Best Trading Platform for Day Trading 2024

For beginners, software that offers educational resources can help develop your skill into the advanced day-trading veteran you’ve always dreamed of becoming. Beginners and advanced traders alike can benefit from software that also has built-in screening and technical analysis tools. NinjaTrader offers some of the best charting, backtesting and automation tools available to retail investors.

While Robinhood is known very well for helping casual or novice traders access the markets, it’s also a great place for day traders to begin their journey. You won’t feel overwhelmed when using Robinhood because it’s designed to help you jump from your desktop to your mobile device with ease. You can find information you need on all the assets in which you plan to invest, and you get to “dip your toe in the water” before becoming a more established and experienced trader.

Who Makes a Living by Day Trading?

Steven previously served as an Editor for Finance Magnates, where he authored over 1,000 published articles about the online finance industry. Steven is an active fintech and crypto industry researcher and advises blockchain companies at the board level. Over the past 20 years, Steven has held numerous positions within the international forex markets, from writing to consulting to serving as a registered commodity futures representative. Please note that the stop What Is A Cryptocurrency Wallet level values in the table above are subject to change and may not be available for traders using certain high-frequency trading strategies or Expert Advisors. The crypto market is a digital currency market that uses blockchain technology to create new coins and provide users with secure transactions. Trading crypto derivatives allows you to diversify your online portfolio and capitalize on the movements of cryptocurrency prices, whether they’re rising or falling.

Those changes make comparing core features like trading platforms more important than ever — trading platforms can be a true differentiator for many brokers, including the ones on this list. Brokers have rushed to roll out a variety of different platforms to meet the needs of different types of investors, including advanced day traders and those who are just getting started. Between mobile apps, website platforms and downloadable desktop platforms, many brokers offer four or more different options for placing trades. Zack’s Trade is a professional-level trading platform that offers low fees, fast trade execution, and advanced trading tools. It offers a wide range of trading products, including stocks, options, futures, and foreign exchange.

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Then we hands-on test every trading platform to understand the capabilities and features as a user. We fund accounts, place trades and test the platform’s analysis and research tools. How much money an individual can make day trading depends on a number of factors, including one’s trading strategy, ability to manage risk as well as commissions and fees. A person is marked as a pattern day trader if they trade four or more times in five business days and their day-trading activities are greater than 6% of their trading activity for that same five-day period. Time and sales data and Level 2 quotes are available for both stocks and options.

day trading platform

When you’ve mastered these techniques, developed your own trading styles, and determined your end goals, you can use a series of strategies to help you in your quest for profits. A stop-loss order is designed to limit losses on a position in a security. For long positions, a stop-loss can be placed below a recent low and for short positions, above a recent high.

Checking for Order Execution Speed

The only exceptions to its comprehensive offerings are cryptocurrency and forex trading. The firm has long excelled at catering to the needs of retail investors, professional investors and those in between with its sophisticated and powerful desktop platform. TWS offers a variety of features, including Risk Navigator, Model Navigator and Options Analytics.

day trading platform

Investors can easily research and compare these investment options, and can choose to invest in a single fund or build a diversified portfolio using multiple funds. Active Trader Pro also features after-hours trading capabilities, the ability to create and save up to 50 orders, multileg options trades, streaming quotes, and an idea generator with more than 45 market filters. Outside Active Trader Pro, Fidelity offers the usual zero-commission stock, options and ETF trades, with no account minimums.

Cons of Day Trading

This feature is unique among the ones offered by professional trading platforms. TC2000 Brokerage offers live trading for $1 per trade, which is pricey compared to Firstrade or TD Ameritrade, which offers free stock trades. This service does mean a tight integration between the charting software and the brokerage house. Essentially, it means the holy grail, trading directly from charts visually. Founded in 2003, Trade Ideas is a web & desktop-based software platform for finding day trading opportunities. Historically specializing in real-time scanning for trade opportunities, Trade Ideas now incorporates cutting-edge AI algorithms that backtest every stock in the USA for high-probability trading opportunities.

day trading platform

Manually go through historical charts to find entry points that match yours. Note whether your stop-loss order or price target would have been hit. Determine whether the strategy would have been profitable and if the results meet your expectations. Traders can be successful by only profiting from 50% to 60% of their trades. However, they need to profit more on their winners than they lose on their losers. Ensure the financial risk on each trade is limited to a specific percentage of your account and that entry and exit methods are clearly defined.

TradingView’s platform facilitates a deeper dive into market trends, offering customizable charts that cater to individual trading strategies. Whether you’re a novice or an experienced trader, understanding how to leverage these tools can significantly impact your trading efficiency. For an in-depth look at how TradingView can enhance your day trading strategy, explore TradingView for day trading. The best day trading software equips traders with a suite of tools designed to navigate the markets more effectively.

  • Tastyworks allows for stock trading, but it is the most options-focused trading platform, with technology that focuses on it.
  • Offering these features and much more, the brokers mentioned below make a great fit for day traders.
  • EToro was founded in 2007 with a focus on creating a community for social investing, along with commission-free trading.
  • He also taught investing as an adjunct professor of finance at Wayne State University.

It’s not just about making quick decisions; it’s about making informed decisions based on real-time data, market analysis, and trends. The best brokers for day trading offer low fees, excellent charting platforms, fast execution, access to global markets, support trading with leverage, and provide accessible minimum deposits. Day trading is a popular investing strategy that involves buying and selling stocks, currencies, or other financial instruments within the same trading day. When it comes to determining which market is easiest to day trade, it depends largely on the experience of each individual day trader. However, some markets are generally more suitable for beginners than others. Since fast trade execution is essential for day trading, professionals prefer online brokers that offer direct access to markets.

With over 160 indicators and unique specialty charts such as LineBreak, Kagi, Heikin Ashi, Point & Figure, and Renko, you have everything you need as an advanced trader. With the Premium membership, you also get Level II insight, fully integrated. As soon as you connect to TradingView, you realize this has also been developed for the community. You can look at community ideas, post your charts and ideas, and join countless groups covering everything from bonds to Cryptocurrency. The news feeds are fully integrated, including Kiplinger, DailyFX, Futures Magazine, FXStreet, and StockTwits.

The best day trading platform for each trader is the one that fits that trader’s trading style best. Based on this review, that is more likely to be IBKR than any other, but not every trader is the same and another broker could have benefits that outweigh all other considerations. Day trading might be one of the easiest activities to get started with but among the hardest to master, so beginning day traders shouldn’t expect to become highly profitable in only a matter of days or weeks. Here are four basic steps every day trader should follow when getting started.