Nas Direct Access Brokers

[Captain Haddock]

Hi all

Great board, well done all those who contribute.

It's my first post, so I'll try and make it a good'un.

I've been trading the UK market everyday for years, and I now feel it's time to at least take a look at the NASDAQ. I've always preffered the very short term approach, but the UK market can be very restrictive for that, so I have adapted a longer term style to suit the market.

I plan on opening the account and having a go with small clips for a while and still trade the UK to keep the income coming, if I like it and am happy I'll change the Bias to Nasdaq.

I did a bit of research into it a year ago, but times change. My questions are:

I know $25k is the minimum account opening size, but what %margin is the norm, does it vary from broker to broker?

Does the Account Balance have to stay above $25k at all times to keep daytrading status?

What commisions can I expect to pay?

Does anyone have any specific DA broker recommendations?

Thanks.

 

[Trader333]

1) You get 4 to 1 margin from most brokers

2) Yes your account has to stay above $25K at any time to allow you to open any "New" positions. Those that are already open can stay so even if you drop below the $25K

3) Commissions vary from broker to broker but a guide would be up to 500 shares = 1c per share and above 500 shares = 0.5c per share per side so to trade 1000 shares would be $15 per round trip made up as follows: (500 x 0.01) + (500 x 0.05) = $7.50 to open the trade and the same to close = $15

4) The two recommended brokers that I hear about a lot about are www.interactivebrokers.com and Investin Securities ( who have a platform called Direct Access Elite www.directaccesselite.com)


Paul

 

[Captain Haddock]

Paul thank you for your reply. I will take a look at the links.
The commision level looks superb when you compare it to UK DA, GNI etc!

Do you have any personal expericence with these brokers?

 

[Trader333]

Yes I use IB and I am happy with them. People like Naz and Keano use Investin and to be honest it is down to personal choice.


Paul

 

[DaxTrader]

T333

How do you choose which exchange to use/have up when you select your stocks on IB ?

or is there not much between them ?

thanks in advance

 

[Trader333]

If you use SMART order routing then what it does is to look at all exchanges it can trade with and trades with the best price it can find. I used to send orders to specific exchanges but the way I trade now I dont feel the need to any more. It may be of some use if you wanted to capture the spread but this is not as easy as it used to be.


Paul

 

[Captain Haddock]

Well after digging around and testing platforms, I have opened a daytrading account with realfasttrader, the platform was very impressive, and after some emails back and forth I managed to get what I considered to be a competative commision rate, so we'll see how it goes.

Thanks for everyones input.