For the latest business news and markets data, please visit CNN Business. Plenty of individual investors were trying to do just that on August 24 when the Dow plunged more than 1, points. But technical problems with their brokers' websites prevented them from making trades at that critical moment.
While issues with trading platforms like Scottrade, TD Ameritrade, and E-trade may have been brief, the problems occurred for many at exactly the right time to buy.
Hopp, a sales manager in the Northeast, doesn't keep a lot of money in stocks or trade too often, but he saw an opportunity to make some money when futures were pointing to a point drop at the open that Monday. But when he went to place the orders at a. ET, Scottrade froze, he said. And then an error message popped up. Hopp tried several times before calling Scottrade to place his order over the phone.
Minutes passed while his information was verified. The orders weren't placed until a. Related: How I made money when the Dow lost 1, points. ET to a. ET and after-hours 4 p. But TD Ameritrade's change lets people trade during the eight-hour window between the close of the after-hours session and the start of premarket trading.
Quirk said traders on the platform want the same flexibility in trading that they have in online shopping. The move also comes in the middle of a boom in cryptocurrency trading among retail investors. Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin — which have surged in value and popularity over the past year — trade seamlessly for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week throughout the world, possibly showing that this constant trading will appeal to people.
Requirement: no annual maintenance fee. No Inactivity Fees Yes Charges no yearly inactivity fee for not placing a trade or not actively engaging in the account. Clearing Firm Self-clearing The broker's clearing firm. Phone Support Current Customers Yes Offers phone support for current customers includes click to call back. Email Support Yes Email support for clients.
Web Trading Platform Yes Offers a web browser based trading platform. Watch Lists - Total Fields Total available fields when viewing a watch list. Examples: price, symbol, bid, ask, volume. Charting - Corporate Events Yes Can show or hide multiple corporate events on a stock chart. Examples: dividends, earnings, splits, news.
Charting - Historical Trades No The ability to see past buy and sells, typically marked with a buy or sell symbol, on the stock chart. Charting - Drawing Tools 12 The number of drawing tools available for analyzing a stock chart. Examples include: pointer, trendline, arrow, note. Charting - Automated Analysis Yes Can show or hide automated technical analysis patterns on a chart.
Service provider example: Trading Central Recognia. Most commonly this is done by right clicking on the chart and selecting an order. Linking the user from the chart to an empty non pre-populated order form does NOT count.
Charting - Notes Yes Add notes to any stock chart. Ladder Trading Yes A ladder tool provides active trading clients the ability to one click buy and sell equities off a real-time streaming window of fanned bids and asks. Option Chains - Streaming Yes Option chains with streaming real-time data. Option Chains - Total Columns 28 Option chains total available columns for display. Duplicates do not count. Option Chains - Greeks 5 When viewing an option chain, the total number of greeks that are available to be viewed as optional columns.
Option Probability Analysis Yes A basic probability calculator. Option Positions - Greeks Yes View at least two different greeks for a currently open option position. Option Positions - Greeks Streaming Yes View at least two different greeks for a currently open option position and have their values stream with real-time data. Option Positions - Adv Analysis Yes Ability to analyze an active option position and change at least two of the three following conditions - date, stock price, volatility - and assess what happens to the value of the position.
Option Positions - Rolling No Ability to pre-populate a trade ticket and seamlessly roll an option position to the next relative expiration. Option Positions - Grouping No Ability to group current option positions by the underlying strategy: covered call, vertical, etc. Can be done manually by user or automatically by the platform. Short Locator No Tool that allows customers to view the current real-time availability of shares available to short by security.
Trade Hot Keys Yes Ability to designate keyboard hotkeys for on the fly trading. Trade Journal No Provides a trade journal for writing notes. All entries are dated, titled, and may be tagged with a specific stock ticker. Adding text notes to individual stock charts does NOT count. Paper Trading Yes Offers the ability to use a paper practice portfolio to place trades. Trade Ideas - Backtesting Yes A tool that backtests different investment strategies, typically focused on technical events, and displays the results.
Trade Ideas - Backtesting Adv No A fully customizable, advanced backtesting tool provided by the broker directly. Third-party providers do not count. Research - Mutual Funds Yes Offers mutual funds research. Research - Bonds Yes Offers bonds fixed income research.
Can view quote results for fixed income securities such as individual US Treasuries. Examples: domestic equities, foreign equities, bonds, cash, fixed income.
Misc - Portfolio Builder No A tool that asks hypothetical risk tolerance questions then assists clients with building a diversified portfolio of ETFs based on their answers. Stock Research - Earnings Yes View analysis of past earnings.
Examples: Consensus vs actual data, EPS growth, sales growth. Stock Research - Insiders Yes View a list of recent insider transactions. Stock Research - Social No View social sentiment analysis, eg twitter analysis NOT just a stream of recent tweets , for individual equities. For example, trailing 12 months, three year, or five year returns. Examples: Morningstar, Lippers. Mutual Funds - Fees Breakdown Yes A clear breakdown of the fund's fees beyond just the expense ratio. Screener - Stocks Yes Offers a equities screener.
Screener - Mutual Funds Yes Offers a mutual fund screener. Screener - Options No Offers a options screener. Commonly referred to as a spread creation tool or similar.
0コメント