The answer is not that simple. Are you looking for ticket charges or per/share charges? Do you want a free platform or one like Sterling? Do you trade for rebates or would you prefer flat rate? What is your average monthly volume and what is your average order size? I'm not asking you to respond to me. No one can answer your question without knowing more about your trading. I have retail accounts at IB and TD. I use IB for stocks and TD for options. I don't think you will find a big difference in the retail offering of your two choices. 1245
Per share. Scale in 200 shares per trade. Want a free platform. Monthly volume expected to be 100,000 shares.
LightSpeed only free platform in their web trader TradeStation is free and you can get free commissions for 90 days, but rate per share is higher after. I have never used either of these. I would try Tradestation 1st and take advantage of the free platform and free trading for 90 days. Toward the end, if you like it, ask them to drop your rate to match LightSpeed or you will leave. Read the details of the free commissions to make sure there are nothing they can add on if you leave. You can also try IB. I don't like their platform but it free. They have min ticket charges that bring up your rates for under 200 shares. Good luck
It looks like lightspeed now has a rebate deal so that you can use Lightspeed Desktop Trader or RealTick Pro platforms for free, as long as you do $100 or more in monthly commissions. Which is very easy to hit.
I have had both and still maintain an account at Lightspeed. But I would go with Tradestation for backtesting software they have. Each has problems with occasionally slowness, no one is perfect. I don't care for web platform, just seems slow at times of higher volume but for smaller accounts it certainly place to be cause of price and they have gone up a little from when I first started with them. As far as cheapest of the two Lightspeed is it.
Been a long time since I've been here. I use Lightspeed and still do. The platform is good. Much better than Scottrade when I first got into this stuff. Lightspeed charges around $21 a month for market data and $100 a month if you don't generate $100 in commissions. The $100 is not a problem if you trade a lot. Their rates for commissions are very good. They used to clear through APEX which is a pain during tax time. Now they clear through Wedbush. There are more shortable securities which is a plus but oddly at times I find stocks normally always available for shorting through APEX not available at Wedbush like SCTY or BIDU. Overall, I would say that the transition has provided more available securities for shorting which is a good thing. Can't really say much about Tradestation since I don't use them but I think they do charge a lot more commission for trades.
thanks sfbayarea- i assume if we dont want market data- then we dont pay the 20 bucks /month.? do u have PM with lightspeed? its 250K . are they flexible to reduce it a bit if I call and negiotate