Firstrade Real Time Streaming Quotes
Investors at Firstrade (read review) receive free real-time
streaming stock quotes, also called Level I quotes.
Level II Quotes at Firstrade
Unfortunately, Level II quotes, which provide more in-depth information and used by professionals who trade for living, are not available at any
price. Despite this failure, there are other services at Firstrade that will appeal to security traders, such as a
free commissions and extended hours trading.
One of the Firstrade's competitors does offer this useful service. TD Ameritrade
clients receive Level II data at no charge. TD Ameritrade also charges $0 for stock and ETF trades.
Try Firstrade For Free
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Get TD Ameritrade For Free
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Level II Data at Firstrade's Rivals
One significant advantage of TD Ameritrade's Level II data
package is that it is completely free for professional traders. Most broker-dealers charge professional money managers extra
for access to Level II information. At $0 with robust trading technology, it’s hard to beat TD Ameritrade if you’re a professional trader. Non-professionals also get free real-time OPRA, AMEX, and NYSE quotes. Professionals have to pay extra for this info.
TradeStation is another broker-dealer that offers Level II quotes, although it does charge $10 per month for nonprofessionals.
Pro traders must pay a significantly higher $110 per month. While this is very steep, the data is available, which is more
than Firstrade is able to offer.
TradeStation provides three types of commission schedules: per-trade, per-share, and unbundled. With the per-trade plan, the
equity commission is a flat $5. With a per-share plan, trades cost just 1¢ per share, with a $1 minimum per order. If an
order has more than 500 shares, each share after 500 costs just 0.6¢. Obviously, this type of schedule would benefit
investors who place multiple trades with less than 500 shares. Each trade would cost less than $5, so it would be cheaper to
trade with this schedule rather than the per-trade plan.
This, however, still not as good as Firstrade’s $0.00 commission. Even though TradeStation’s Level II data only
costs $10 per month, Firstrade is still the better value.
TradeStation also offers unbundled pricing. Under this commission schedule, trading fees are assessed on the
total number of shares traded in a month. The commission per share is 1¢ for accounts that trade up to 100,000
shares per month. As the number of shares increases, the commission drops. The best rate is 0.2¢ per share for
accounts that trade more than five million shares every month. There is a minimum commission per trade of $1,
which goes down to $0.50 for accounts that trade frequently.
Chad Morris is a financial writer with more than 20 years experience
as both an English teacher and an avid trader. When he isn’t writing
expert content for Brokerage-Review.com, Chad can usually be found
managing his portfolio or building a new home computer.
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