Best online stock broker for day trading?

Question

I've been doing a lot of research and I think I'm ready to begin day trading. What is the best online stock broker for day trading? I'd be making a ton of transactions and would need minimal to no processing times for my orders. Can anybody help?

Thanks.

Answer 1

I watch a day-traders chat room at green on the screen...and they all seem to use Scottrade...plus others...but Scott provides many of the " movement" screens that they employ.

Answer 2

My favorite is ThinkOrSwim.... they have an incredible platform with great charting, chart based alerts, all other standard alerts. Regular free webinars on trading. CNBC news, videos and live streaming. The ShadowTrader. And a ton more......

If charts  and customer service are not too important... but price is........ Interactive Brokers is the way to go.

TradeStation is great.... but the $100 a month platform charge is  a little annoying.

Best bet:  Read the 2008 Barron's article on on-line brokers.

I would not suggest day trading until you already mastered position trading (long term holding)  and swing trading.

How many books have you read?

You should have at least a dozen under your belt before trying this.

Check out;

Mastering The Trade, John Carter

Trading In The Zone, Mark Douglas

If you start trading..... you must watch this every night to understand the market;

http://www.alphatrends.net/

Answer 3

Forex trading-http://tradingsforex.info/

Answer 4

I misread your question and gave the following answer:  (but i can't answer your actual question.   look for whoever has the lowest trading costs obviously.  there are a number of discount brokers out there w/accounts catering to day traders.  the easiest way to do it is to find a prop trading company and get hired there.   they have all the software, and often have what's called black box and grey box programs that give you signals of certain stocks to buy and short.  teh software is often the same used by the big hedge funds and other trading outfits, but you have to be quick!  a signal might be given, and then boom, a minute later it's gone, or more likely. seconds after, the price has moved to teh point where it's too late to get in on the action.  i've seen older traders do poorly w/this technology simply b/c they were too slow to pull the trigger.

there is no specific answer to your question.  but day traders profit (or lose) on volatility, the amount of movement in a stock price.  

so think about it: a stock that has low volatility has less changes in price than one w/high vol.  so jsut for demonstrative purposes, say your stock has zero volatility.  you buy the stock at $5, and it never moves.  how can you profit??  in fact, you lose b/c of trading costs.  

but a stock w/high volaltility, and high volume, moves around a lot.  tech stocks, like amazon for example, move alot in any given day.   look at some charts and become familiar w/trading ranges (daily, monthly, etc) of some stocks.  get to know it.  know what's going on in the market and industry.  check the morning news, and check overnight performance of other markets.  look for pending earnings releases, or economic releases.

day trading is a tough way to scratch out a living though.  that i can tell you for sure.

Answer 5

If your going to be making a ton of trades, find a broker that will give you a discounted commission...which most will because they want your business. Cobratrading, Noble trading, and tradestation are popular choices. I used cobra and noble and liked them both. Find one whos platform is easy to use, and reliable.

But I trade fx and no longer bother with stocks.