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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 supported (updated on 01/18/21) 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 first.last@gmail with questions. Last updated 08/10/2020 Update on StreamDeck, Keyboard and Chart Trading Functionalities (01/18/21): TradeStation will tie in with StreamDeck. A screenshot of the "Macro" and "Hotkey" feature below shows how you can program commands and then you do the same as in DAS when using the StreamDeck....simply assign the hotkey in the StreamDeck s/w. TS also offers 2 simpler tools "Chart Trading" and "Keyboard Trading" that replace a lot of the hot key and chart trading functionalities to use with the StreamDeck. So chart trading and keyboard hotkeys cover all my needs for now. To better understand what "Chart Trading" and "Keyboard Trading" functionalities offer in TradeStation watch this Video: If you have questions best DM me on Fintwit.... https://twitter.com/MarekLiyanage

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.