TOS/TD Qs regarding day trading

M

Mr.Sir

Hi Folks,

first time poster here....really appreciate your input on the below:

I wanna get into day trading stocks for small gains (scalping basically) and will get a margin account at tdameritrade. I dabbled in the stock market a while ago but held positions for years, not minutes!. This time around it's all about speed of execution and fill quality since i am aiming to scalp for cents!

that being said:

1) for those of you who have been actively day trading on TOS; have you used market orders at all to get in/out of a stock quick? and how fast did the order fill?( given position size)

2) I am reading alot of complaints about TD and TOS regarding their fill quality and price improvement. Does TOS typically fill at bid/ask midpoint or are they continuously hitting the limits.....or even worse exceeding them?

thanks
 
thx for the input...though i'd appreciate an answer to the Qs posted :)

like I said, I knew to all this scalping business...but say we're talking stocks like aapl/msft...etc..there is a ton of volume to go around.....i am not sure i understand your concern.

are you saying that the order (limit or market) might not even fill?
 
Mr.Sir said:
Hi Folks,

first time poster here....really appreciate your input on the below:

I wanna get into day trading stocks for small gains (scalping basically) and will get a margin account at tdameritrade. I dabbled in the stock market a while ago but held positions for years, not minutes!. This time around it's all about speed of execution and fill quality since i am aiming to scalp for cents!

that being said:

1) for those of you who have been actively day trading on TOS; have you used market orders at all to get in/out of a stock quick? and how fast did the order fill?( given position size)

2) I am reading alot of complaints about TD and TOS regarding their fill quality and price improvement. Does TOS typically fill at bid/ask midpoint or are they continuously hitting the limits.....or even worse exceeding them?

thanks
More...

Don't know what type of volume you be doing but TD might be too expensive for scalping.
Check out https://www.lightspeed.com/pricing/commission/
Lightspeed has active trader rates and less rates and have a buck min but generally half cent a share.

I had an account at TD once and software kept locking up or poor data. Others love them.

Exchanges were made for the big "boys", so have little loopholes and speed, like having servers inside the exchange building and automation taking over, so if you doing it manually, several others might be ahead of you and doing size, so you might not get any. Unless you are God's gift for scalping pennies, it is going to be tough road to go down, even with half cent share per trade, which is like one penny to complete a trade, you know have to make a penny to breakeven. Doesn't sound like much, but if you going for a nickel, whether you make or lose, broker gets his, then you get losses, if they greater than losing 10% of your trades and your R:R is 1 to 1, plus number of break even trades and losing on the fees and slippage, it be difficult to do going for cents.

I scalp futures past 3 decades plus, I use to day trade IBM for 5 years ago in the 90s, but targets were .75 to a buck few times a day always getting in on limits, I paid $5.00 for up to 5,000 shares then, so reward to fees didn't matter much, but going for cents will be huge concern. Your broker will most likely make more than you do for awhile and this does add up.

You should do simulated account, triple it, three time separate times, and then you have a good change of getting out of the gate positive.

Good luck.
 
Handle123 said:
Don't know what type of volume you be doing but TD might be too expensive for scalping.
Check out https://www.lightspeed.com/pricing/commission/
Lightspeed has active trader rates and less rates and have a buck min but generally half cent a share.
More...

Handle,
Thank you for the link.

Mr.Sir,
TOD/TD is not a day trading platform but more designed for investing. It provides one route which targets a broker which will offer liquidity. These broker routes are not as fast or liquid as using Direct Market Access (DMA). With DMA, you control your orders and be subject to maker/taker fees. We offer both per trade and per share pricing with a choice of trading software, some that are made specifically for day traders. Lightspeed Trader has many DMA routes, smart routes, algos etc. More importantly for a day trader, we offer customizable hotkeys and hot buttons. We also offer a stock scanner that is very popular. https://www.lightspeed.com/trading-platforms/lightspeed-trader/platform-features/

You can sign up for a demo here. https://www.lightspeed.com/demo-request/
If you would like me to be your sales person, please say you heard about us from Elite TRader.

Bob
 
My experience with TDA & TOS is they are not good for day trading. Their data feed will freeze during fast market, the order fills are far from desirable. If you are into scripting then their TOS script & structure are just plain horrible. Other than that, they are probably one of the best retail brokers out there in the US.

PS: I've rewritten their monkey bar script to perform like an original market profile so I know quite well how "efficient" TOS are. My day trading account is no longer with them but the investment accounts are still there.
 
SkyChef said:
order fills are far from desirable
More...

thanks for the input.

can you please elaborate more on this? what kind of stocks where you trading,position size, order type (limit/market, marketable/nonmarketable, at the quote limit/inside the limit...etc)?

also what about the time aspect of order filling? average time to fill a market order vs marketable limit order?

thanks again
 
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