Newbie Question

Hey guys, I've just started trading over the last few months, and have been using E-Trade as my broker.

Recently thought of giving day-trading a go, and wanted to get a Level-II feed software suite to do my business. I was going to just get the "Power E-Trade Pro" upgrade for "Active Traders" it's like 30 bucks a month and is available on Mac and Windows (I have a Mac but I can pretty much flawlessly emulate any Windows Program; Autocad, Matlab, whatever).

So I was wondering if I should just give ole' e-trade my money or go with another major on-line brokerage like schawb or ameritrade or... should I do a little more homework/research and go for one of these Metadata or TradeStation Apps?

I plan on playing with only about $15k-$40k I'm just not sure what to do to start watching and paper trading Level II before I actually start the day trading thing. (Been told I should sit out a week or two and just watch the Level II screens before placing actual trades)

Thanks for the great site!

Nick

Demo account! Why waste your money trying to figure out how things work and what the best strategy is?

Can't answer the rest, sorry.

Hi Nick,
Welcome to T2W.
I agree with shadowninja, don't use real money until you've got your strategy down pat and can make money consistently on paper and/or with a simulated trading account. As for brokers etc, Interactive brokers is one of the biggest and has low commissions. However, most day traders use a separate data feed for charting and level II purposes (eSignal in my case) -TradeStation is the other very popular choice. If you're planning to day trade U.S. stocks, you'll need a minimum of U.S. $25,000 in your account to comply with SEC regulations.
Tim.

Really? There's a minimum? I can do that, but that's kinda' weird.

Well I've been trading and have lost some gained some, currently on the slightly positive side of things, I've just never seen/used any Level II systems.

I'll check out a few other brokers other than E-Trade like Interactive brokers and so I should just get a Level II demo from a place like databull, eSignal, or TradeStation?

Nick