Which Direct Broker to go with?

Im making the jump to a Direct Broker from Scottrade and gonna be doing this full time. I can't decide which broker to go with.....looks like Lightspeed is the quickest and cheapest. I use other charts so I am just interested in good fills and quickness. Choicetrade also looks to be good but with all the add ons.....seems pricey.

Finally, I saw a comment about lightspeed not being a "True" DAB...something about only using NITE?????

Wanting to do this ASAP..so any input is appreciated.

 

Give a description of your trading if you want help. What asset classes do you trade? How much volume per month? Any special "must haves" in a platform? Asset value?

 

I just trade domestic stocks and usually try to use my full DTBP of 100-120K and moving up. I trade all I can bc I am not just building my equity but drawing a small amount each month.

I would say average day is 800-1200 shares roundtrip times 4. So estimate 4000-6000 total shares per day....giving this all I can.

Scottrade is killing me with the 7 dollar trades....middleman trading routes.

Lightspeed really turned me off with their customer service.

 

I trade domestic stocks and use my full DTP everyday which is 100-120K.
Im just starting and am trying to build my account but also need to draw once a month to take care of some expenses.

4000-6000 trades a day on average and I need cheap (50 cents per 100 or under).

I would like to avoid a heavy monthly fee but if it increases my success than I am all for it...especially if I can get it adjusted lower or free if a certain number of trades occur.

I was ready to go with Lightspeed bc the order entry simplicity and quickness.....but they have already turned me completely off with their customer service and communication.

I like Choicetrade's service. Also, I would love to do the cobratrade offer of .0035 cent/share trades for life and have realtick....but I have only been at this for two weeks and am not quite to 30K yet...but could be soon I think. The main think is I wonder how benificial Realtick and Esignal and all the fancier stuff is...


All I know know is that im paying 100-200 bucks in trades a day to Scottrade and it has to stop. I need a daytrade platform. When you transfer can you just let funds settle, withdrawal and wire money to new broker? Ive heard broker to broker takes half a month.

Thanks all...

 

currently, I trade at SpeedTrader. They offer lowest commission prices that I have found, and direct access trading. Personally, I have had good experiences with customer support, but also, for their trading platform, they often refer me to their technology provider for support. They also have a lot of routing options, if that is what you are looking for. Btw, LightSpeed is definitely not that fast.

 

I’d like to assure any readers of this thread, and those interested in Lightspeed, to contact us directly. (I’m not yet sure of the specifics of the interaction that gster210 may have had with a Lightspeed associate, but I sent him a private note assuring him I’d get to the bottom of it asap)

I’d be pleased to arrange a personalized demo of our trading platform for anyone with an interest. We’re confident you’ll soon see for yourself just how fast and powerful our trading system is.

Lastly, just to clarify, we offer direct access to an extensive set of exchanges and market centers and remain proud of how fast and stable our systems are, as well as how responsive our trained support staff is. Our rates are amongst the most competitive in the industry and we welcome your inquiries.

If you’d like to confer more, please don’t hesitate to call directly (646 341 8622).

Best regards.

 

I had to go thru the process of switching from Terra Nova Trading to Lightspeed, and can honestly say the csr I dealt with at lightspeed was one of the worst, rudest persons, I have ever interacted with.

For this reason, I give IB my money now, I trade 3mil shares a month, not massive volume, but nothing for a trading firm to sneeze at either, they can keep her, they certainly lost me.

 

Again, for what it's worth, Lightspeed places an emphasis on providing good service to our client base. I'm sorry your experience with a Lightspeed associate was not satisfactory. That's certainly not the norm, I can assure you. Without knowing your specific scenario, I can't comment other than to make it clear to you, or anyone reading this, that we take our interactions with customers very seriously.

If you would like to apprise me of the details of who you spoke with and when, I'd be pleased to follow up the specifics. You can call me directly at 646 341 8622.

Thank you.

 

What is the software fee for a retail account?

thanks

 

OP - stay at Scottrade, you aren't even close to being able to trade on your own and draw a salary.

you need $25k to meet PDT requirements and if you have $120k BP you have just over $25k cash. If you make 1% ROI monthly (12%+++ compounded annually) then any good hedge fund would want to talk to you.

that said - you still can't eat on those returns.

Scottrade isn't killing you, the risk you are taking on is killing you. Stop trying to day-trade your way into being rich and start looking at the markets. Allocate a certain percent of your capital to something safe, allocate more to something even safer.

Litespeed is no different than Scottrade or IB or any of them - they are all the same and the fees & comish will be no different in the end.