Who’s trading online and what are you using to do so? Pros? Cons?
Each platform has its pros and cons.
I use Fidelity and Interactive Brokers. IB is probably the best overall in terms of cost and execution. It has pretty cool analytical tools to figure out risk and option pricing as well, and most importantly, access to practically every market on the planet, many of which trade 24/6. Fidelity is more of a traditional full service firm, with access to research and proprietary financial workups, as well as good access to cash. They’re both good, but very different strengths.
I do most of my online trading here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?forum=2;
you should look into it!
I have a Scottrade account. $7 per trade. Much easier and cheaper than the traditional full service, (full price) broker I used to use.
It’s suprising how much info you can get on stocks at Yahoo.com. Historical prices, insider trades, institutional investors, ect.
I have a Scottrade account. $7 per trade. Much easier and cheaper than the traditional full service, (full price) broker I used to use.
It’s suprising how much info you can get on stocks at Yahoo.com. Historical prices, insider trades, institutional investors, ect.
I second this. Scottrade is cheap and no frills. Most of my research is on yahoo or leads I get from people at work.
If you are planning to trade online as in day trading I would make sure that you have a backup internet connection you can use. Just in case. It might sound silly now but there will come the time when your internet is down, even if it never happened before and you are in the market without being able to sell and without seeing what’s going on. I was up 30% in a trade in the morning hours. Things moved really really quick and right when I was about to put in a stop loss my Internet connection broke up. Never happened before and very seldom ever afterwards…but in those situations you need a backup plan.
Also, get more than just one online broker. I use Ameritrade and Etrade. Etrade is much better with stocks traded on the Canadian exchange.
If you are planning to trade online as in day trading I would make sure that you have a backup internet connection you can use. Just in case. It might sound silly now but there will come the time when your internet is down, even if it never happened before and you are in the market without being able to sell and without seeing what’s going on. I was up 30% in a trade in the morning hours. Things moved really really quick and right when I was about to put in a stop loss my Internet connection broke up. Never happened before and very seldom ever afterwards…but in those situations you need a backup plan.
Also, get more than just one online broker. I use Ameritrade and Etrade. Etrade is much better with stocks traded on the Canadian exchange.
If you are daytrading, then you do need two different backup systems. I had both a DSL and cable modem connection going with two different computers.
Now as far as which broker, it all depends on what type of trading. There are bokers that give you better access to the market makers than Ameritrade and Etrade. Are you a daytrader or something else?
No, no day trading here. But once a year or so I find myself jumping in for an hour or so with certain pharmaceutical stocks.