The Trading Platform

Lightspeed’s trading platform is an all in one package. Lightspeed is one of the few brokers to offering a great charting package within their platform. Their platform is not for beginners, strictly for the experienced active trader. You can see a basic layout of their platform below.

If you do not understand or have problems with the desktop trading platform, they also have a web trader platform that will seem familiar to anyone who has ever used any online broker. Their web trader platform also provides a good amount of fundamental analysis.

Pricing and Commissions

Stocks – $0.00395 per share plus market center fees.
OTC BB and Pink sheets – $10 per order.
Options – $0.50 per contract, no minimum order.
Futures – $0.50 per order plus exchange fees.
Minimum Account Opening Funds – $2,000

For a full list of fees listed here.

Overall, Lightspeed is a solid broker with cheap commission and a great platform to trade from. If you are looking for a new broker, I would advise you to get Lightspeed a try.

Investing/Trading Products Available

Stocks, ETFs, options, futures, bonds, warrants, mutual funds…and so on (click here for full list). Interactive Brokers offers everything that a retail investor can trade. With Interactive Brokers, you are not limited to just U.S. investments as Interactive Brokers allows trading in 80 different markets.

Trading Platform

Interactive Brokers has a variety of trading platforms to trade from whether using their desktop platform, web trader platform, or their mobile platform, you will always have a way to get out of a trade whether at your computer or not. As for their software, executions are great allowing you to enter orders on charts or order tickets. Their charting software offers very basic technical analysis tools, so a charting program (QuoteTracker, which is free, or a paid program like eSignal) is almost mandatory when using Interactive Brokers for technical trading. Interactive Brokers is geared toward the active trader so fundamental investors will have to do their research somewhere else.

Fees

Interactive Brokers is one of, if not the, lowest cost brokers. There is a minimum of $10,000 to open an account. Depending on what you products you trade, some additional fees may apply for data feeds. See a full list of fees here.

Overall, Interactive Brokers is the best broker for active traders and is quickly becoming a favorite among passive investors.

Commissions

Stocks and ETFs -$4.95 per trade (10,0000 share limit) or $0.0075 per share with a $4.95 minimum.
Options – $0.95 per contract no minimum.
Futures – $0.95 per contract plus exchange fees.
Mutual Funds – $12.95 per transaction.
Bonds – $12.95 per transaction.
Forex – $2.95 per $100,000 traded.
Pink Sheets and OTC BB – $8.95 per trade with no share limit.

Software

As for their trading platforms…well you do not get much. MB Trading Desktop is nice if you like looking at numbers but do not expect any charts unless you are trading Forex. The only charting software will get with MB Trading comes with the MetaTrader 4 platform used for Forex. If you need charts, QuoteTracker is free charting software that works well with MB Trading. Otherwise, you will have to get a paid charting program like eSignal. Although the MB Trading platform is free, some data feeds fees will apply. These fees are waived after a specified amount of trades. See data fees here.

Overall

The commissions are cheaper than discount brokers are but they lack in software. If you already have research tools for fundamental analysis and willing to use free or paid charting software for technical analysis then MB Trading might be worth a look.

ETFs Available To Trade Free Now

Schwab US Broad Market ETF (SCHB)
Schwab US Large-Cap ETF (SCHX)
Schwab US Small-Cap ETF (SCHA)
Schwab International Equity ETF (SCHF)

Available In December

Schwab US Large-Cap Growth ETF (SCHG)
Schwab US Large-Cap Value ETF (SCHV)
Schwab International Small Cap ETF (SCHC)
Schwab Emerging Markets Equity ETF (SCHE)

Are Charles Schwab’s ETFs Right For You?

If you are a investor looking for longer-term investments or trades and like using indexes; then these ETFs are worth looking at. For traders and shorter-term investors, the volume is too low for me to recommend them. When trading stocks and ETFs (other than the Schwab ETFs listed above), commissions rates are $8.95 – $19.95, depending on the amount of trades placed.

Understand that commission free trading is nice, but with Charles Schwab, you are limited to a few ETFs that you can trade. If the volume rises in these ETFs, it might be worth looking into. For now, the products are too limited and commissions on other ETFs and stocks are higher than most online brokers.

Get more information on opening an account and Charles Schwab ETFs @ www.schwab.com.

Do you trade futures or currencies?

If you trade futures or currencies, you will have to go with ThinkOrSwim. Izone does not offer trading these types of investments.

Stocks, Options, and Mutual Funds

Now, the debating begins. If you trade stocks, Izone charges $5 per self-direct trade and ThinkOrSwim has two pricing options. First, you can pay $0.015 per share with a minimum of $5 or pay $9.95 per trade for orders up to 5,000 shares.

Option trading with Izone will cost you $5 plus $0.75 per contract. ThinkOrSwim charges $0.95 – $1.50 per contract, depending on number of option trades per month and the amount of assets you have in ThinkOrSwim accounts. If you trade just a few option trades per month with only a few contracts, ThinkOrSwim might be a better choice but for larger trades, you might want to look at Izone.

ThinkOrSwim offers three mutual fund trades per month at no cost after that it costs $15 per trade. Mutual funds at Izone are dependent on the type of fund purchased.  Izone charges nothing for NTF (No Transaction-Fee) and Load funds but charges $17.99 for No Load Funds.

