When you are a struggling person out there in the economy, there is not a whole lot you can do to further your station. You need a good job, but the best ones out there are flipping burgers or retail clothing sales. What you need is a path toward financial independence. So you need to understand what online brokers like Ameritrade can do for you.
Day trading is unique in all the stock market trading arts. It requires a strong stomach for risk and a willingness to put in the screen time to spot trends and jump on them. It also means that you need to be able to make multiple trades per day. That is the one drawback to Ameritrade: The commissions may seem low to traders that are making moves a few times a week, but the $6.95 per trade can add up if you are a day trader.
What you might want in a brokerage house that works online is a smorgasbord of options, like low costs, premium research, top-of-the-line strategy tools and a trading interface that can offer everything. It helps to test out brokers extensively before settling on one. Ameritrade is a well-known brand that has been around since the late 1990s.
What might put Ameritrade in a good spot is its advanced trading tools. The third-party research in particular is very robust. You can choose from all sorts of research that can aid you in finding stocks to trade each day, as well as instructional videos and streaming news from CNBC.
Another point in Ameritrade’s favor is the lack of a minimum balance requirement. Other brokerages can require thousands of dollars in their clutches in order to trade, while Ameritrade has no such rule.
Ameritrade’s Thinkorswim may be the best trading platform out there. There is a learning center with online courses and trading demos that can be a real boon for novice traders. It also offers a chat room where day traders can swap tips and tricks for approaching the market that day.
No matter what brokerage you go after, you want to be sure that you understand the nuances of risk management before you really go out on the market. Ameritrade can offer you a paper trading option that allows you to test out trades and create a risk analysis for a particular trader before actually pulling the trigger. Risk management is essential to being a very good trader. You need to be able to keep your losses in check and keep your profits up enough so you can stay ahead of the game. A 2:1 profit/loss ratio is ideal for traders that want to stay afloat.
Day trading is not for the weak or stupid. You need to be willing to put in the time to learn strategies that will allow you to spot stocks and trends and capitalize on that. You need to be able to work hard, put in the screen time and put your money in the right spots to be able to profit.
