5 Best Day Trading Platforms For 2019 | StockBrokers.com Day Trading Software

The StockBrokers.com best online brokers 2019 re-examination (9th annual) took six months to complete and produced over 30,000 words about research. Here's how we tested.

Day Trading, which is buying and selling shares during the similar trading session, exploded within popularity in reverse within the echoing shares mart about the 1990s. Everyone was hard to grow within and out about securities and make a earnings supported by an intraday basis. After the dot-com mart crash within 2000, the SEC and FINRA established the “Pattern Day Trader” regulation within 2001, which increased the requirements to twenty-four hours business within an effort to better protect consumers.

To twenty-four hours business today, you have at least $25,000 to follow with the Pattern Day Trader rule. Traders essential also meet margin requirements. The government place these laws into spot to protect investors. Bottom line: twenty-four hours trading is risky.

To twenty-four hours business effectively, you miss to choose a twenty-four hours trading platform. As a twenty-four hours trader, you miss a combination about low-cost trades coupled with a feature-rich trading stand and large trading tools. Price isn't everything; therefore, numerous twenty-four hours traders are willing to pay more to grow the tools they miss to business more efficiently.

Best Day Trading Platforms

Here's a collapse about some about the finest online brokers for twenty-four hours trading.

• Interactive Brokers - Best rates, qualified platform
• Fidelity - Competitive rates, balanced platform
• TradeStation - Great platform, pliable rates
• TD Ameritrade - Best platform, expensive rates
• Charles Schwab - Competitive rates, balanced platform

Best rates, qualified stand - Open Account

Exclusive Offer: New clients that open an description today receive a special margin rate.

Our No. 1 pick for twenty-four hours trading, Interactive Brokers, wins this grouping because the broker caters specifically for active and hyperactive traders. You won’t turn up the broker’s stand built for beginners, and you can mostly forget regarding research. What you drive find, though, are programmable hotkeys and a slew about instruct types for placing every possible business imaginable, containing algorithmic orders, alongside the lowest margin rates within the industry. Popular with the institutional community, containing hedge funds, IB offers the lowest commissions within the industry. Read full review

Competitive rates, balanced platform

Fidelity was ranked earliest total for order execution, providing traders industry-leading instruct fills alongside a cut-throat platform. For twenty-four hours traders, Active Trader Pro (ATP) is Fidelity’s flagship desktop platform, and is packed with tools. Charting is cleanly laid out and encompasses pretty much everything a marketer could want: 22 different drawing tools, 166 optional studies, overlays, custom profiles, trading away the chart, displayed alerts, notes, and more. Recognia is also incorporated to automate the identification about common technical patterns. Read full review

Great platform, pliable rates - Open Account

Promo Offer: Spring into the mart action with FREE trading until 2020

As a trading technology leader, TradeStation shines, supporting traders through its web-based stand while skilfully while its desktop platform, which we rated No. 1 for Platform Technology. The tools provided within TradeStation desktop are common and professional. For example, more than 40 years about real facts are available for trading equities when it comes to charting and studies. Furthermore, a staggering 274 indicators/studies are available, every single about which can exist reworked or adjusted to the trader's specifications using TradeStation’s proprietary coding language, EasyLanguage. Read full review

Best platform, expensive rates

TD Ameritrade's thinkorswim is our No. 1 desktop stand for 2019 and is dwelling to an impressive array about tools. These involve company profiling, sophisticated earnings analysis, plotting FRED data, charting social sentiment, in reverse testing and replaying real markets mark by tick, or viewing economic and corporate calendars. The brokerage also enables traders to create and conduct real-time shares scans, share charts and workspace layouts, and perform sophisticated options analysis. The rabbit hole goes while far while any trader's imagination drive take them. It’s a dazzling offering about choices that drive set your mind spinning – within a great way. Read full review

Competitive rates, balanced platform

For twenty-four hours traders, Charles Schwab offers its desktop download StreetSmart Edge platform, which provides the majority about trading tools and functionality active traders miss to succeed. If there is single advantage about trading with Schwab's flagship platform, it's that the stand easier to master than Interactive Brokers TWS, TD Ameritrade thinkorswim, and TradeStation 10; however, there are shorter features and customization options overall. Read full review

Day Trading Platform Features Comparison

Is there a specific quality you require for your trading? Popular tools used by twenty-four hours traders involve ladder trading, position II quotes, business hot keys, direct mart routing, shares alerts, streaming while & sales, and policy backtesting, with numerous others.

Lucky for you, StockBrokers.com operates the largest verified database supported by the web for online brokerages. For a deeper contrast about 150+ features, use our online brokerage contrast tool.

Feature	Interactive Brokers	Fidelity	TradeStation	TD Ameritrade
Minimum Deposit	$0.00	$0.00	$500.00	$0.00
Stock Trade Fee (per trade)	N/A	$4.95	$5.00	$6.95
Stock Trade Fee (per share)	$0.005	N/A	$0.01	N/A
Stock Alerts - Basic Fields	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Stock Alerts - Advanced Fields	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Streaming Time & Sales	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Streaming TV	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Direct Market Routing - Stocks	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Direct Market Routing - Options	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Ladder Trading	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Trade Hot Keys	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Level 2 Quotes - Stocks	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Level 2 Quotes - Options	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Trade Ideas - Backtesting	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Short Locator	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Client Liquidity Rebates	Yes	No	Yes	No
Active Trading	5	5	5	4.5

What is a twenty-four hours trading?

