Can anyone advice me on the best online broker to choose? I have a short term trading strategy.?
and some possible day trades. I need one with trailing stop/loss capabilities. Also, I’m trying to figure out if I need stock trading software? I have the specific parameters (Tech A.) mostly, so what is a good software? does any of the online brokers offer a good "real-time" software as well as low trade commissions? Any advice , especially from active traders , is appreciated. thanks.
April 30th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
Whatever disocunt brokerage firm you go with absolutely make sure to demand a money market fund for your cash account. ETrade and TD Ameritrade recently changed their policy and now pay less than 1% on cash…the income they earn by paying their customers less than 1% on cash and simply turning around and depositing "your" money into a money market account earns them huge profits (for ETrade it accounted for nearly 1/2 of their net income for the recent quarter)..Great way to treat their customers don’t you think….I can’t believe so many investors let them get away with this practice…I can’t stress enough that all discount brokerage customers need to look into what their firm is paying on cash and either demand a money market fund return (4.5-5%) or take your business to a place like Wells Fargo Investments that offers money market funds for idle cash and up to 100 free trades per account/year if you have over $25k between deposit, loans, and brokerage (including IRAs).