free paper-trading platform for short-selling? (moving from IB live)

P

pollock

Is there a free paper-trading platform that is best suited for short-selling of stocks?

I'm moving from Interactive Brokers (too 20th century, lol) and so want to check out a few platforms before I go live.

ThinkOrSwim came very close but they have a Hard-To-Borrow barrier of 100k, before I can even start shorting many stocks.

thanks!
 
So you prefer nice/cute/modern GUI rather than actually the top trading platform that is best for shorting and that you already use?
Other than IB, LightSpeed is used by some top short-sellers, and I think they offer several platforms/apps for trading, but not sure if any of them would meet your cuteness requirements.
 
can you confirm that IB is indeed the TOP trading platform for shorting stocks ? and the reason behind it? that would greatly help my decision! :-)

gui was one of the reasons, IB customer service is terrible too, compared to ToS.

if it's indeed the best, then i don't mind using it.
 
pollock said:
can you confirm that IB is indeed the TOP trading platform for shorting stocks ? and the reason behind it? that would greatly help my decision! :)

gui was one of the reasons, IB customer service is terrible too, compared to ToS.

if it's indeed the best, then i don't mind using it.
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IB is known to be one of best in terms of having many semi-pro and retail traders that own stock that can then be borrowed for shorting. Most brokers charge additional fees for locating hard-to-borrow stocks that you need to reserve for shorting earlier, but many times I just have pending/resting short orders at IB and at various times through the day I get my orders filled (often partially), as if some number of shares is being made available for shorting, likely due to short covering by other traders.
IB also has fairly low borrow %rates, although recently I saw TradeZero stating their rates may be better. But that would need to be compared over many stocks/trades/time-frames.

Famous penny stock trader and shorter, Ross Cameron, uses Lightspeed, I believe due to speed (various keyboard shortcut he uses and probably needs very basic GUI), and likely also due to stock availability for shorting.

Though "best" is relative and some platforms may work better for different traders and trading styles, so you may want to compare a few choices at one time or another.
 
Seems like every week there is at least one new thread asking, essentially, "Is there another broker that does as many things as IB, or is as cheap as IB, or trades as many markets as IB, or etc., etc..." :rolleyes:

No. They are the leader and the innovator. At lot of traders here would not be trading if not for IB. They are not perfect, no broker is. :)
 
pollock said:
Is there a free paper-trading platform that is best suited for short-selling of stocks?

I'm moving from Interactive Brokers (too 20th century, lol) and so want to check out a few platforms before I go live.

ThinkOrSwim came very close but they have a Hard-To-Borrow barrier of 100k, before I can even start shorting many stocks.

thanks!
More...

In general, paper trading platforms don't provide live data, so you can't test your strategy in real-time. We do provide free paper trading,but there is a 15 minute delay. It doesn't hurt to try us out. www.tradezero.us

Also,we're known in the industry for HTB stocks
 
guru said:
IB is known to be one of best in terms of having many semi-pro and retail traders that own stock that can then be borrowed for shorting. Most brokers charge additional fees for locating hard-to-borrow stocks that you need to reserve for shorting earlier, but many times I just have pending/resting short orders at IB and at various times through the day I get my orders filled (often partially), as if some number of shares is being made available for shorting, likely due to short covering by other traders.
IB also has fairly low borrow %rates, although recently I saw TradeZero stating their rates may be better. But that would need to be compared over many stocks/trades/time-frames.

Famous penny stock trader and shorter, Ross Cameron, uses Lightspeed, I believe due to speed (various keyboard shortcut he uses and probably needs very basic GUI), and likely also due to stock availability for shorting.

Though "best" is relative and some platforms may work better for different traders and trading styles, so you may want to compare a few choices at one time or another.
More...


nice answer. ty! while i have your attention, any suggestions on an scanner? I use TC2000, and just need basic pre-market scans. ty
 
TradeZero_Billy said:
In general, paper trading platforms don't provide live data, so you can't test your strategy in real-time. We do provide free paper trading,but there is a 15 minute delay. It doesn't hurt to try us out. www.tradezero.us

Also,we're known in the industry for HTB stocks
More...

How big is your book of shortable inventory?
 
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