What is the best borkerage firm?

Answer 1

Whoever answers this question, will give you the broker that they have settled on and now use. But their criteria are different than yours, and you don't tell us what yours are.

The charting package and front-end trading platform are more important than the name of the broker or how much their commissions are (within reason), or how "easy" the program is to use. You will learn and grow into it. Go for functionality.

I trade futures and commodities, and some day I want to trade stocks again also. Actually I'm concentrating on Currencies right now.

You've probably already found out that Ameritrade and Scottrade don't do commodities, because these brokers must have a separate license to trade commodities.

There may be others, but I only know of one online broker that does it all. And very few of all of the online brokers out there are true Direct Access. If your trade takes more than one second to execute, then it ain't Direct Access. You won't know until the account is set up, unless you ask. Don't just ask them if they give you Direct Access to the trading floor, ask them "Will my trade execute in less than one second or less?"

Along with a very sophisticated and professional charting package and trading platform, TerraNovaOnline is the only online broker I know of that gives you all of this. This is true state-of-the-art technology.

Find the articles online that have evaluated and compared online brokerages. I found a good one online in Barron's, but you'll find others in the trading magazines: Active Trader, Futures Mag, etc.

This is worth putting a little time and effort into, because it's a pain to switch, so once you choose, you're kinda stuck with it.

Townsend Electronics, the Parent company of TerraNova, is the one that digitized and electronified the Nasdaq. They are technological industry leaders and have a powerful and well built trading system.

I use RealTick at TerraNovaOnline, but it costs $275/mo. I think the Investor package is free to use, and just uses one screen. Try their demo free trial.

Their rates are good also, but of course, it depends on how often you trade. It will take you months to learn all the bells and whistles of what this program can do.

The other top-of-the line program is TradeStation, but it costs big bucks to join and operate. Some people consider it the Cadillac of trading and technical analysis.

Another expensive charting package to use is FutureSource.

TerraNova is the home of the Day Trader, so they think nothing of you making several hundred trades a day. You don't have to do that, but it's okay here if you do.

Answer 2

I recall seeing an article on this subject in one of the investment mags recently, you might go by a library and peruse Fortune/Forbes etc. One thing I would caution you about if you aren't planning on investing a large amount of money many brokerages will charge you a service fee on a small account. For example I use Etrade and they charge a $50 yearly service fee on accounts of less than $5000. That's equivalent to a 5% headwind if you're only investing a grand, which is something you may want to avoid. Definitely worth reading the fine print.

Answer 3

I've been using E-trade since they started. Their website is extremely reliable, customer service is very good, and their analysis / information sources are exceptional.

They're good for both day-trading (which I've done) and investing.

http://www.etrade.com

Answer 4

for trading stocks, Ameritrade - hands down!
for trading options, Options Express!

Answer 5

For the best borking, go to bork.com