FINRA rules outline a twenty-four hours business as, "The purchase and sale, or the sale and purchase, about the similar security supported by the similar twenty-four hours within a margin account. This definition encompasses any security, containing options. Also, twenty-four hours trading can involve the same-day short sale and purchase about the similar security."

Day trading is a policy within which shares traders purchase and sell throughout the twenty-four hours with a goal about making small profits with every single trade. At the end about every single trading day, they subtract their total profits (winning trades) from total losses (losing trades), subtract out trading appoint costs, and the sum is their net earnings (or loss) for the day.

How much money perform I miss to twenty-four hours trade?

To twenty-four hours trade, traders essential maintain an description balance about at least $25,000 to follow with the Pattern Day Trader rule, which grants them access to 4:1 margin during the day. It is important to remember, twenty-four hours trading is risky.

What is a "pattern twenty-four hours trader"?

FINRA rules outline a pattern twenty-four hours marketer as, "Any customer who executes well or more 'day trades' inside five trade days, provided that the number about twenty-four hours trades represents more than six percent about the customer's total trades within the margin description for that similar five-business-day period."

Why does the pattern twenty-four hours trading regulation require $25,000?

The SEC believes that at the similar while as everything forms about investing are risky, twenty-four hours trading is an especially high risk practice. The pattern twenty-four hours marketer regulation was said to exist place within spot to limit potential losses and protect the consumer.

As a result, the pattern twenty-four hours marketer regulation is enforced by every major US online brokerage, while according to law. The SEC believes that those whose description importance is shorter than $25,000 are more likely to exist shorter complex traders. After the dot-com mart crash, the SEC and FINRA decided that previous twenty-four hours trading rules did not correctly address the inherent risks with twenty-four hours trading.

How perform I choose a twenty-four hours trading platform?

All within all, finding the right stand for twenty-four hours trading earliest requires understanding the laws and making sure you have at least $25,000 for Pattern Day Trader status. Next, ask yourself, “How important are low trading commissions?” and, “How important are tools?” Assume that lower business costs normally mean shorter quality within such areas while research, trading tools, mobile trading apps, or ease about use. In the world about a hyperactive twenty-four hours trader, there is certainly not at all for free lunch.

Which brokers present with mart rebates for adding liquidity?

Interactive Brokers, Lightspeed, TradeStation, Cobra Trading, and SpeedTrader everything present with what are known while “unbundled” rates, which method they pass 100% about everything mart rebates (or charges) for adding (or taking) liquidity in reverse to their clients. Many mart exchanges (examples involve Citadel, Bats, and KCG (Virtu)) drive pay your broker for routing your instruct to them. These rebates are normally not at all more than a tenth about a penny or two per share, but they total up. See: Order Execution Guide.

Using a broker such while Lightspeed, routing a 1,000-share purchase limit instruct supported by the NYSE drive currently net you $0.0014 per share. Lightspeed’s base speed is $.0045 per share, therefore the original $4.50 business now becomes only $3.10, thanks to a $1.40 rebate from the NYSE. This represents a savings about 31 percent. Note, however, this goes both ways, while routing a straight market order to the NYSE instead would experience a charge about $.0027 per share, thus increasing the price about the trade.

Summary: Best Day Trading Platforms

Online Broker	Trading Platform	Minimum Deposit	Commissions	Active Trading
Interactive Brokers	Trader Workstation (TWS)	$0	$0.005 per share	5 Stars
Fidelity	Active Trader Pro	$0	$4.95	5 Stars
TradeStation	TradeStation 10	$500	$5.00	5 Stars
TD Ameritrade	thinkorswim	$0	$6.95	4.5 Stars
Charles Schwab	StreetSmart Edge	$0	$4.95	4.5 Stars

Read Next

• Order Execution Guide
• Best Stock Brokers for 2019
• Best Discount Brokers
• Best Brokers for Options Trading
• Best Brokers for Penny Stocks Trading
• Compare Online Brokers

Methodology

For the StockBrokers.com ninth annual best online brokers re-examination published within February 2019, a total about 4,544 facts points were collected over six months and used to score brokers. This makes StockBrokers.com dwelling to the largest independent database supported by the web cover the online broker industry.

Participation is required to exist included. Each broker completed an in-depth facts outline and provided executive while (live within person or over the web) for an annual update meeting. Our rigorous facts validation process yields an error speed about shorter than .001% every single year, providing site visitors quality facts they can trust. Learn more regarding how we test.

Still aren't sure which broker to choose? Ask us a question! Whether you are a beginner investor study the ropes or a qualified trader, we are in or at this place to help. Email us your online broker specific inquiry and we drive answer inside single trade day. It is our pleasure guarantee.

About the author: Blain Reinkensmeyer As Head about Research at StockBrokers.com, Blain Reinkensmeyer has 18 years about trading experience with over 1,000 trades placed during that time. Referenced while a leading expert supported by the US online brokerage industry, Blain has been quoted within The New York Times, Forbes, and the Chicago Tribune, with others.

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