Best Brokers for Active Online Day Trading 2013
If you are an active trader / day trader, and are looking for an option for you to open a brokerage account, you would probably be looking for a stable platform with fast execution and cheapest commission rates.
Read the editorial and user reviews of the most popular day trading brokerages above, which will give you a complete analysis of their day trading software features, commissions and fees, and their user feedback. Comparebroker’s research team went through various day trading brokerage platforms and have selected following brokers for your consideration:
What is Day Trading?
Day trading is the buying and selling of different financial instruments, such as stocks, options, currencies with buying and selling on the same day. The goal of online day trading is to execute a lot of trades, and make profit from the difference between the buying price and the selling price.
Before the dawn of Internet, Day trading was only available to big financial institutions, because only they had access to the exchanges and market data. Although, it involves high risk, some traders do day trading for a living.
How is Day Trading Done?
There are several different styles of day trading, suited to different day trader personalities. The styles range from short term trading such as scalping where positions are only held for a few seconds or minutes, to longer term swing and position trading where a position may be held throughout the trading day.
- 126 retail outlets across US
- Excellent in-house and 3rd party research
- Powerful, easy-to-use trading tools
- #1 Broker for Novices and Long Term Investing - Barron's 2013
- Stocks Trading Fee: $9.99
- Options Trading Base Fee: $9.99
- Per Contract Options Fee: $0.75
- Trading Technology Rated #1 by Barrons.
- No additional commission on stocks under $2, large-size orders and extended hours trading
- Best trading platform in the industry
- Free virtual trading
- Exclusive access to CNBC Plus directly within thinkDesktop
- Stocks Trading Fee: $9.99
- Options Trading Base Fee: $9.99
- Per Contract Options Fee: $0.75
- Best Customer Service: "SmartMoney's Annual Broker Survey
- Broker Assisted Trade at no additional cost
- #1 online discount broker by SmartMoney Magazine
- Free real-time quotes
- Stocks Trading Fee: $4.95
- Options Trading Base Fee: $4.95
- Per Contract Options Fee: $0.65
- Free virtual trading
- Refer to a friend and win $150 or 30 free trades
- Cheapest Stock Trading Commission
- No up charge for Broker-Assisted Trading
- Ranked 6 overall By Barron's 2013
- Orders are accepted by phone
- Stocks Trading Fee: $3.95
- Options Trading Base Fee: $8.50
- Per Contract Options Fee: $0.15
- Over 500 physical offices for customer service
- Easy transfer of an account from any other broker to Scottrade
- Great emphasis on in-Person online education
- Excellent Mobile Trading and Account Access
- Stocks Trading Fee: $7.00
- Options Trading Base Fee: $7.00
- Per Contract Options Fee: $1.25
- Cheapest broker for frequent traders
- Social networking community for Lightspeed customers
- Direct access to ECN’s and exchanges
- Free practice account
- Automated trading
- Stocks Trading Fee: $4.50
- Options Trading Base Fee: $0.00
- Per Contract Options Fee: $0.60
- Trade unlimited shares of stocks for $4.95 per trade.
- Offers flat per contract options trades with no base fees.
- 24-hour customer service
- FOREX trading available
- Stocks Trading Fee: $4.95
- Options Trading Base Fee: $0.00
- Per Contract Options Fee: $0.95
- #1 Discount Brokers - Barron's 2013 Survey
- Low stock commissions for orders with 1,000 shares or less
- Professional trading platform
- Access to many international markets
- Stocks Trading Fee: $0.00
- Options Trading Base Fee: $0.00
- Per Contract Options Fee: $0.70
How to Choose a Day Trading Brokerage?
Day trading brokerages are different from traditional investment brokerages, because the former offer services specifically designed for day trading.
While choosing a broker, you must look for two things:
- Execution Time of Trading Platform: For a day trading, profits can change in seconds. Choose the broker with the best day trading platform. A Day Trading Software is an essential necessity for day traders who have to rely more on technical analysis rather than market news. Some of the best day trading software are esignal, ninjatrader, multicharts, and Madscan.
- Commissions: As you shall be executing a number of trades per day, therefore, commissions is one other area where you should dig in. Don't choose a broker with high commissions. Being said #2, I would advise to go with broker with a broker even though it has high commissions.
Day Trading Rules
If the frequency of your day trades is four or more times in five business days, you will be marked as a "Pattern Day Trader". In that case, you’ll be required to maintain $25,000 equity in your brokerage account at all times. If account balance falls below $25,000, a day trading minimum equity call will be issued and you have to deposit additional funds.Best Day Trading Broker
TD Ameritrade stands out as the best day trading broker, because of its excellent trading platform, not very high commissions, and award winning customer service.Popular Brokerage Offers
Refer your friends to OptionsHouse and get your choice of $150 or 30 commission-free trades.