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Portfolio123 » List all forums » Forum: General Comments » Thread: Comment on your brokerage experiences here |
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Total posts in this thread: 9 |
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bl82
Advanced Member UNITED STATES Joined: Apr 18, 2004 Posts: 97 Status: Offline |
Someone just asked about the group's experiences with Terra Nova Online. I'd like to expand that question to all brokerages. I have had the following experiences, roughly rated from top to bottom: 1) TD Waterhouse -- Platinum level provides a strong trading platform, quite a few IPOs (may become more valuable in future), $10 commissions (for as many shares as you want), reasonably fast execution, very good customer service, and a host of features I do not use, like investment research, banking, etc. Not sure how the merger with Ameritrade will change things. Bottom line: best all-around performer; $10 for large block trades Greatest attraction for me: trading platform (and my familiarity with it) 2) optionsXpress -- just opened an account here. Already my #1 pick for options and an impressive list of features for trading stocks (things like contingent orders, 'market on close' trades, etc.) Stock trades are $10 for up to 1000 shares, otherwise this would be my #1 choice. Note that I believe you can open an account without funding it and have access to many of their tools. Bottom line: best trading tools, for stocks or options Greatest attraction for me: focus on options 3) USAA -- this inclusion may surprise some here, but they do two things exceptionally well: (1) perhaps the best execution (excluding direct access brokers) in the business; and (2) trades are only $8 (up to 1000 shares.) Many other drawbacks here, such as below-average user interface, too many clicks to execute a particular action, inability to go short, etc. The broader company has superb customer service, but their investment arm is behind their insurance and banking in terms of products, features, etc. Bottom line: best execution on market orders (often fill like limit orders) Greatest attraction for me: execution on $8 market orders 4) ScotTrade -- was one of the first to have a solid trading platform with streaming quotes. For $7 per trade, still a bargain, though the site has not improved much over the years. You can go to ScotTraderR (http://www.scottrader.com/) and get a demo ID that will allow you to use (indefinitely) the features of the portfolio tracker without actually opening an account. Bottom line: the basics for a good price Greatest attraction for me: $7 trades 5) Schwab -- I was a Platinum customer for many years and enjoyed their Velocity package, but they got too expensive and their top-flight customer service began to decline. As a trader, I ended up paying premium prices for lots of functionality I didn't care about. Note that I never tried their CyberTrader affiliate, which would probably be a better fit for my needs, but was not (at least recently) integrated with the rest of Schwab. Bottom line: had (have?) the best customer service of all 'discounters' Greatest attraction for me: spend lots of money continuously improving their products and services ---------------------------------------- http://vixandmore.blogspot.com/ "Your one stop VIX-centric view of the universe..." ---------------------------------------- [Edit 3 times, last edit by bl82 at Jul 21, 2005 10:01:57 AM] |
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pagosa1
Advanced Member  UNITED STATES Joined: Nov 26, 2003 Posts: 84 Status: Offline |
My favorite of all is OptionsXpress. Many great features, especially regarding options and the commissions are 9.95 for stocks for frequent traders. Great customer service. Scottrade is ok and has a new Web site. Now allows trailing stops BUT all open orders are cancelled after 60 days which defeats the benefit of trailing stops. Like the $7 commissions. Didn't much care for Ameritrade as the site is difficult to navigate.  |
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BJS
Advanced Member
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Has anyone used Interactive Brokers or Tradestation? Brian |
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Capnpaul
Advanced Member
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Re: Trade Station & Interactive Brokers Trade Station is my overall choice and by far the best platform. The open program language ELA allows for macros and automation. A $100 monthly rental fee for the program is reasonable considering the low a .01 per share commission and the strengths of the platform. The new Radar station with TS8 allows for a live spreadsheet presentation of the indicators of your choice, and auto sorting brings to the top of the presentation your indicators of choice. You should test Radar Station prior to making any decision, it's the best available.  Interactive brokers are the best for the money. Their shortfall is the fact that they are a computer program. Talking to Customer Service is near impossibe. All trading records are obtained through downloadable file transfers. (as is TS) |
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BJS
Advanced Member
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Thanks, Capn! Do you have a lot of experience with IB? You say talking to someone in customer service is nearly impossible, but is it necessary very often? Do they have any probelms with inaccurate fills, etc.? Just curious. I have been considering switching to them. As far as Tradestation goes, it looks very impressive. But I don't know if the platform is really necessary if you trade per P123 systems. That kinda takes away the need for the automatic signal trading, doesn't it? Seems like a redundancy. What are your thoughts? This brings up another question I have been wondering about - is there any future plans to set up an automatic trading link to some of the online brokers. i.e. P123 generates trade signals and automatically sends them to your broker to be filled on Monday morning. Marco, any such plans? Brian |
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Capnpaul
Advanced Member
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Hi Brian, My experience with IB was limited to several months of trading while testing TradeStation interconnected to IB and used them only for several months. I never had a problem with placed orders or any “inaccurate fills” however, if you have ever had the need to place a trade for a rapidly moving stock, with the internet connection down for whatever reason, then you would need to be able to quickly place that trade by telephone. That option is what I was referring to above. TradeStation is a platform that delivers more than automated strategy trades. The Radar Screen previously mentioned, alone makes the program worthwhile to me in my trading style. But then, I’m deeply into TA and look at and consider how the charts read as well as the fundamental analysis available in P123. |
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BJS
Advanced Member
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Capn, TA vs fundamentals has always been an internal stuggle for me. When I started investing in individual stocks, I thought fundamanetal investing made the most sense. When that didn't work the way I thought it would, I switched to technical investing. I've spent a lot of time with that, and have been more successful that way. I still consider myself a chartist, and like that style the best, but that wasn't the complete answer, either. P123 combines the two in a very user-friendly way. Although, I think it leans more to the fundamental side. If/when we get daily rebalancing, and we get more technical indicators like ADX, RSI, etc. then this will truly be complete. Brian |
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janta605
Advanced Member
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Brian, I love Interactive Brokers - have been with them for several years. Every execution was made without any problems. Their Trader Workstation is great although for P123 purposes not neccessary. What I like is that when I had problems using the Trader Workstation (firewall issues at work), I can always use their Web Trader which is a web interface to trading with them accessible over the internet. Being a programmer myself, I also like their API libraries and access. The best part is their price which fits well with P123 if you trade many stock in several protfolios per week. My 2c... AJ |
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BJS
Advanced Member
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AJ, Thanks for the info. Brian |
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