I don't really have much to add to the discussion except to say that I have accounts at Charles Schwab, Interactive Brokers, and most recently Thinkorswim. Here are my observations:
- TOS's trading plaform is highly intuitive. it is extremely easy to understand and tap its features. Schwab's Streetsmart Pro is a joke, and hasn't been upgraded in ages. IB's Traderworkstation is a mishmash of a ton of trade execution features, but not much thought seems to have gone into making it intuitive or easy to use. IB's TWS programmers haven't given much thought to end userability. Whoever designed IB's TWS charting components need to be taken out, shot, then lynched, and _then_ have the corpse lashed 400 times. with the remaining bones thrown to the wolves. It is pure abomination and hell. I estimate IB TWS's charting capability decreases traders' IQ by 50%.
- TOS's trading platform, as far as I can tell, is the only platform that wil work behind a corporate firewall. This may only be important for those drawing a 2-week paycheck from a day job to pay for their daytrading addictions. I've tried Streetsmart Pro, Tradestation, IB's TWS -- none of them work behind a corporate firewall -- except TOS's platform
- One thing about TOS's software platform -- it's just so damn sexy. Once you understand it, the look and feel of it entices / seduces you to trade. If you are a poor trader, having TOS is actually a bad idea -- it will cause you to over-trade.
- I rely on Demark's TD Sequential, Combo and Setup Trend indicators. TOS's sotfware platform is the only retail platform that has an implementation (albeit imperfect) of TD Sequential. Demark's indicators cost hundreds or thousands of dollars _per month_ on professional platforms such has CQG or Bloomberg. I am praying that TOS will continue to implement the rest of Demark's indicators. This may be of zero interest to people on this board, as it seems to be mostly retail traders who don't bother or undertand what Demark indicators can do.
- Trading option combinations is a joy on TOS's platform. IB's option commission is much cheaper than TOS's (I pay $1.25 per option all-in using TOS), but I still trade options on TOS's platform for the pure userability and intuitive interface, not to mention the easy to understand option analyatical features.
- TOS's Penson monthly statement is an abomination on par with IB's charting abomination. Whoever designed TOS's Penson statements should suffer the same treatment as IB TWS's chart component programmers (see above).
- My Charles Schwab account has laid dormant since I started trading with TOS. But Charles Schwab apparently didn't care -- they really don't have much use for traders, apparently. In fact, I once wrote a letter to Charles Schwab and implored them to emulate what TOS is doing, and they essentially told me to funk off. I use IB mainly as a back-up and trade ETFs with it. TOS's stock commission is still too expensive for active trading in stocks.
I am crossing my fingers and praying that TOS will delay the big coporate bureacratic scloerosis and arrogance as long as possible. But I have no illusion that eventually all good things end. Then I move to another platform.
