First Brokerage Advice

RKJSF said:
Hello Bob, with no disrespect (I see you work with Lightspeed), the reason I haven't considered Lightspeed is because throughout my own research, I haven't seen anyone suggest it as often as IB, TDA, and CP. On top of that, when I google search Lightspeed, most of the reviews are 3-3.5/5 and 7.5/10 while IB and TDA are 4-5/5 and 9-10/10.

But that doesn't mean I'm not willing to give you guys a chance, but that's why I didn't put it on the list. I will conduct some research about Lightspeed and if it seems like a great opportunity, I'll consider it greatly.

Thanks for the advice / welcoming.



You are 100% correct. I should reconsider my share size to match the risk / reward of each stock. I will play around in paper trading a little more and resize my share size. If I'm correct, slippage usually occurs with stocks with bigger spreads and less liquidity? In papertrading, I rarely use market orders as I have hotkeys that buy / sell @ ask / bid. But I read somewhere a LIMIT order becomes a MARKET order when the order is executed, not too sure.

As for shorting, you are also correct. It is unlimited as the stock can become the next bitcoin (stock vs currency, apples vs oranges, just using analogy). I usually short only if I see a great buy such as negative news as well as only short near a resistance. Which brokerage do you currently use?

Thank you for the reply and advice!
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I use TD Ameritrade with the ThinkorSwim application.
 
smallfil said:
I use TD Ameritrade with the ThinkorSwim application.
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Nice. Do you happen to day trade or happen to short a little bit? I'm wondering how there shorting is but I think as of now, I might be leaning towards IB using their tiered pricing. Stick with them for at least 6 months and venture out if I do not like where I'm at then. Not 100% positive yet.
 
RKJSF said:
Nice. Do you happen to day trade or happen to short a little bit? I'm wondering how there shorting is but I think as of now, I might be leaning towards IB using their tiered pricing. Stick with them for at least 6 months and venture out if I do not like where I'm at then. Not 100% positive yet.
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I trade stock options mostly, directional swing trades. Shorting is easy with options because you can buy call options when you think a stock is going up, buy put options when you think it is going down. Your risk is limited to the cost of the premium you paid for the option. That is on a worst case scenario. If you paid $300, you can only lose $300. Of course, you can get out sooner when the value of the premium goes down to $150 because your trade did not work out.
 
zoned_post_meridiem said:
It's been a while since I moved from ToS to IB, but aren't IB commissions a LOT lower?
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Depends on the commission plan you are on through IB. If you are using the fixed, it can be more expensive with share sizes of 1000+. This is because you can get TOS to lower their commission to 3-4$. For IB, 1000*0.005 = 5$.

If you used their tier option, I heard its cheaper as you can get rebates for adding liquidity. I'm not super familiar with this but I am probably going to go with the tier option through IB when I start day trading. I just have to read and understand it more thoroughly.

smallfil said:
I trade stock options mostly, directional swing trades. Shorting is easy with options because you can buy call options when you think a stock is going up, buy put options when you think it is going down. Your risk is limited to the cost of the premium you paid for the option. That is on a worst case scenario. If you paid $300, you can only lose $300. Of course, you can get out sooner when the value of the premium goes down to $150 because your trade did not work out.
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Nice. At this moment of time, I'm primarily focusing on trading stocks as I am no where near ready for options or futures. When I get good at trading stocks, I'll eventually step into the world of options. I heard they have a better risk/reward but it can be quite tricky.

I think I'm leaning towards IB but I have to pay $150 for their DAS Trader. This is due to getting Level 2 data as well as great selection of shorts.
 
Out in left field and people may not talk about...Exit fees. Something goes south and you need to close your account. What are the exit fees for each broker? Looking at all fees...Exit, money/wire transfer, auto closing positions, ect...
 
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