Trader Mike

I finally decided on a new broker. Choosing a broker was a very frustrating experience for me. That’s partially because II was so comfortable & proficient with CyberTrader and I really hate the idea of having to familiarize myself with a new system. The other part of the frustration is that looking at these software packages is just overwhelming. (Or maybe I’m just getting old.) All the demos & feature lists make each brokers system seem like it’s the best thing since sliced bread. But then you dig deeper and/or read the reviews at EliteTrader and you don’t want to trust any of those brokers with your money.

Despite all the above, I came to a decision that I think I’ll be pretty happy with. I decided to move both my trading account and my IRA to ThinkorSwim. Given all the recommendations they got on my “I need a new broker” post they’re clearly doing something right. Their system is very feature-rich and I like that the platform can run on a Mac. Another plus is that, like CyberTrader, they clear through Penson. That should mean that availability of stocks to short is the same as at CyberTrader. The capability to trade via the web and/or a mobile device is another thing that I liked. That means when (not if) Comcast decides to disconnect me intraday I can still access my account via my cell phone.

But there are still things that I’m concerned about, like if the stops and/or alerts are really held on their servers. Another thing that bugs me is that the system is geared to options traders. That’s fine & all but I’ve never traded an option in my life & don’t plan to start. So I wish I could just turn off everything that’s doesn’t apply to plain old stocks. I’ve yet to find a way to link my Trade-Ideas scanner to ThinkorSwim’s platform nor have I found a way to match CyberTrader’s internal scanner. Hopefully I’ll figure both of those out as I continue to play with the system.

There were similar pros & cons with every broker I checked out. I finally just decided to pick one and try them out. If I can’t deal with the cons I’ll just have to jump to another broker. I’ll be sure to report how things go with ThinkorSwim.

So on to the recap…

Like they say, all good things must come to an end. I’ve been with CyberTrader since I started trading full time back in 1999. I can’t even imagine how much I’ve spent in commissions with them. That first year I spent about $30,000. It’s certainly dropped over the years, especially when I switched to per-share commissions, but it’s still got to be at least an order of magnitude more than the average Schwab client. Which makes it so astounding that Schwab would push all of CyberTrader’s clients away.

This was the week when Schwab turned off the lights at CyberTrader and moved Cyber’s traders to Street Smart Pro. I haven’t even had the energy nor …

I’m thinking of finally switching from CyberTrader. They just hit me with a $249 fee for not trading enough shares in March thanks to me misinterpreting their ever-changing rules on what you have to do to avoid that fee.
I’m leaning toward Interactive Brokers but if anybody has recommendations for a good broker which doesn’t have such ridiculous fees, please let me know (Michael At TraderMike.net). What I’m looking for:

A direct access, non-browser based platform.
Server-held stops. (This is critical!)
Per-share pricing — less than $0.01/share
A good shortable stocks list (one of my favorite things about CyberTrader)
Reliability & execution speed