[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Cybertrader isa very nice platform; although it has had some problems thoughwith the reliability of quotes and charts, especially when you areusing a slower Internet connection.Cybertrader offers excellentorder features though, such as their own intelligent order routingsystem.The other platform is called ESPTrader.It is used bymany small brokers under various names since it is extremelyeasy to franchise.It is a very stable platform with the onlydownside being poor charting features.76Stand-alone platformsVarious providers offer charts or order entry only.The biggestchart providers are Qcharts, Esignal and DTNIQ.I like Qchartsa lot, it has outstanding charting features that are especiallyeasy to scale and work with.Some people were complainingabout the reliability of Qcharts (lagging quotes).However Icannot agree with that, I had very few problems.There aresome brokers that offer you order entry only and (usually verylimited) quote/chart features.They offer very competitivecommissions (see commissions) but are not as easy and fast tooperate, i.e.the order can not be entered via point and click onyour level 2 screen; the stock symbols have to be typed inmanually.Even though these are disadvantages, these brokersmight still be interesting for people who are interested in doingslower trades with a small amount of shares.CommissionsThe standard commission rate is $14.95 per trade, meaning thatyou have to pay $14.95 for every buy and sell.Partialexecutions should not cost you extra commissions.On top ofthe base commission there are additional fees, called ECN feesthat are charged by the various order routing systems to yourbroker and are passed on to you.They can be as high as $0.01per share.If you are trading larger amount of shares this iscertainly a factor to consider.Usually brokers offer youdiscounts if you do many trades every month.Commissions canget to as low as $7.95 per trade.There are brokers that chargeyou on a per share basis only; these brokers will most likelyoffer order entry only.The commissions are usually 1 cent pershare or even 0.5 cent if you are trading larger amounts ofshares.77ServiceA very important aspect when choosing a broker is the quality ofservice it is offering.Imagine you are in a trade, your Internetconnection fails, and you have to close your position over thephone.Someone should pick up the phone immediately;otherwise this could be a costly experience.I had very goodexperiences with all the Realtick brokers.Usually someonepicks up the phone immediately and is able to help you.Becareful with the  order entry only brokers; don t expect anyoneto be available immediately.That is another reason why I don trecommend them to serious traders.Opening the accountMost brokers let you open an account partly over the Internet;you only have to send or fax copies of some documents.Itusually takes less than a week to get your account number soyou can fund your account.You will only be able to transferassets back to your own account, not someone else s.Minimum requirementsMost direct access brokers require you to fund the account withat least $25.000.This is important, because new SECregulations require daytraders to have at least 25K in theiraccount in order to daytrade.There is still much controversyaround this rule.Some brokers still allow you to trade with lessthan 10K on cash only, not on margin.If you are not a daytraderthose rules don t apply to you.Additionally there are minimum net worth and income requirements.Please check with yourbroker for the exact details.For a list of brokers please refer to my website atwww.daytradingcoach.com.78Technical requirements/computer setup:A reliable computer system as well as a good display(s) is veryimportant, especially for traders who are planning to trade fulltime.Here are some tips:ComputerIn order to run a direct access trading platforms efficiently Iwould recommend a computer with at least 500MHZ processingpower and 256MB of RAM as well as a quality graphics card.Your trading platform actually needs very little resources; Iremember running my trading platform on a 233Mhz 16MBmachine without any problems.However, I strongly recommendthe settings described above in order to run multipleapplications without trouble.Many times you will find yourself using multiple applicationssuch as your trading platform, your Internet browser, chatrooms, stock scanners, virus protections etc.Every applicationwill take up system resources, so you rather have moreresources available, which also makes your system morestable.The trading platform itself usually takes up fewresources, however some scanning applications you might wantto use can take up significant resources.The fewer applicationsyou have running on your computer, the more stable yoursystem will generally be.Please make sure to only haveprograms installed that you really need and to erase ones thatbecome useless for you.Operating systemsWindows is a must, I never saw trading platforms running on aMac [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]