Archived Thread

NFT: Hey stock traders - Ameritrade / Thinkorswim?

mattlawson : 8/17/2017 2:27 pm

To anyone who is in the know - I have been looking for a better application for researching stocks and what I ended up seeing that caught my interest was a full featured program for day trading - Ameritrade as the brokerage and their Thinkorswim app. Looks pretty badass. Does anyone here use it? Recommend it? Looks dangerously fast to make a trade. I have an ipad I would like to use it on eventually too if indeed I do set it up - the youtube videos on it look great.

this will not be my only skin in the game though... I have multiple stocks, college funds for kids, and IRA accounts for long term investing with a pretty diverse portfolio - but I also have a few grand saved up that I like to play with for making short term trades. its an old ING account that Capital One bought with a shit app and horrible research tools - I basically use yahoo finance and their apps to do all my research.

Any advice would be appreciated

Awesome trading platform.

Keith : 8/17/2017 2:29 pm : link

Check out investools as well if you want to educate yourself on being a better self directed investor.

By the way...

Keith : 8/17/2017 2:33 pm : link

my best advice....open a TD account, call your local office and set up a demo. You can have an active trader call you to give you a free demo on the platform. They'll show you everything you need to know about ToS.

Interactive Brokers

Pep22 : 8/17/2017 2:35 pm : link

...and its not close

Def not interactive brokers...here is a ranking

Keith : 8/17/2017 2:39 pm : link

by nerdwallet of online platforms...
Scroll to the bottom for a summary - ( New Window )

Stockbrokers.com

Keith : 8/17/2017 2:41 pm : link

another one that us in the industry look at

Full disclosure-I was a trader for 12 years and I've worked or currently work at a few of these firms.
Link - ( New Window )

umm

giantfan2000 : 8/17/2017 2:47 pm : link

i don't think he is looking for broker advice
but technical charting platform

thinkorswim is good .. it is great because included in your td amertrade account for free

there are some online charting apps

i prefer tradingviews.com

which is easy to use and powerful but it has a monthly fee

Not surprising that site highlights

Overseer : 8/17/2017 2:47 pm : link

Schwab & TDA. Schwab is excellent, And I've heard good things about the latter.

Is there something about TD/think or swim that makes it preferable for short term trading (i.e. not long term value investing)?

Who said anything about

Keith : 8/17/2017 2:48 pm : link

advice from a broker? Those links are for trading platforms.

ToS..

Keith : 8/17/2017 2:51 pm : link

Execution is lightening and you often get price improvement. The research is top notch, fully customizable and the charting is fantastic. Trade architect is also a fantastic platform through TDA. Again though, I highly recommend two things:

1. Investools. People used to pay big money for this, its now free(or will be soon) for TDA clients. Awesome educational platform.

2. Do a demo with an active trader before you start trading. Complimentary.

Wow - glad I asked!

mattlawson : 8/17/2017 2:55 pm : link

Does everyone have their entire portfolio in these accounts or like me, do you have things seperate? The fees for transfering elsewhere or taking money out is why I ask.

If that gets into brokerage questions - please educate me!

Caveat: I work for Schwab

pganut : 8/17/2017 2:59 pm : link

(Not on the retail platform you're looking at, but on the Institutional side)

That said, both the Schwab and TD retail chassis are fantastic. Both are tech-forward, user friendly and filled with great tools. Thinkorswim in years past offered real nice options trading tools and ability to place multi-leg trades, where they had lead in that race until Schwab's acquisition of OptionsExpress, and that playing field got leveled.

The only thing I can tell you is in relation to any ETF usage you may undertake. Each of Schwab & TD has a suite of ETFs from great providers that trade with no commissions/ticket charges. However, TD's offering is more than 2 times as small as Schwab's (100 or so at TD, 250 or so at Schwab), and as well, TD will impose a short-term redemption fee on those ETFs if traded within 30 days whereas Schwab has no such holding period.

I don't think you'd go wrong, big picture, with either choice. Good luck.

matt,

Keith : 8/17/2017 2:59 pm : link

everyone is different. Some people like to be spread out amongst different institutions, some like to consolidate for simplicity. Personally, I don't really see the benefit in having money spread all over unless you have a very large net worth.

Most firms will also offer different promos(cash/gifts/free trades) to incentivize you to bring all your money to one place.

You can have 5 different types of accounts with TDA and have them all linked so its easy to scroll through the accts and invest each differently.

If you plan to volume trade and need fast executions

Jim in South Florida : 8/17/2017 3:29 pm : link

Go with LIGHTSPEED, I used thier platform for 3 years

I traded on lightspeed

Keith : 8/17/2017 3:34 pm : link

for 8 years. Great platform for professional traders, but they will not compare to the brokerage firms in regards to research and charting. You will need another platform for that stuff.

I also had major problems with executions on lightspeed

Keith : 8/17/2017 3:39 pm : link

All of the prints were going to dark pools and tons of prints were happening away from the market. Lightspeed has some work to do to catch up.

Interactive Brokers

Pep22 : 8/17/2017 4:54 pm : link

admittedly...is not for beginners. For experienced traders its the best there is (Rated a Top Online Broker for the Seventh Consecutive Year by Barron's 2017)

Here's my thinking

mattlawson : 8/17/2017 5:25 pm : link

I have all my college savings accounts, some personal IRAs, kids savings and a money market account with stocks elsewhere -- but investing is often predicated on a phone call or email. Often that buffer is good. Sometimes I will see a deal and my request gets lost in the shuffle. Shorting a certain stock last week that I was certain would drop did. No response from my broker. That really pissed me off.

So I need a day trading setup where I can research and pull the trigger starting small with a couple thousand and have fun. My other investments will be separate - diversified and solid with a long term growth strategy.

I'm not looking to transfer all my accounts to TD or Schwab or anyone else. Just start a new and nimble account for myself.