Customer Support

ThinkOrSwim is excellent! Call them and you will get questions answered or problems fixed. Izone, however, does not offer tech support over the phone, only through e-mail. TD Ameritrade made Izone for the independent trader that needs very little help.

Trading Platforms

ThinkOrSwim and Izone have two different trading platforms geared towards different traders. ThinkOrSwim’s platform gears toward option traders; Izone is more for stock traders. Izone offers the same trading platform (Command Center 2.0, StrategyDesk, Pattern Matcher, etc) that you would receive if you were a regular TD Ameritrade client. Both have great platforms depending on what you are looking for.

Different Needs, Different Brokers

In the end, these brokers are very different from each other and offer services geared towards different traders. Stock and options traders will find both brokers useful but if you want to trade more than stocks, options, and mutual funds; you only have one choice…ThinkOrSwim.

Now, Zecco wants $25,000 for you to get 10 free trades, this is the same value that gives you 100 trades per year with Wells Fargo and 30 per month with Bank Of America. Why would anyone want to stay with Zecco? When I opened the account, they were all about helping the little guy; $25,000 isn’t necessarily a little guy. I used Zecco to build a dividend portfolio for investment income but with the ever changing terms over my time with Zecco, I think its time for me to say goodbye.

So, I am transferring back to Scottrade which I have been using for research, since Zecco lacked it. Commissions might be a little higher but I am ready to pay extra cost for more certainty. Scottrade also offers fixed income, which Zecco lacked.

I look for Zecco to go belly up, as many people left them on the first change to commissions. There is currently no reason to go to Zecco. Commissions are still $4.50 but the platform is probably the worst in the industry and costumer service is poor, probably worse now with the mass exodus.

I thank Zecco for the free trades but with so many changes to their business model since being with them, I get a feeling the company might be in trouble. So, I am getting out now before getting hit with higher commissions and fees if I wait.

Looking for an easy way to cut your investing commissions? Many investors pay up to $10 per trade. If you have millions to invest, I guess $10 is nothing more than change, but the fact is, many non professional investors don’t have anywhere close to millions to invest and that $10 could be better used working for you. Zecco offers investors the opportunity to put that $10 to work. If you make 1 trade per month and saved that $10 in a high yield savings account at a modest 3% interest rate you would have $5,581.94 after 30 years. With the market average of 10% per year, that’s $22,803.25 from just $10 a month.  Isn’t it time for you to drop your commissions?

Zecco Account Requirements
First, before going any further you should know the requirements for opening a trading account with Zecco. In order to receive free trades your account value must be at least $2,500 $25,000. There is no minimum account value for cash trading; margin accounts must open an account with at least $2,000 and maintain at least $2,000 to trade on margin.  If you meat the $2,500 $25,000 account level, you receive 10 free equity trades per month.

Zecco Commissions

Equity Trades (Stocks and ETFs)
If you don’t meet the $2,500 $25,000 account level or go over the 10 free equity trades, you will only pay $4.50 per trade; still one of the lowest commissions in the industry.

Options
Option trades are $4.50 plus $0.50 per contract. Once again, Zecco is one of the lowest commissions among discount brokers. Exercise and Assignments are $4.50.

Mutual Funds
If you are a mutual fund investor, Zecco might no be for you. No Load Funds are $10, broker assisted $19.99.

Learn More About Commissions

Who Is Zecco For?
Zecco is NOT for active day traders; you’re better off going to a direct access broker. For those who are looking at building an income portfolio, those who swing trade, or just a small investor investing for the long haul, Zecco is a great way to decrease your commissions or eliminate them all together.

Research tools at Zecco are rather limited but are constantly improving and they are adding more tools. Many sites are available online to conduct stock research and you really don’t need your broker. Yahoo Finance, Google Finance, and MSN Money offer a lot of information for investors to use. Spend some time digging through these sites and you’ll find almost anything you want.

How Can Zecco Offer Free Trades?
Well, take a trip to their site and you will see something that is uncommon with brokers…advertisers. Zecco uses advertising to make some of their income. They also make money off interest, which almost every broker does. Then of course, they make money off commission when applicable.

I use Zecco for an income portfolio and a few swing trades. I am satisfied with the service.

No longer using Zecco, I wen’t back to Scottrade! Read Why.

ThinkOrSwim has a service like no other with a great trading platform with free live data, no charge for software usage, and even a couple chat rooms. The design of the platform is for active traders and concentrates on those trading options. My use of ThinkOrSwim has been primarily for options and futures trades.  These mergers between online brokers never workout for the better for those affiliated with the company being bought.

ThinkOrSwim is expecting to hand over the reigns in about 6 months.  As for me, I look to find a new broker.  I am thinking about going to Interactive Brokers or TradeStation.
Both offer low cost commissions for both active and not so active trades.

I hate to leave ThinkOrSwim but I have seen these mergers before and as soon as they go through, commissions rise and they start instituting fees for everything from software to being inactive, and so forth. TD AMERITRADE customers will get a better platform and ThinkOrSwim customers will get higher fees and commissions.

I guess I will have to wait and see what happens but for now I am looking into other brokers.

Know of a good online broker for an active trader? Leave a comment.