I've used TradeStation, eTrade, Scottrade and Interactive Brokers. I complete well over a thousand round trip trades a year using EOD data. I typicaly place anywhere from a dozen to a couple of hundred limit orders each night, only about 10-20% of which ever get filled. I plan to continue working full time for at least the next year. As such, the most important features for me are: - Low commissions - Ability to upload basket orders - Web access from behind a firewall (while I'm at work) - Easy reporting, exportable to GainsKeeper or TradeLog for the accountant TradeStation - Honestly, I don't recall if these guys supported my requirements. I only started with them because they seemed more professional than AmiBroker and I needed a backtesting tool. However, I soon found out that they had fixed limits with respect to not being able to scan more than 1000 symbols (or somewhere around there), so they were useless to me since I scan 8000+ each night. Their comissions were OK (penny a share), but if you ever made fewer than some number of trades you got hit with a $100 monthly platform fee. With my volume that was not an issue, but it irked me anyway. eTrade - Again, I only went with these guys because my employer automatically opened an account for me when I joined the employee stock purchase plan (ESPP). Even with active trader status, they were too expensive ($9.99 each way), did not support basket orders, and required special permission and a whole lot of phone calls to open more than one margin account. Customer support was VERY slow with LONG wait times, but helpfull once you finally got through. Trying to connect using the web client during fast trading would sometimes fail. Scottrade - These guys had excellent customer support, I was happy with their desktop platform and the web based access from behind a firewall. Depending on your order size, their comissions are higher than IB (for stock orders of fewer than 1400 shares, they're better than IB above that point i.e. $7 each way vs. .005/share). They suffer from the same charting problem as IB in that they do not show the correct EOD Close and so can screw up an EOD trader ( http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/amibroker/message/116777 ). I use a separate data provider because of this. However, the biggest problem for me was that they did not have support for uploading a basket order. Trying to type in dozens or hundreds of orders each night is just too time consuming and error prone. My request for this feature went unfulfilled. Had they offered basket trading, I probably would have stayed with them. Interactive Brokers - It's a mixed bag with these guys. They have been awful. They update their software constantly and introduce new bugs every time as a result. Complaints go unaddressed for weeks and months if ever addressed at all. Support tickets get closed after a period of inactivity, even when the ball is in their court! You have to keep pinging your ticket just to keep it alive. However, feature-wise they are one of the best games in town. They offer everything I need. An AmiBroker exploration can be written to output the format of an IB basket order such that 1 click import and you're done. Alternatively, the IB plugin from AmiBroker can be used to place the trades directly. Their web portal is satisfactory. They support GainsKeeper and TradeLog, including Mark To Market accounting. Despite the above negatives, they recently did a complete overhaul of their software that fixed all my outstanding issues (over a year later for some). So, for the moment, they are the perfect setup for me. But, once burned, twice shy. If they can stay stable for a period of time, I'll feel better about recommending them. Mike
我也评说两句，为此帖增加些看点，请大家批评指正！ 这四个全是电子券商，学名为“在线经纪商online broker”，或折扣经纪商。券商，是指他们都有证券业务，都是登记在册的，有证券牌照的，其客户也都是有SIPC保险的。 （非券商的经纪商，是指期货佣金商FCM，或者只作外汇业务的外汇交易商，也注册在NFA或者CFTC上。这样的经纪商，如果是期货业务，其客户的期货交易的资金应该隔离，受益人为客户本人。外汇交易目前没有这方面的立法规定。 在美国，证券和期货的从业人员需要考过系列7或系列3，并在经纪公司注册，持有专业执照License。外汇现货交易的从业人员没有牌照的法律要求。） TS，这是个基于佛罗里达的电子券商，在自动交易界名气很大，口号是The Leader of Rule-Based Trading "基于规则交易的领导者”。市场定位主要是英语的自动交易者群体，客户可利用他们的语言如easy language等写基本的程序来自动交易。他们的介绍光盘上告诉你，你可以设定什么样的bar线，如吊钩hook产生之后，产生自动执行的买入信号，可以回测。他们目前还没顾得上非英语市场。业务有股票、期货、期权和外汇。非美期货的单边手续费列表中看到，基本都在$6.99以上（是否是当地货币还是美元？还没去验证）当每月交易不活跃的时候，平台使用费为月100美元。如果交易超过最低限，则可免。 外汇的佣金跟IB一样,都是0.2个基点，最低2.5美元。 Neon对此系统驾轻就熟。去年秋海洋聚会，Neon兄千里迢迢来到深圳，激扬文字，侃侃而谈，令大家耳濡目染了TS的自动交易的风采。 Etrade，股票手续费楼上已经说了，就不提了。他们的目标客户群比较大众化些。看到他们在杂志上的广告文宣上说可以交易六七个国家和地区的产品，包括美，日，香港还有几个其他的。对于非美国家的客户，则似乎只能交易美国的本土的产品（有朋友说的，有待证实）。可以有股票，期权，最近几年买了期货业务板块。 Scottrade，只有美国和加拿大的股票和股票期权业务。单笔、单边交易手续费7美元，不论交易多少。他们大概有几个股票的交易平台，但没有类似IB的那种多平台自动选取最佳报价成交的智能订单路由。史考特在全美的分行也比较多，记得是200多家吧。有专门的华语服务电话，在某些著名的海外华人网站上常年有广告。目标客户群为大众群体。 IB，客户来自140多个国家，公司的平台可以用14种货币交易25个国家的70多个交易所交易的股票、期货、期权、外汇、ETF。市场定位是专业投资者群体。客户可以自己设计程序连接IB进行自动交易，也可以自由式交易。如果客户填写自己在某方面的交易经验不足，如时间不够两年，或者每年交易不足100笔，或者知识有限，则需要参加一个IB的在线课堂考试，通过之后才能申请开通该方面的交易权限。IB的分部全球也就是美国格林威治，芝加哥，加拿大，香港，伦敦，苏黎世，澳大利亚等。成本极低。TradeStation在其网站上对比同行佣金的时候，列举了Etrade, Fidelity, OptionXpress, Shwab, TDAmeritrade，唯独没列和IB的对比。 IB的第一次2007年报，里面有很多有价值的东西，懂英语的朋友想研究IB的，可以直接下载学习其业务发展模式及未来前景：http://investors.interactivebrokers.com/download/IBC_2007_Annual_Report_10-K.pdf 里面有Thomas致给股东的年终信。