Lightspeed Trading Review 2011-2012: Commissions, Fees and Investments
- 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
We start Lightspeed Trading review with account opening process: company definitely needs to improve its speed and make it paperless.
Users opening an IRA account have to print PDF forms (and download a new version of Acrobat Reader if don't have it), fill
out the forms by hand, then mail them (there are no fax or email options). A non-IRA account is easy to open
by simply filling out all the forms on the website.
There are two platforms available for trading: Lightspeed Trader (min. $10K equity) and
Lightspeed Web Trader (min. $1K equity).
Customers can open the following types of accounts: Individual, Joint, Option, Futures,
Corporate, Partnership, Sub, LLC, Roth IRA and Traditional IRA.
Lightspeed Website (Lightspeed.com)/Trading Platform Review
Lightspeed.com offers three trading platforms:
• Lightspeed Web Trader: browser-based trading and account management, with features like
Options Strategy Center, News, Calendars, Research, and more;
• Lightspeed Trader: direct market access trading system, fully customized, could trade
equities, options and futures from one platform;
• Lightspeed Gateway: algorithmic-based trading platform;
Lightspeed Trader is direct access software with completely customizable layouts,
featuring hot-key and point-and-click trading, though charting could use some improvement.
Lightspeed Web Trader is terribly designed and extremely buggy. Between the bugs and design issues it sometimes
takes 10 minutes to enter a simple order!
LightSpeed Trading Pros
- Some of the lowest commissions in the industry
- Direct access to ECN’s and exchanges
- Free practice account
- Online community
- Automated trading
LightSpeed Trading Cons
- $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
LightSpeed Trading Review Summary
Lightspeed Trading provides direct access to ECN’s and exchanges which is a must for active traders.
The company has few fees, and, more importantly, it offers extremely low trading commissions
-- just $0.0045 per share, and any order of up to 200 shares will cost $1 or less
(orders with up to 500
shares are $2.25 or less). Options commission is $0.60 per contract with no order charges.
LightSpeed's Web Trader platform design is not intuitive and slow. But, more importantly,
the platform is full of bugs and it often makes trading a frustrating experience. The absence of extended hours
trading at Web Trader is disappointing too.
Their other platform, LightSpeed Trader, is much more stable and usually performs well. It could
get slow on high-volume days though and customer will need at least $10K in account balance to get access to it.
LightSpeed Trading customer service is spotty -- a lot of people complain about it.
If you are a beginner investor, this is probably not a broker for you -- try
one of our Best for Beginner Investor Brokerages recommendations.
LightSpeed Trading is primarily suited for very active traders who need cheap execution. If you don't trade on the
daily basis, check out our
Recommended Online Brokerage Houses.
Lightspeed Trading is a decent brokerage for day-traders, hedge funds and high-frequency traders
(though many of them often prefer Choicetrade (review)).
Occasional traders, beginners, buy-and-hold investors, and IRA account seekers should look elsewhere.
LightSpeed Trading
Reviewed by Brokerage Review on
.
Rating: 3.5
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