Brokerage Companies

Brokerage Companies

Here are several types of resources that I use and you can use too.

Option Brokers

This is a list of some of the Option Brokers I have used or have heard good things about.

1. Think or Swim – I have five personal accounts here as well as my Roth IRA.  Their trading platform is still one of the best. Now part of TD Ameritrade.

2. E-Trade – I also have one of my larger accounts here. Good website. Easy to use. Great for newer traders too.

3. Eoption – Good rates. Maybe the cheapest. I have an account here that is linked with autotrade.

4. Autoshares – Heard lots of good things about this new broker but have not used them.

5. TradeMonster – I have never used them myself but have hear good things about them from others.

6. OptionsXpress – I have an account here to trade options on futures. Now part of Charles Schwab.

7. OptionHouse – has good rates for those of you who are trading in large sizes.

8. Interactive Brokers – These guys are really cheap. Depending on the size of account you open you can get the commission down well below $1 per option. Their customer service is not too good, but if you need a broker with good fills and cheap commissions they guys are it. I had opened an account here but could even figure out their software so I closed it. They only autotrade through a company called Global Autotrading which charges a monthly fee to autotrade with them.

Free Paper Trading

UpDown.com – this site lets you buy and sell equites in a fake account. If you do better than the S&P 500 in your fake account they might even pay you for it. Or you can provide fundamental analysis and if enough others users think your analysis is helpful you could get paid for it.

Most brokers also offer a free paper trading platform built into their software. It has real time quotes and charts. It doesn’t get any more realisitc than this.