Who's your broker, and why'd you chose them? I use Scottrade, and I chose them because of convenience.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..............are you seriously can call them discount brokers? Ib-Mb-maybe..but scottrade? TD? who's getting what business? f** .. LOL
If you buy 500 or fewer shares, IB comes out ahead. Compare a trade of 5,000 shares at IB vs Scottrade. Scottrade and other flat-rate brokers compare well.
cheapest up to a few hundred shares is ib cheapest for 1000 shares is just2trade.com lightspeed is cheap also for trading 1000 shares
it was about the trading expenses for equities, but... I am an US equity day and swing-trader, so Chart trading is essential, but with TWS a mess, there is no tick chart and no weekly or monthly chart. They tried to improve TWS charts within the last years, made many enhancements, but the charting still remains poor. F.e. daily candlesticks have often some unreadable candlesticks. If you switch often between different chart resolutions you will get frustrated with the poor datafeed. Comparing with my online trading room (lightspeed, sterling and other platform) you get different chartings in TWS or don't see anything, because datafeed limitation (within 10 minutes you can only refresh a low amount of different charts ....) Their quotes are slow and they don't give true ticks and gives erroneous readings all the time. The slippage on my fills are not reproducable, if you start simultaneously trading with another platform, you see the bad fills in TWS. If you hold positions over the weekend, you will be astonished how few you have on your account after liquidatino - there are always some $$ fewer which cannot been explained correctly.... After changed to professional platforms I know, I should switch much earlier ! IBW could be a starting point for your trading, but after you get more knowledge, you should upgrade to the professional camp.