Who's your brokerage and why?

[aboni]

I'm done with Lightspeed. The price was right but it's one bumbling after another.

Who's your recommended broker and why?

[akehuhar]

I use scottrade and why, I like the layout of their web sight and I get a flat 6 dollar trade for my volume with them. I usually get a call from them ever month looking for my input into their business. They are very friendly and know what they are talking about at the local office. I had a friend that was with TD Ameritrade. I imagine that you can change your home page. Never saw so many button, levers, pulies, knobs, switches, buttons (as I put it) for working the market before. I showed him mine and it was laid out so simple.

[aqueiluk]

I use thinkorswim through TDA It can be as complex or as simple as u like. When i first started my charts looked like a London street map on top of rail and bus lines with airtraffic thrown in. Now it's just candlesticks, volume with a SPY comparison line and implied volatility underneath. The cost of trading stock for me is 7$ and options are 1.50$ per lot. And the first 60 days of trading or up to 500$ in commission is free. And the customer support, learning tools and free seminars are through the roof. I'm still learning but I have yet to see a retail trading platform that has more to offer. I'm sure there are a lot of choices out there to find what works for you. Good luck.

[AnthonyMl]

I use a few different ones depending on what I am trading. But if you are looking for a recommendiation I guess it would be better known in what you are trading.

If securities and options then I will agree with Acstudio TDA has one of the best platforms out there. In the same range as most other retailers as far a commish. I like their platform for trading futures as well. I moved my futures trading from IB to TDA as they offered the same tools, and it was easy to link my accounts across.

If your securities is OTC then I would recommend E*Trade. They are a lot more geared towards OTCs then most other retailers. If shorting OTC then IB (Interactive Brokers) and SureTrader. As most of them have shares to lend out of just about anything.

If Forex then I would go with IB on that one. Only reason I am saying them is because I have not used TDAs forex accounting that much as of yet.

But even then if your capital is enough, it always good to have multiple brokerage accounts. This will help when if you are a day trader and you come across a platform is having issues that day. You just move over to your other broker house and do your day trading there.

As far as commish most of them if you are trading enough they will match just about any other retail out there. They don't want to lose your business, so they will give you just about the same rates across the board. E*Trade would not budge on their rates, till I told them what I was getting from TD. I did an ACH and moved half of the capital from one account there. They called the next day and did a price match.

[alufejuli]

I just use the candle stick charts and nothing else. That is all that I am interested in, how far has it been, how far has it gone down and what does a future bounce of .10 cents will look like. You can see what there is to be make out there with just a .10 cent gain. That is why I like to use priceline and coke. Price line changes in dollars (sometimes many) over a day. With coke I must use the volume as it only changes in cents (usually) per day.