WHATS THE BEST AND CHEAPEST ONLINE TRADER TO USE FOR BUYING, SELLING, SHORTING AND TRADING OPTIONS WITH?
by Gary James on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 | 3 Comments
I use scottrade now because I love their streamer and I like doing trades off the streamer window BUT!! Scottrade has wayyyyyyyy too many stupid rules like you can’t short a stock under , or you must trade only on settled funds, LOL!!! I hear of traders shorting freaking penny stocks at .0005, so I’m looking for an online trader that has trading prices around BUT!! Does not have the stupid rules to go with it.
Hey everyone, Gary here. Stock trading was never my forte'. I lost tens of thousands of dollars listening to stupid advice and letting other people trade for me.
Well, you get what you pay for. Low commissions = poor service. I use Optionsxpress. I pay more but I don’t get stupid restrictions.
To short sub-cent penny stocks, you’ll need a special arrangement with a broker…one with plenty of clout and leeway.
I use Ameritrade but haven’t heard bad things about Scottrade. As for difficulty with settlement dates, the SEC is responsible for this, not your broker. It would be in the brokerage’s best interests to facilitate any and all trades. However, if you arrange to make your trading account "margin enabled," you’ll no longer encounter the liquidity issue arising from settlement date considerations.
Incidentally, I renegotiated my commission rate at Ameritrade and pay $7. I had to threaten to jump to Scottrade and it worked. Check Tradeking for a much lower rate.
Len
It depends on where you live. If in Canada, I used to trade with a company out of Toronto called questrade. I’m not sure what their rates are now, but at the time they were very reasonable, and if you will be doing a high amount of volume they improve your rates. Good luck