Stock trading platform, tools, costs recommendation

amother

Scarlet

Wed, Feb 22 2017, 6:04 pm

Could anyone suggest a good service for stock trading?

I need some tools that will allow me to research stocks, filter them by certain criteria, such as price history, book/price ratio etc., categorization by industry.

Then I need to buy and sell or swap stocks as needed, and somehow minimize transaction costs.
I expect this to be more of a long-term investment for up to 5 years for each stock, not day trading. Although occasionally, of course, a particular stock may need to be held for a short-ish time.

Can anyone recommend a trading platform with low transaction costs; and good functioning tools. Any tips regarding taxation would be appreciated (e.g. Something like selling vs swapping if I'm not confusing the terminology)

Thank you so much!

amother

Linen

Wed, Feb 22 2017, 7:37 pm

amother wrote:

My husband has been doing this a long time and he uses a platform called lightspeed trading. You can google them and get all the specifics and their phone number.

What makes you think you can trade? Have you ever traded before? The overwhelming majority of people lose money trading. Its very difficult to find a "system" that is really dependable. Consider the fact that right now on any given stock there are perhaps 20 recommendations ranging from "strong buy" to "strong sell". These recommendations are made by analysts who follow every tick of the stock and get paid for their opinion. Yet they disagree with each other! What does this say about mine or your ability to correctly pick stocks?

amother

Scarlet

Wed, Feb 22 2017, 8:15 pm

Linen, thank you for both your recommendation and concern.

I actually happen to have a degree in this "department" but have been working in a totally different industry since getting my degree. Hence I have the knowledge but no clue what platforms became available in the past 15 years or so.

gp2.0

Thu, Feb 23 2017, 9:55 am

Following. I know of some sites that do this, there's etrade, capital one, scottrade, and then there's the big name ones like fidelity and a few more.

I've tinkered with a few, but still never found a trading platform that was clean and simple. They always seem very cluttered and confusing to navigate.

amother

Scarlet

Thu, Feb 23 2017, 10:30 am

Gp2.0, I've read your informative posts in the investment thread.

Can you chime in on transaction costs on Jose platforms, and some practicals like swapping stocks vs selling to minimize effect on taxable income?

I know, I know in the end I have to double check with the accountant. I just want to have an idea so I can present a concise question to him.