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After almost 2 years trading on DAS I switched to TradeStation platform and brokerage services. I have done a lot of the leg work researching so I am highlighting features for TradeStation s/w platform and brokerage: Instruments & Commissions Structure: STOCK & OPTIONS - currently zero commission trading plans are limited to US residents. Residents in almost all countries outside the US can sign up for plans with commissions on stock trading. Canada and a few countries in Europe are excluded from brokerage subscription plans. All foreign residents can sign up for a software subscription plan. Contact TradeStation directly for more info - they will try work with you. - lightning fast executions - Level 2 DOM (depth of market) matrix - TS gives volume at price per bar, on all time frames from monthly down to 15 seconds. ... - Stock trading 8am -8pm ET - Direct routing is possible for a per share fees similar to IB - with "intelligent" (zero commission/SMRT) routing order flow could be sold to third party market makers for execution. Read up more in TS disclosures about this: https://uploads.tradestation.com/uploads/SEC-Rule.pdf Since sale of order flow recently has become a hot issue...a couple other links discussing sale of order flow to 3rd parties: https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/regulation/2002/4/v25n1-8.pdf https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/nbbo.asp - no commissions for stock trading with a $2K funded account under the TS Select plan (above 10K shares per trade there's a per share fee similar to IBs per share fee that's charged and exchange/FINRA fees still apply) - $0.6 per options contract FUTURES - Around the clock futures trading 24/7 Sunday 3pm to Friday 5pm ET - $1.50 per futures contract, 0.5 per Emini micro contract, futures trading requires a separately funded account, intra day futures margin rates of Eminis and micros are 25% of the full margin. - TS offers access to the entire world of CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX traded futures in real time with market depth Level 2 Market Data: - large selection of market data incl all US and various foreign indices in real time. Also access to important real time NYSE market breadth indices TRIN, TICK and advance/decline volume/issues breakdown numbers - great degree of freedom and flexibility for customization of market data feeds - zero fees for Level 1 Nasdaq and Level 1 & Level 2 for NYSE, AMEX equities and options, CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX futures. - Nasdaq Level 2 market depth requires a $11 or $17 subcription - Enhanced market depth for $25 plus add-on oder books from ARCA, BATS, Nasdaq BX all for $26 (see screenshot w. my current subs as an example) Software - no platform fees (with a funded account) - excellent charting - large selection of studies w extensive flexibility for customization - market replay currently not (yet) available - StreamDeck hotkeys currently not supported Scanner - Powerful built-in RadarScreen s/w scanner. This is a great free feature and the scanners are very customizable. Programming, Backtesting, Strategy Testing - Portfolio-level back-testing and analysis, seamlessly utilizing TradeStation data and strategies - full access to Easy Language (EL) programming language w hundreds of built in tools and a TS app store for purchase from third parties News Free integrated news feeds and fundamentals data - a great feature that's available directly on the platform. Includes: - Free Benzinga news service - Reuters financials and stock data from in one place and various other useful data.... - Yahoo Finance integration: insiders, funds etc is imported from Help, tutorials, video library, education channels - help function within s/w has a large searchable database that quickly helps find documentation The TS youtube channel has many videos featuring tutorials for desktop, web and mobile apps, RadarScreen scanning, charting, order entry, Matrix (level 2 depth of market DOM), strategy/back testing, Easy Language programming tools and library as well as futures and options trading. https://www.youtube.com/user/tradestation Education channel with free and pay-as-you-go content at: http://www.youcantrade.com With the all-in-one integration of excellent charting and trade execution together with scanners, news, and fundamentals TS has potential to replace other trading s/w and feeds for many users (i.e. paid scanners, news services and fundamentals, journaling s/w). I will post an update in a few weeks about my experience using the platform and TS as a broker. You can also DM me here or on Fintwit MarekLiyanage or email [email protected] with questions. Last updated 08/10/2020

If you ever want to edit a video with some pretty decent options, there’s a free, open source program called OpenShot Video Editor: https://www.openshot.org

I posted an overview on TradeStations software and brokerage platform under the "Brokers" subsection bc I figured for most day traders paying for trading s/w and possibly data feeds without being able to directly trade from the platform makes no sense. Most traders therefore will have to make a decision about signing up for both the use of the software platform as well as their brokerage services. There's also been a few threads from others so search the site for those links to read up more about TS too.