Linux Friendly Online Brokerages? 40
freelunch asks: "I need to switch online brokers and, not wanting a dedicated Windows box just to trade, would like to find one that has Linux friendly Level 2 tools. Many of the Java trading platforms are unreliable/incompatible/unsupported under Linux (Scottrader is very unreliable and not L2). Any help?"
Ameritrade. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Ameritrade. (Score:3, Informative)
However, I'm not doing anything fancy, just buying, selling, looking at account history, and such. I tend to do research on Yahoo Finance, and have no need of Level II stuff, so I've no idea how well Ameritrade's site works in those areas.
Re:Ameritrade. (Score:3, Funny)
Oddly, they say that they require IE (or did, the last time I noticed), even though it works fine cross-browser.
I once wrote them about the fact that they were requiring the use (or at least claimed to be) of the products of one of the companies that were traded through their service in a way that might seem to be an endorsement. I also pointed out this was ironic in view of the fact that the company in question was a convicted monopolist with a history of just this sort of positioning. I also pointed o
Laziness (Score:2)
Most of the web devs I have worked with have been lazy. I would point out that their code did not work with Netscape (standard at the time) and they would reply that, "IE comes with Windows, so everyone has it." I would mention w3c standards compliance, thinking that someone would want to keep the work they do up to recent standards, and they would reply, "w3c?"
I have been fortunate to know web devs who cared about their
Re:play with the big boys (Score:2)
Come on, I dislike MS as much as the next Slashdotte
Re:play with the big boys (Score:2)
I can sympathize; I think Windows is awful as a development platform. No decent WM, no screen (not even for Cygwin), and a godawful mess just to get a few Python modules installed.
Re:play with the big boys (Score:2)
Re:play with the big boys (Score:3, Insightful)
It sounded like a troll to me. If I ask a specific question like, "I want to find a good CAD program that will run on a laptop running OS X" then it is not appropriate or useful to answer, "CAD programs only run on Windows, use Windows." It is doubly inappropriate to make glib and derogatory remarks about "playing with the big boys" while doing so.
The poster stated that they were looking for a Linux solution, telling them not to do what they want to is in no way helpful. If your opinion is there is no
Scottrader? (Score:2)
Re:Scottrader? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Scottrader? (Score:5, Informative)
Check this out here. [about.com]
A snippet for the lazy:
Level I
A Level I quote is the most basic information available about a stock. It is information available to all at no extra fee. A Level I quote consists of:
* Bid
* Ask
* Quote size
* Last trade
* Volume
* High
* Low
Level II
Level II goes a step beyond Level I. It basically reveals the order book for a Nasdaq stock. But it's not the complete order book, rather it shows the best bid and offer of every market participant who is publicly posting a quote.
The upper part of this Level II display should look familiar, it is basic Level I information. In this example we have, left to right, top to bottom:
* Last, Last Size, Change
* Bid, Ask, Quote Size
* Open, Low, High
To the right is what should be another familiar tool, the tape, or the ticker. It is a list of trades as they happen. The price is given as well as the number of shares traded. Upticks are shown in green, downticks in red, and zero ticks in gray.
But the information we're interested in, at least in this article, is the Level II information that makes up the rest of the display.
On the left side are the current bids of market participants, ranked from best to worst, highest to lowest. On the right are the offers, again ranked from best to worst, here from lowest to highest.
Each line in the display gives three pieces of information. The market maker ID, a four letter identifying code, the price bidding or offering at, and the number of shares being bid for or offered.
For example, on the offer side, the fifth offer down reads as follows:
MSCO 89 1/2 10
What is this telling us? Morgan Stanley is offering 1,000 shares of Sun Microsystems (SUNW) at 89 1/2. Now, where did I get that? MSCO is the market maker ID of Morgan Stanley. Since moscow is on the right side, or offer side, of the window, it is selling stock. The price it would like to sell at is 89 1/2. It is selling 1,000 shares as evidenced by its size of 10 (all sizes shown are in hundreds).
Read more if you are still interested.........
(I HATE THE DAMNED JUNK FILTER)
Re:Scottrader? (Score:3, Insightful)
It involves having some ultimately useless technical information such as the price of a stock right now this very second OMG! Buy buy SELL!
Level 3 is reserved for the Martian overlords who really control the stock market.
day traders and investors (Score:3, Insightful)
Level 2 is for day traders, that is, people who want to play video games with the stock market, and aren't interested in investing.
It may be true that some day traders aren't interested in investing but some are. Though I have yet to start trading or investing I plan on doing both. What I plan on is to setup two different accounts, one for investing for the long term and the other for trading. Not just day trading but a mix of day, swing, and longer term trading.
FalconRe:day traders and investors (Score:2)
Notice that you instinctively know that there will be no day trading in the account where you intend to actually make money through investments. *grin*
Just make sure the day trading account is a small one! And try to find a broker that makes their day trading engine look like GTA3. In fact, I think I'll patent that idea now and make a fortune! Yeah! 3D first person day trading shooter e
Re:day traders and investors (Score:3, Insightful)
Notice that you instinctively know that there will be no day trading in the account where you intend to actually make money through investments. *grin*
Just make sure the day trading account is a small one!
The investments I plan to make are for the long term and as I add money to the account I want to have a mix of investments with some agressive growth stocks, as well as some growth and value stocks and bonds. For the trading account I'd open it with only what I could afford to loose and if I'm able
RTS (Score:2, Informative)
Very good, more institutional - but have heard that they will support inviduals too
Catering to the minority within the minority? (Score:2, Funny)
Depends what you're trading (Score:2)
Fidelity... (Score:2)
Not sure who *is* (Score:2)
VMWare? (Score:2)
interactivebrokers.com (Score:2, Informative)
Is there an API? (interactivebrokers.com) (Score:2)
Can something like this be done with your broker's software?
Re:Is there an API? (interactivebrokers.com) (Score:2)
And one of the "killer features" is the ability to "back-test" an algorigthm with the historical data -- whether or not it would've made money in the past.
Wine (Score:1)
PrimeTrader (Score:2, Informative)
TDWaterhouse (Score:2)
optionsxpress (Score:1)
If you're playing stocks at Level II... (Score:2)