Best Day Trading Platforms & Brokers

When choosing an online broker, day traders place a premium on speed, reliability, and low cost. Features designed to appeal to long-term, infrequent traders are unnecessary for day traders, who generally start a trading day with no positions in their portfolios, make numerous transactions, and end the day having closed all of those trades. Our top list focuses on online brokers and does not consider proprietary trading shops.

Best Online Brokers for Day Trading:

Interactive Brokers: Best Broker for Day Trading

Why We Chose It

Selecting brokers in the day trading category is a challenge because our top two competitors, TradeStation and Interactive Brokers, are both incredibly robust. However, Interactive Brokers (IBKR) has repeated as our overall winner and the majority of our subcategories for trading on the strength of its market reach internationally, its asset depth, and the fact that all of this can be accessed through the feature rich Traders Workstation (TWS). Interactive Brokers also has the best margin rates in the industry, and that will be a key factor for day traders using leverage to amplify returns on their positions. On top of all this, IBKR added direct cryptocurrency trading capability in September 2021. So, although you do need to use an application program interface (API) to get some advanced algorithmic trading features and backtesting that TradeStation has in-platform, Interactive Brokers simply offers many more opportunities to create positions across assets and borders at every hour of the day.

Interactive Brokers: Best for Advanced Day Traders

Why We Chose It

Interactive Brokers (IBKR) remains our pick for advanced day traders, continuing another multi-year run. In this category, we assume advanced day traders are willing to bring third party solutions to make up for the gaps in back testing and automation in exchange for the wider access that Interactive Brokers provides in terms of international exchanges, an extensive selection of stocks on the easy-to-borrow list, and incredibly low margin rates. Advanced cryptocurrency day traders are now able to engage in direct coin trading as of September 2021, and everyone else will find that Interactive Brokers has all the assets, reach, and tools they need, along with a very attractive margin rate.

Interactive Brokers: Best Charting Platform for Day Traders

Why We Chose It

When it comes to charting, Interactive Brokers and TradeStation are incredibly robust and customizable. Interactive Brokers wins our best charting platform for day traders primarily because more assets are contained within those charts. Rather than having to move between platforms, day traders can chart (and trade) futures, debt instruments, options, stocks, and more. So while other brokers like TD Ameritrade and TradeStation have robust charting, Interactive Brokers is made more functional by the wider selection of assets you can run through it.

Webull: Best Low-Cost Day Trading Platform

Why We Chose It

Webull is essentially a no cost broker, not a low cost broker. Webull offers no-fee trading of US listed options in addition to stocks and ETFs. There is no account minimum and the margin rates are competitive. Day traders may be disappointed with a limited range of assets, but fixed income is likely the only one that will be missed in a multi-asset trading set-up. For some traders, this asset limitation may be offset by the inclusion of cryptocurrency trading. Moreover, Webull’s trading platform is actually quite robust considering it all comes for free.

How Day Traders Use Their Online Broker

Day traders may place their trades manually, often from a chart, or set up an automated system that generates orders on their behalf. Fundamental data is not a concern, but the ability to monitor price volatility, liquidity, trading volume, and breaking news, is key to successful day trading. 

Day traders often prefer brokers who charge per share (rather than per trade). Traders also need real-time margin and buying power updates. Each broker ranked here affords their day-trading customers the ability to enter orders quickly by customizing the size of trades and turning off the trade confirmation screen. We sought brokers who allow traders to place multiple orders simultaneously, designate which trading venue will handle the order, and customize trading defaults.

Are You a Day Trader?

A key consideration for day traders is trading platform quality, which can impact things such as execution speed and price quotes. Day traders, especially those who trade using their own algorithms, need flawless data feeds or they risk entering orders based on errors in the data. In an environment where high-frequency traders place transactions in milliseconds, human traders must possess the best tools. Most brokers offer speedy trade executions, but slippage remains a concern. Traders should test for themselves how long a platform takes to execute a trade.

Commissions, margin rates, and other expenses are also top concerns for day traders. Even if a day trader can consistently beat the market, the profit from those positions must exceed the cost of commissions. For a high volume trader, commission costs can easily run into the hundreds or thousands of dollars per day. Traders can check these rates by contacting the broker or checking the broker website, but most offer special rates for highly active day traders.

It is also important for day traders to consider factors such as customer service and the broker’s financial stability. Customer service is vital during times of crisis. A crisis could be a computer crash or other failure when you need to reach support to place a trade. The best brokers offer dedicated account representatives for highly active day traders to assist in this regard. 

The financial strength of the firm is also important since small brokerages can and do go out of business, but the main player in whether or not you can recover your assets is the clearing firm. Take a look at FINRA’s BrokerCheck page before signing on with a small firm to make sure they have not had claims filed against them for misdeeds or financial instability.