Best Day Trading Platforms
Best Day Trading Platforms
The search for the best day trading platforms and brokers is an important part of any serious trader’s process. Speed, reliability, costs, customer service, and charting tools are all key elements of day trading platforms that these highly active investors tend to value the most. Moreover, for traders who implement systematic strategies, backtesting capabilities have gained greater importance as well.
As day traders allocate more time and capital to their endeavors, it is important for online brokerages to provide them with the tools that they need, at a cost that doesn’t eat into their profits. Additionally, reliability of data is paramount, as is the ability to test trading ideas prior to deployment. We’ll look at several brokers who strike the right balance between day trading tools and competitive pricing.
Best Brokers for Day Trading:
- Best Online Broker for Day Trading: Interactive Brokers
- Best Broker for Advanced Day Traders: Interactive Brokers
- Best Charting Platform for Day Traders: Interactive Brokers
- Best Low-Cost Day Trading Platform: Webull
Interactive Brokers: Best Online Broker for Day Trading
Why We Chose It
Interactive Brokers (IBKR) remains firmly entrenched as our overall pick as Best Online Broker for Day Trading because it offers among the widest ranges of assets available to trade while charging some of the lowest commissions and margin rates in the industry.
Wide range and depth of supported assets
Low commissions and margin interest rates
Multiple scanners across asset classes
Education portal within platform
Intraday news updates within the platform
Steep learning curve for Traders Workstation
Complicated pricing tiers
Overview
Founded in 1978, Interactive Brokers is in its 46th year as a broker/dealer, and holds $10.9 billion in equity capital. Headquartered in Greenwich, CT, IBKR has over 2,650 employees across the globe, and has offices in Europe as well as Asia.1 In 2021, IBKR added support for U.S. spot gold trading. In 2022, Interactive Brokers expanded its cryptocurrency trading offered through Paxos Trust Company.
The strength of IBKR’s platform in terms of day trading has a lot to do with its Trader Workstation (TWS) platform. Giving access to a wide selection of assets, TWS offers reliable pricing, fast order flow, sophisticated charting tools, and automation capabilities. Moreover, users are able to customize their TWS workstation to their liking while also monitoring newsflow. Traders on the go will be able to access IBKR via its mobile app, which is available for both Android and iPhone users. You’ll find many of the same capabilities on the app as you will the desktop, particularly as it relates to setting up watchlists and placing orders. Charting capabilities, however, are more robust on the desktop platform.
While IBKR can work for both the casual and the more serious trader, TWS has a professional feel that seasoned traders will appreciate. The options analytics tool allows users to view how shifts in the options Greeks will impact the options pricing for the asset in question. The reach of Interactive Brokers in terms of markets and assets also allows traders to set up direct trades playing off global market dynamics.
For order flow, IBKR Pro users’ orders are submitted to IBKR’s high-speed, best execution order routing system, SmartRouter. This enables traders to receive optimized pricing and transaction speed. Users of IBKR Lite are routed to select market makers with whom IBKR may have payment for order flow agreements. The impact of this is that IBKR Lite users may be subject to a reduction in price improvement on trade executions.
Although IBKR Pro has upfront costs, it will likely be the choice of most day traders looking for fine control over order execution. Whether Lite or Pro, Interactive Brokers also gives traders access to the industry’s lowest margin rates to leverage up and amplify the returns on positions.
Interactive Brokers: Best Broker for Advanced Day Traders
Why We Chose It
Interactive Brokers continues to be our top pick for advanced day traders, as well. Its speed and efficiency specific to order execution complements its low rates on margin trading and provides advanced traders with a strong option to execute their strategies. IBKR has also continued to add tools to an already powerful arsenal, along with tradable assets and other key capabilities.
Superior order execution
Contingent orders for every situation
Low margin interest rates
A plethora of tradable assets
Backtesting strategies is cumbersome
SmartRouter only for Pro customers
Overview
IBKR continues a long run as our pick for Best Broker for Advanced Day Traders because it fulfills the needs of seasoned traders across multiple asset classes. Traders will find a wide selection of assets to choose from, as well as rapid and efficient order execution.
We expect most advanced traders will take advantage of the IBKR Pro offering in order to access SmartRouter. In doing so, traders can avoid the potential for order execution to be compromised by payment for order flow (PFOF), as may happen to Lite users. Additional features that push Interactive Brokers to the top for advanced traders are its robust selection of assets, wide selection of stocks on the easy-to-borrow list, and advanced charting tools. Trades can be placed directly via the chart itself and TWS is highly customizable in terms of standard analysis and displaying trading opportunities.
For mobile users, both Android and iOS users will be able to take advantage of IBKR’s mobile app. In addition to rapid order execution, traders can use the mobile application to review equity fundamentals, monitor valuations, and check environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings. Within the mobile app, traders on the go can trade options, view order books, and implement exit strategies directly from the app. Advanced traders will, of course, be working on Traders Workstation whenever it is feasible as the trading environment is more expansive than even the most robust mobile translation. While the broker has filled a major gap with the introduction of cryptocurrency trading, the lack of a user-friendly backtesting environment will still bother some more advanced traders.
Interactive Brokers: Best Charting Platform for Day Traders
Why We Chose It
There are a lot of competing platforms that have robust charting built into the trading interface, but none have what it takes to dethrone Interactive Brokers as our pick as the Best Charting Platform for Day Traders. Although IBKR holds its own in terms of charting functionality and the easy application of customized views and indicators, the robust selection of assets, ability to both chart and trade within one platform, and breadth of technical tools available to users all combine to keep IBKR firmly in the top spot.
Trades can be placed directly from customizable charts
Ability to chart and trade assets from multiple markets in one platform
Robust offering of technical tools
TWS takes time to fully customize
DIY backtesting feature is available to IBKR PRO users only
Overview
Intra-day traders will quickly find that IBKR provides them with valuable tools, robust asset selection, efficient order execution, and competitive costs. Day traders who are practitioners of technical analysis will feel at home when applying studies and indicators to a wide variety of assets across markets. There are a bevy of tools to choose from, and it’s unlikely that users will find themselves needing to go elsewhere for indicators or analysis. Furthermore, those who do not lean on technical analysis primarily will still find more than enough tools to fulfill their trading needs by identifying tradable events and fundamental data.
The challenge won’t be whether the tool exists on IBKR’s platform as much as it will be deciding which tools not to make use of. The standard relative strength index (RSI), Bollinger Band, stochastic cocktail of tools is available, as are more nuanced ones such as DeMark indicators, Connors RSI, and Donchian channels. The ability to apply statistical bands to the volume-weighted average price (VWAP) study is another feature that signals IBKR’s commitment to helping traders identify price inefficiencies.
Mobile users can make use of the same tools and indicators that are available on the desktop version, although they may find it more challenging on the mobile platform, which is not uncommon across the industry. Finally, traders can trade directly from the charts themselves via IBKR’s Chart Trader option.
All told, day traders will find tools, reliability, low cost, and speed with IBKR’s charting platform. This is, of course, in addition to all the other bells and whistles that won IBKR both the overall and best for advanced day traders categories.
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