The reason I tried options is because I had tried pretty much everything I could using shares and I still wasn't profitable after 4 years. Just like you, I tried many different strategies, trying to find my edge. I was almost ready to give up. I took a 1 month break to think things through and I came to the realization that I couldn't give up. I just hated the idea of giving up completely and throwing all I had learned the past 4 years to the garbage. I wanted to keep trying, but I had to make radical changes for me to be able to do so. That meant: 1- A small account, 5000$CAN per year max. 2- Reduce monthly expenses. No more DAS. 3- Try something different because, clearly, what I was doing was not working. There's 1 thing I felt like I could do good, and it was to find patterns with extremely good probabilities. Sure, they didn't happen very often, but I thought that if I could play only those times and put more risk on them, I could make a big chunk of money in 1 big trade instead of trying to do a lot of smaller trades every day. And that's where options seemed like the perfect choice, since you can do completely insane returns with them. My plan was to wait for a perfect setup and go all in on it with options and try to make something crazy like 50 or 100% return. That was the plan anyways. So, of course, I didn't have the patience to wait for that perfect setup and ended up taking smaller setups but using options this time, to kinda get the hang of it and prepare for the big day, which wasn't a bad idea. That's what got the ball rolling on options for me. I finally got my big day where I felt like the setup was pretty much 99.9999% probabilities of success and made 5000$ in just a couple of minutes. It was crazy for me. But you are right, my strategy could be done with shares too on any normal day, it would just require more capital, and it would also limit the returns you could get, as shares don't move nearly as much as options. I've been trading Futures more and more lately, the MNQ to be more precise. I find that, in times of high volatility, it's a little bit easier to trade. So I alternate between TSLA options and MNQ these days. But those are the only 2 tickers I'm watching, every day. There are a couple of advantages to that. 1- I can sit down at the computer only 2 minutes before the bell. My preparation consists of looking at the MNQ and TSLA charts and adding levels if I see new ones that could matter. I just ignore everything else and it saves me time and energy. It takes me a couple of seconds and I'm ready to go. 2- I got to "know" TSLA and I feel like I can predict moves better because I'm used to how it moves. 3- The MNQ is Nasdaq Futures, and TSLA is in the Nasdaq. So they are both very related and it helps to predict moves on one side or the other. 4- I replaced the 4 charts of different stocks in play I had with only 1 big chart of the MNQ 15 minute. That allows me to have a better view of the whole market on a larger time frame instead of only being zoomed in on the 1 or 5 minutes in a smaller window. Anyways, that's where I'm at right now, and I'm sure it will keep evolving with time. I'm always trying to improve a little thing here and there. Thinking about it, options forced me to wait for better signals because I had no choice to risk more on each trade, so I was more cautious with the kind of trade I was taking. And, with time, I realized that trading is a lot easier when you are patient and wait for a good signal. It's just hard to get the feel of exactly what is a good signal and what isn't. It takes a lot of practice and experience. Being a successful trader comes down to a lot of different little things that you put together to make it work. I feel like I'm starting to ramble so I'll stop here. Have a good one.

Hello Samuel, You should be fine with the Deluxe package that comes with the level 2 data. All subscription comes with a training account. As you mentioned, you need a non professional account. For practicing out of trading hours If you want the replay feature, you can add the following package for additional $15. Note that replay feature only for level 1 data. Best of luck.

I am new to the community and thinking about DAS with TDA to avoid commission.

I have the same problem and have a couple suggestions to help with it. I keep TOS open with just my monitor and a chart with trade ladder open. I enable sound so when a trade executes in DAS I get the sound from TOS which tells me the order filled. Whenever an order fills I look at the order window in DAS. If it is still showing an order just right click on the order and click refresh to clear the order from DAS. For stop loss quantity issue. I've gotten in the habit of checking the quantity in the order window. I use Thor's fixed risk hotkey so as soon as I enter a trade I look at my position to see how many shares I have then confirm it's the same for my stop in the order window. Usually I'm good here. My problems usually start when I take a partial. I click the partial button then stop to break even. If I do this too quickly it uses the original amount of shares I had before the partial for the stop and TOS rejects the order when it tries to fill. I try to wait a few seconds after a partial before setting my b/e stop and that usually works fine. Again I'm trying to get in the habit of always checking the quantity of my position and make sure it matches my stop. I also keep my finger on the all out hot key in case there's an issue. If you are having intermittent issues with hotkeys/buttons, make sure you are not using smart routes. I copied the hotkey scripts from Thor, but you have to change all the routes to market or limit. The smart route will work sometimes, but not always (I'm not sure why they work at all). Personally, I have stopped trading the open for the most part. If I do it's small size. During the trading day I'm working on only taking A setups and staying in my trades longer (trying to learn from Thor. I want dollars not dimes). I find the issues with DAS/TD have made me pay more attention and take fewer poor trades. It's not ideal, but you can make it work if it fits your trading style. My advice is don't use DAS TD if you are an open trader or scalper.