[CaptJohnny]

Hello, I am looking to move from Schwab Street Smart Pro into something a bit more serious for very actively day trading. I am averaging 20-40 trades a day, usually 30-40K lots in very liquid products.

I am looking for opinions on what trading systems you are using for manually executed trading, I am not into automated platforms just yet.

Thank you for your time and help in this matter, I appreciate your time.

Johnny

[MadMarketScientist]

I'm sure you'll get other opinions as well and they could be varied but a couple that come to mind for me are:

think or swim/TD Ameritrade

and

interactive brokers (and I might even suggest using the Ninja Trader front end for order placement/management)

[cuttshot]

I agree with MMS that thinkorswim is a nice option. They aren't going to be the cheapest with commissions up front but you can usually negotiate a lower rate with them.

Their active trader platform has come a long way over the last year or so. It might be worth a look.

Cuttshot

[lbj]

See next post by me below...

[lbj]

ProTrader PT Multistation which supports loads of markets including equities looks like a nice platform (although looks like the it was originally designed for FX)...

Another nice looking one is Saxo Bank's.

These 2 look the best I've found so far.

Note: I have demo-ed them both, but haven't used them live...

[lbj]

btw, just noticed nice couple of banner ads showing for me on this page by Velocity and traders trust - looks like they're both offering the same ProTrader platform by PFSoft!

[MadMarketScientist]

Would agree, Lightspeed and Velocity Futures are two to consider -- not to mention that they help make Traders Laboratory possible with their sponsorship here. Someone has to pay the server and bandwidth charges Anytime we can support the vendors in the TL family it helps us keep it going and expand TL further and keep it all free for all of us.

Broker choice is always an interesting topic - you have so many to choose from, in many ways you get very similar things from each so it usually comes down to a few core differences for comparison. And, I've found many times you ask one person who they like, then another and you get totally opposite answers. I just remind everyone when I'm asked that once you choose don't forget - it's easy to change. Never feel locked in unless your getting the total service, fees, executions you feel you deserve - if not, you can change in just a day or two. Never be locked in.

[vtktrader]

I would recommend you LightSpeed. I ended up using it after I used Scottrade and tradestation. They have great rates and platform is very solid and really fast. You can get all rebates from ECN if you add liquidity. My average cost with them is $0.22 / 100 shares.

Happy trading