Broker/Platform Selection

[TraderChrisNWA 0]

Hey fellow BBTers!

For background:  I'm back for a second time with BBT after a year off.  I'm recently a member of the 'restructure' club after my employer has gone through some downsizing activities.  I've been paper trading for 3 years with decent success and had been planning to 'retire' in July...so the downsizing doesn't hurt my feeling considering a decent severance was included.  I'm taking this opportunity to turn my retirement into career #2...day trader...so I will be going live in the next week or so.

I've been paper trading in TOS through TD/Schwab for 3 years.  I've been considering making a switch to IBKR and using DAS.  I know this is a DAS/IBKR heavy community, so I wanted to get thoughts from folks who have used both TOS and DAS in the last couple of years.  I'll be trading primarily Stocks, ETFs and Futures (beginning to study Options soon also, but haven't paper traded yet).  Does making the switch make sense?  Or should I stick to what I'm familiar with.  Any watchouts with either choice?  Any other thoughts?

Sincere Thanks to all!  I hope to get to know y'all very soon!

TraderChris

[peterB 316]

I do not know TOS much but for DAS you can check here if you see its features are useful for you https://traderpeter.substack.com/p/trading-platform-choice

[Michael Thorne 3]

Hi Chris,

I have been using Das for the last 4 years and it is a great platform.  Being from Canada and not trading as much now, I found it quite expensive ( After converting from US to CDN dollars it was running me about $ 225 cdn / mth).

If you plan on using it extensively, well worth it. I have since transitioned to the IBKR Trader workstation and find it is meeting my needs and is free, except  for the data feeds which cost me about $ 14 / mth.

Not the most user friendly platform but once you get used to it, not a problem ( again, doesn't come close to DAS features but suits me. ) One other benefit of DAS is the BBT community is very fluent with DAS and provides alot of

training. plus addons (ie: hotkeys, forums, etc) all related to DAS. 

I would love to get on TOS but we Canadians  are persona non grata.

You could download IBKR Tradestation for free and try out their system (only in Sim of course) and see if you like it.  I know Megan has posted alot of training videos on Tradestation set up and has helped me when I had questions.

She is such a great resource, it's almost worth joining BBT just for her knowledge.

If you having any questions on Workstation, please feel free to email me.

Good luck with your trading.

Mike