Spam me with - Web based stock/options trade service.
 

I'm sure some/most of people here are trading on a market or another. I'd like to set up an account so that

-I can trade via the web
-I can do margin calls and short sales

Ideally, the service would smoothly work with EU based banks, for funding and withdrawing. I don't want to look at scammy russian "forex' websites.

Let's see what you got.

what, nobody ?! come on.

Forex is for foreign currency trading... not stocks/options.

That said... for options trading I used to use RF Lafferty although this was ages ago and I have no idea if they have online trading but for options trading they are kings. I would imagine any large investment brokerage or discount firm will have online trading. Just be sure they are registered with the NASD and you should be fine.


PS Forex rules if you are interested in trading. Example: 1 trade today (gbp/jpy) 8 minutes. $4048.17 :)

thinkorswim.com
mbtrading.com
speedtrader.com

Just to name a few

Yes, I'm aware.

I'm not, I have no understanding of the economics underlying currency exchange rates (not that anyone else does, but at least i'm admitting to it). There's no ammount of money that will convince me to do something I do not understand.

thanks matiz. looking. Are these order flux resellers (ie, do they actually execute the orders, or just package them and sell them off to a third party )? While not actually a daytrader, I'd prefer they didn't, cut the middleman thing.

I completely understand your aversion to currency trading but it's really not as difficult as most would think. I could recommend some sites to learn the basics if you don't mind doing some reading/research. If you do any sort of technical analysis you can easily make the transition from stocks/options as I have. It's just another tool in the proverbial toolbox.

In any case unless a firm has a seat on an exchange or is a NASDAQ market maker they pass their orders off to a clearing house. Just so you know.

I would go with etrade I've always heard good things regarding both their execution times and ease of use.

Good luck to you no matter who you decide to use.

Yes, but you see, tools like that in the proverbial toolbox, poorly understood, used on a touchy-feely seems to work this way approach is how this current sub prime mortgage spv crisis started.

MB direct doesn't do shorts, so they're out.

There is a list posted at:

http://www.StocksForum.com/showthread.html?t=6

Interactive, never seen that before, thanks for the list.

Apparently gfy trades a lot less than you'd think, is it

So, to sum things up

Interactive Brokers looks grand, and would have been my first choice. If you're looking for a broker, I think you should give them a look first. Unfortunately, they want 10,000 minimum deposit, which is reasonable, I think. It is also more money than I want to put into this at the moment. So, with a tear in my eye, I'll have to pass on them.

I've settled for optionXpress - www.optionsxpress.eu. They seem competent enough and able to fill my bill. Will see how it works out, but thanks to everyone that made suggestions.

You did well with choosing optionXpress :2 cents:

So what are you planning to short anyway?

Oh, you know, just a couple of slightly overvalued stocks temporarily supported by sheer market bias.