Basic Daytrading Questions

Bismark

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First post. :cheesy:

I have some questions concerning day trading. I have a strategy that I worked out several years ago, but haven't had the opportunity to really test it out in real life situations to see if it is completely legitimate. Six years ago I gave my strategy a one day of testing and every expected downside ended up occurring. Regardless of this, I still came out in the green for the day- but I do realize that this is not enough time to see if it will really work. I was trying to daytrade on a Fidelity IRA account. Oops, live and learn hehe :p

Anyways I think I have most of the kinks figured out, but I need some advice on how to handle them. ( I am sure some of this has been covered on these forums but the volume of posts is staggering to wade through with 800+ in this forum alone.) Feel free to link me elsewhere on any of these questions. I have gone through the first few pages of what I thought were applicable forums already.

Here are my two main issues
Until I test it in real life situation I don't know how bad commission is going to pop me. This could potentially be a problem.
The second thing is I need to be able to enter and execute orders very quickly.


So questions that arise from this are:
What is the best cross between speed of order execution and commission?

What exchange should I trade in?
I need high volume with mild or higher volatility. I need to avoid things that gap up or down in price. Price movement as close to linear as possible is desired. Is forex along these lines? I have no experience with forex or commodities so unless someone enlightens me I will probably be in the Nasdaq or NYSE.

Does this mean I am pretty much bottled into Direct Access Trading?

Can a trade be done in two clicks? Ideally I would like something where I could just click the price on the screen and then it would automatically create an order with a pre-set number of shares. Then, I would merely have to click whether I want to buy or sell this order. Just wondering if there is anything close to this type of trading format.

I am clueless at the moment on what broker to use for day trading. Also in terms of Level II daytrading type stuff, I see sections on software and brokers and trading engines. Do you have to get these three things seperately? I have been a little confused as to how this all is meshed. Do the brokers provide what engine you use to buy the stock in direct access trading, or do you choose your broker and trade engine seperately?

I have an older book by Van Tharp "Financial Freedom Through Electronic Day Trading" that explained ARCA, SOES, SelectNet, and ISLD. Is this info obsolete now? I flipped through some newer books in the bookstore the other day but they didn't enlighten me on this.

Pretty much I think I have a sound strategy. I just don't have a sound way of implementing it yet. Hopefully this will help. Thanks to all who respond.
 
Last edited:
Hi Bismark,

Fidelity Active Trader Pro is exactly what you are looking for. You need to be qualified to use the software and to get the $8 commission fee for up to 1,000 share from its Direct Access Trading window. Go to http://www.fidelity.com/ and search for "Active Trader Pro" to find out how to get qualified.

From Barron's 2007, 2008 online brokers ranking, Fidelity is the best for conservative traders.

Good luck!
 
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