Should I Change Brokerages?

I've been with Fidelity for several years now. I've been mostly a buy and hold investor. I was out of the market though the past few years (except for my kids 529 plans which were 100% in emerging market funds) so I didn't suffer really any loss from the last 18-month debacle.

I've been researching trading, doing some Forex, and considering splitting my investing into three categories: day trading, mid-term, and long-term. I have some spare time and so I'm thinking of focusing primarily on day-trading and mid-term swing trading.

I'd say I'm more into fundamentals than technicals but I know how to read charts and the associated technical indicators, price action, Fib levels, etc. But I'd say 2/3 of my trading is probably going to be buy and hold for 2-20 days.

I'm not looking for investment advice. I'm looking for feedback on brokers in light of my goals/trading style/background. Barrons had a great article in March of last year reviewing brokers:

Making It Click: Annual Ranking Of the Best Online Brokers - Barrons.com

Tradestation sounds a little too oriented to Day Trading plus I really desire the option of a web interface. ThinkorSwim and InteractiveBrokers both sound like they could fit the bill and Fidelity is right up there.

My main priorities are:

- Powerful but easy to use platform with option for web access and prefer something with an iPhone app but not required.

- Good execution.

- Low commissions but the lowest not necessary. I'm going to have about a $200K account and probably making trades in the $10K-$30K range. Maybe one or two trades a day, max. Like I said, I'm going to be doing mid-range trading, not a lot of day trading.

Should I just stick with my Fidelity account or would it probably be worth moving to one of these other brokers?

If one hasn't been trading for last couple of years , i think it'd bee wise to start with paper trading for at least couple of month.

First thing - you have to decide what you intend to be trading.

I don't think Fidelity is good for Forex or futures, otherwise it's ok provided you will not trade more than you are planning.

ToS - nice platform
IB - nice commissions

Regards,

pavve said:

If one hasn't been trading for last couple of years , i think it'd bee wise to start with paper trading for at least couple of month.

First thing - you have to decide what you intend to be trading.

I don't think Fidelity is good for Forex or futures, otherwise it's ok provided you will not trade more than you are planning.

ToS - nice platform
IB - nice commissions

Regards,

Click to expand...

I agree. The only way to know what fits you is to get experience. But the problem is you're gonna lose money while getting it. What good is experience gonna do if you ain't got the capital to trade with?

In your case capital preservation is key. Try to learn as much as possible before you trade live. (this doesn't necesarily apply to buy and hold, where you can sit out 20+ years with a bad position)

if futures are not going to be considered and Tradestation is out, perhaps TD Ameritrade might be considered ( $5 - for equities for the first year).

P.

it's a good idea to use short, medium and long term trading as it'll give you more exposure and alternative to just long term investments. The important thing here is to get the balance right.
Since you have experience trading long term it would be wise for you to keep about 80% of your money in long term positions (at least for now) and use 10% medium term and 10% short term.
As you learn you may increase your short term exposure but no more than 30% of you portfolio.

pavve said:

if futures are not going to be considered and Tradestation is out, perhaps TD Ameritrade might be considered ( $5 - for equities for the first year).

P.

Click to expand...

I have heard good opinions on Ameritrade.

wooooow you got that much money to use, wish i hadsome

I have think or swim and so far I think its great, no complaints. I have multiple account with them, one long term investing IRA and a margin trading account I use for day trading. I trade mainly FOREX now, but I used them for crude futures and options and they were great. platform is top notch, great sources of education too as it feels intimidating at first. best part about them is the free demo, thats what got me hooked