Trader Mom @ Home

My main trading platform is TradeStation.  But I also have ThinkorSwim and Interactive Brokers as back ups for their combined long list of short-able stocks.  Here is the review on Tradestion and here is the one on Thinkorswim.  Today, it is about Interactive Brokers. Interactive Brokers has been rated 4.5 out of 5 by Barrons’ a few years in a row, which the highest score. TradeStation , Interactive Brokers and ThinkorSwim always tie for the first place most of the time.

Pros:

1. IB is a very powerful trading platform for major trading instruments such as Futures, Forex and Stocks.  When coupled with Ninja Trader, I believe it will be a killer platform for system trading.
2. Due to its super low commissions, it is a very viable platform for high frequency trading.
3. IB is an all-you-can-eat buffet type of broker that you can use to trade anything in any major markets around the world.
4. IB has pretty low margin rates.
5. The trading platform is reliable most of the time.
6. IB has a huge list of shortable stocks.
    

Cons:

1. IB’s charting is sub standard compared with TradeStation and Thinkorswim.  But you can use ESignal to make up for this shortcoming. 
2. Sub standard customer service.  It might be due to their super low commissions.  I give Thinkorswim 3 thumbs up (one borrowed from my hubby) for her outstanding customer service.
3. You will need to pay data fees. It is cheaper than TradeStation though.
4. The software might take you sometime to get used to.
    

In conclusion,   I like Interactive Brokers a lot.   Trading E-Mini and Forex one day has always been on my mind. So I might move to IB completely one day.

My main trading platform is TradeStation.  But I also have ThinkorSwim as a back-up along with Interactive Brokers for their combined long list of shortable stocks. ThinkorSwim has been rated 4.5 out of 5 by Barrons’ a few years in a row.  This is the highest score. TradeStation and Interactive Brokers tie with ThinkorSwim most of the time. 

Pros

1. ThinkorSwim has very good charting.  It is smooth and accurate.
2. It has a very deep database to provide you with up to 20 years of historical data, which is very important for back testing.
3. The platform (Think Desktop) is pretty stable.  
4. The software is written in Java.  So it can run almost on any operation systems such as Windows, MAC OS (a UNIX flavor),  and *nix.   In addition to their desktop application, they have Think Anywhere®, Think Micro® and Think Mobile® for various hand held devices such as Blackberry/Nokia, IPhone.
5. Superior customer service.   You can even chat with a Rep inside the desktop application.
6. A decent list of shortable stocks.
7. The learning curve is flat.   
8. No monthly data fees like TradeStation and Interactive Brokers charge.
9. If you take 40 or more trades every month, they will cover your Internet cost (39.95 per month). 
10. You can easily split ThinkorSwim into dual/multi monitor set-up.  Want to have a crazy 24 monitor set-up like this?

Cons:

1. ThinkorSwim commission is the highest among these 3 brokers.  They do have 2 fee structures for trading stocks. One is $.015 per share ($5.00 minimum) or flat $9.95 per trade (5,000 shares maximum).   Obviously it is too expensive if you compare it with TradeStation or Interactive Brokers.  Here is the commission that TradeStation charges.  Here is the commission that Interactive Brokers charges. 

In conclusion,   I like ThinkorSwim. But I only use it occasionally due to its expensive commission and the way I trade.  You can not use ThinkorSwim if you are a scalper or your trading style is similar to mine.  But if you are a swing trader, go for it.

I have been using TradeStation for a while. Overall, it is a great trading platform. It has been rated 4.5 out of 5 by Barrons’ a few years in a row.  This is the highest score.  ThinkorSwim and Interactive Brokers also have 4.5.  A few people asked me to write a review about it. I will start with the software.

TradeStation Platform

Pros

1. I believe TradeStation has the best charting, which is very accurate and smooth.  
2. It has a very deep database to provide you with up to 20+ years of historical data, which is very important for back testing.
3. The platform is pretty stable.   There were only a few short outages last year as far as I remember.
4. There are a lot of convenient features to aid you in rapid order executions such as “exit all”.   For example, it takes me 2-3 seconds to exit all my open positions because I do not have to fill out an order form.   This is very useful for day traders so we can easily close all our positions at 3:59 PM
5. You can automate your trades if you like.
6. The software is written in C++.  So it is slightly faster than ThinkorSwim and Interactive Brokers. 
    
     

Cons: 

1. The learning curve is kind of steep when you need to automate your trades because you need to have some programming skills.  TradeStation does come with some strategies ready for use. But they are useless 
2. Because it is written in C++, I believe the only operating system they support is Windows. Sorry for Mac and Linux users.    ThinkorSwim and Interactive Brokers are written in Java. So they can run on anything.
3. TradeStation does not have a browser based Platform.   So you can not sneak in a few trades at work.   This is one of the reasons that many retail traders do not use TradeStation.  This is where Interactive Brokers and ThinkorSwim shine

Fee structures 

Pros:

1. It has  flexible fee structures.    One is 6.99 per trade regardless how many shares you have, which is what I have.    It is very good for penny stock traders. 
2. The other is 0.01 per share for the first 500 shares and then 0.006 per share for the remaining.  For example, if I have 1000 shares, I pay $5 for the first 500 shares and then pay $3(0.006 X 500).  Therefore, the total is 8.    It is not hard to see if you are a scalper that trades high priced stocks like Bidu,GS or GOOG, this fee structure is in your favor.  For example, you pay only 4 dollars for a round trip of 200 shares of Bidu.  Interactive Brokers is even slightly cheaper.    Of course, if you are a high flyer scalper that trades north of 700 shares of GOOG,GS or anything like that each time, you can always choose option 1

Cons:
 
You need to pay fees for real time data like NASDAQ level2, total views and other stuff.  It can cost 50-60 dollars a month for data subscriptions.  This is the same with Interactive Brokers.   This is another reason why most retail users do not use them.   They go to ThinkorSwim.
 
Customer Service

I am overall happy with TradeStation.  Each time I call them, it takes only 2-3 minutes to reach a customer service rep.   I met one rude person who perhaps did not have enough sleep the night before. However, It does not affect my overall experience with TradeStation.
 
 
In conclusion, TradeStation is a very solid platform for full time traders.  I highly recommend it.   We will talk about ThinkorSwim next time.