shares for me to short. ib and esignal work well for me.
It doesn't cost anything to keep it if you don't use it to trade. So, you could keep it in addition to another trading account for backup quotes. The free realtime DJ News Scottrade gives you is not a bad deal either.
I am fairly new to the game and also started with Scottrade. I opened an IB account a couple months ago, and I now have about an equal capital balance b/w the two. When I don't have access to my cable connection I use Scottrade to keep in touch with quotes b/c it is quicker. My biggest problem was the commissions, b/c I don't trade too many shares at a time - you don't have this problem. The deal breaker for me was the inability to short when I wanted. Another issue, and I don't know if I'll experience this with IB down the road, is that Scottrade has f**ed me on a couple trades. Basically, one time I had an open buy stop order which was filled but not posted, so I didn't know it had been filled. As a result the stock fell below where I had planned to place a stop. I had placed the same type of stop on the same issue several times before, so I figured I had a good argument. They, of course, claimed no responsibility for posting filled orders even though it was their servers being down that caused the problem. They gave me a bunch of free trades which covered about half my excess losses. But, it was frustrating considering how they boast about customer service. so hey, that's my 2 cents
rlb21079 Great post. However, I believe there are 3 " * " in f***ed. Just kidding. Have a great week.
Doesn't Scottrade's hold-muzak-while-you're-on-the-phone give you reason enough to change brokers? I can't even pass by the TV while their commercial is on. Yee-ech. I can tell you one thing about their JD Powers award they seem to repeatedly win for "customer satisfaction", and that is, JD Powers evidently never had a Scottrade account. My disdain for their muzak comes from being on hold those w-a-y too many times for tech help and calls about not getting timely fills. How can you expect to work not knowing if an entry you made at 10AM was made or not, and at what price, until 2PM??? Using their platform was almost a daily, "Oh, what's next?" ordeal with one glitch or another. Yeh, I got free trades too... until they ignored me when I asked for more free trades to compensate for my travails. The way to go is with: a direct access broker, pay by share, stand alone platform. I switched to IB and never looked back. My finger is barely off my mouse when I'm being filled. I'm saving on commissions. And I haven't been put on hold by them mainly 'cause I haven't had any problems where i needed to call them for help. Why, I'm even making money. Sheez, what's not to like?
this otherguy is makin' me nervous he's new to ET, okay he's new to trading, okay he (I should say he/she but to hell w. it) is daytrade scalping 2500 sh?? only been trading since Feb - either got some real cohones or is a LIAR I hope the former, but who jumps into daytrading 2500sh and doesn't know jack about brokers? If this were in the midst of the "tech boom" i'd understand, but right now don't jive bro - YOu KnOw!?