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LightSpeed Trading vs Tradestation
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LightSpeed Trading vs Tradestation 2012: Commissions and Investments
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- Stocks and ETFs: $4.50 per order, plus/minus Market Center Fees
- or $0.0045 per share, plus/minus Market Center Fees, $1 minimum per trade
- OTCBB and Pink Sheets: $10 per order, plus/minus Market Center Fees
- Options: $0.60 per contract, no minimum/no order charges
- Futures: $0.60 per contract, no minimum/no order charges plus exchange fees
- Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, futures, ETFs
- Minimum to open Lightspeed Trading account: $1,000 for Web Trader platform, $10,000 for Lightspeed Trader platform
- All Lightspeed Trading fees
- Lightspeed Trading promotional code
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- Stocks and ETFs Flat-Rate Plan: 1 to 9 trades/month - $9.99/trade; 10 to 29 trades/month - $7.99/trade; 30 or more trades/month - $6.99/trade
- Stocks and ETFs Per-Share Plan: first 500 shares $0.01 per share, $0.006 per share thereafter, $1 minimum per trade
- Options: $1 per contract with no ticket charge and no minimum
- Futures: 25¢ - $1.20 per side, per contract + exchange, regulatory & overnight fees
- Mutual funds: $14.95
- Bonds: $14.95 plus $5 per bond
- T-Bills: equities - $50, futures - $10
- OTCBB: $9.99 (100,000 share position maximum)
- Pink Sheet Stocks: $9.99 (100,000 share position maximum)
- Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, futures, T-Bills, OTCBB, Pink Sheet Stocks, Forex, ETFs
- Minimum to open Tradestation account: $5,000 for non-daytraders and $30,000 for daytraders
- All Tradestation fees
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- Some of the lowest commissions in the industry
- Direct access to ECN’s and exchanges
- Free practice account
- Online community
- Automated trading
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- Great trading platform
- Trading modeling functionality
- Lots of investment products to trade
- Active online community
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- $10,000 minimum to use Lightspeed Trader (but only $1,000 to use Lightspeed Web Trader)
- $35 annual IRA fee
- Account opening needs work
- Web Trader platform is badly designed, full of bugs and it could take a lot of time to enter the order
- Extended hours trading is not available on the Web Trader platform
- Customer service needs improvement
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- Somewhat high stock and ETF commissions
- $99.95 fee to use TradeStation Platform if not traded at least 5,000 shares in previous month
- Lots of fees for market data
- $35 annual IRA fee
- Steep learning curve: trading platform is too complicated for beginner investors
- Minimum amount to open account is $5,000 for non-daytraders and $30,000 for daytraders
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LightSpeed Trading vs Tradestation: Comparison Summary
LightSpeed Trading (LightSpeed Trading Review)
easily beats Tradestation (Tradestation Review) when
it comes to commissions: $0.0045 per share and $1 minimum per trade versus Tradestation's $0.01 per share
for the first 500 shares, $0.006 per share thereafter and $1 minimum per trade.
In fact, LightSpeed Trading is one of the lowest priced stock brokerage firm in US.
Both brokerages are targeting primarily very active traders and day-traders. LightSpeed Trading offers free virtual
trading where investors could test different trading strategies and improve their skills without risking their money.
If you are a beginner at investing, neither of these companies is right for you and you are better off
with one of our Best Online Brokers for Beginner.
Based on much lower commissions, which is paramount for active traders, LightSpeed Trading would be our strong
recommendation to day-traders. For everybody else we suggest taking a look at the
companies in our Best Brokerage Firms article.
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