Need recommendation for online stock trading site ..?
Question:
Looking for low per transaction (trade) costs and perferably no other fees ..
Answer:
It's like buying a computer. You don't just buy a Dell, or HP, or IBM computer for all users and applications. You size the memory and hard disk and processor speeds to fit the application and individual.
Same thing with an online broker. If you're wanting to Day Trade, you need Direct Access. If you're going to trade after work or on weekends when the market is closed, save a lot of money with an end-of-day system, rather than real-time quotes.
Whoever answers this question, will give you the broker that they have settled on and now use. But their criteria are different than yours, and you don't tell us what yours are.
Are you trading stocks, commodities, futures, options, or all of these? If the latter, TerraNova is the only one that you can trade everything, real time, online, direct access. A lot of online brokerages claim to give you direct access, but if they take more than a second to execute your trade, it aint direct. This is something you won't know until you're all hooked up, so you gotta ask.
Find the articles online that have evaluated and compared online brokerages. I found a good one online in Barron's, but you'll find others in the trading magazines. This is how I found TerraNova, and I've used them for over a year; nothing but praise for them.
This is worth putting a little time and effort into, because it's a pain to switch, so once you choose, you're kinda stuck with it.
Townsend Electronics, the Parent company of TerraNova, is the one that digitized and electronified the Nasdaq. They are technological industry leaders and have a powerful and well built trading system.
I use RealTick at TerraNovaOnline, but it costs $275/mo, even though it is unlimited what you can do with it. I think the Investor package is free to use, and just uses one screen.
What you should try is a free trial of their Investor platform, which is free. You only get one window to trade from, but it's a good way to begin and you can always upgrade. Their rates are good also, but of course, it depends on how often you trade. It will take you months to learn all the bells and whistles of what this program can do.
The other top-of-the line program is TradeStation, but it costs big bucks to join and operate. Some people consider it the Cadillac of trading and technical analysis.
TerraNova is the home of the Day Trader, so they think nothing of you making several hundred trades a day. You don't have to do that, but it's okay here if you do.
Bottom line, your trading platform and executions are much more important than commissions or how "good" other people say they are. You have to test drive for yourself before you buy the vehicle. Try the Investor test drive demo, and you won't ever want to turn it lose.
ameritrade is cheapest.
www.usectrade.com
5paisa.com
www.scottrade.com
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