Best Trading Platforms: 2024 Top Picks

All of the trading platforms on this list impressed our editorial team of testers enough to be featured here — but the three that scored the highest for their trading platforms, order execution, user experience and access were Fidelity, Interactive Brokers and Charles Schwab. (Charles Schwab recently took on TD Ameritrade’s widely respected thinkorswim platform following its acquisition of that broker.)

Does that mean they are the best for you? That depends on your specific needs and priorities. But these platforms, and the others on this list, will help you narrow down your search.

Generally speaking, the more you trade, the more you want to consider execution quality. Time is literally money with day trading, so you want a broker and online trading system that is reliable and offers the fastest order execution. Many platforms will publish information about their execution speeds and how they route orders; we’ve included these details in our analysis and ratings as well.

When you place a trade with a broker, that broker may send the trade over to a third-party market maker — basically a large financial institution or bank — that actually conducts the trade, connecting buyers and sellers. Market makers earn their money by buying a security from a seller, then turning around and selling it to another buyer for slightly more, often for a difference of just pennies. But when done on a huge scale, those pennies can add up to major revenue for the market maker.

It’s in a market maker’s best interest for brokers to send them as many trades as possible, and they may be willing to pay brokers to send trades their way to accomplish this. And if the broker accepts those payments and routes trades to the paying market maker, the broker is said to accept payment for order flow.

Some brokerages, such as Merrill Edge, promote the fact that they don’t take payment for order flow, highlighting that market makers actually compete to get their orders. However, proponents of payment for order flow argue that the payment they receive from market makers enables them to keep trading costs down for retail investors.

But brokers that don’t take payment for order flow argue that client trades will be executed at better prices because the broker routes the trade based on the best available price. Critics of the payment for order flow system say that it can become a conflict of interest for brokers; that is, they may route trades to a market maker that pays them the most, even if it means a worse execution price for the trader.

Bottom line: If execution price is a concern for you — and it typically is for most day traders — be sure to look into the quality of a broker’s execution before diving in. But if you’re a new investor, you don’t plan to trade that often and you’re focused on long-term returns, execution price shouldn’t be much of a concern.

We’ve chosen Webull as the best fit for beginner or intermediate investors. We also have a separate list of best brokers for beginners, which includes our analysis of not just the brokerage firm’s trading platform, but also how well they score on other factors that appeal to beginners, such as educational resources about how to use those platform. Finally, we suggest looking for a platform that offers paper trading, so you can practice with simulated trades before the real thing.

Pattern day trader is a designation under FINRA rules that is defined as someone who day trades four or more times within 5 business days. Those day trades must also account for more than 6% of the trader’s total trades within the same period. Your brokerage can help you determine if you’re a pattern day trader. If you are, you’re subject to additional regulations, including the requirement to have at least $25,000 in equity in your margin account.

No one can predict individual stock performance to answer this question accurately, but there are a few things that make a stock at least a good candidate for a day trader to consider. Generally, those are stocks that are highly liquid, with large trade volume; relatively volatile, so you can buy low and sell high; and known to you (an understanding of the stock’s price history, and how it reacts to various events — earnings reports, economic shifts — is key). Here’s some detailed guidance on how to research stocks.

You can use your online broker or trading platform’s stock screener to look for stocks that seem ripe for day trading. We also have a list of the best stocks right now, based on performance.

Margin is essentially a loan from your broker. When you open a brokerage account, you’ll be asked if you want a cash account or a margin account.

A margin account allows you to place trades on borrowed money. Often called leverage, trading on margin can magnify your gains — and, in the worst-case scenario, your losses. To read more about margin, how to use it and the risks involved, read our guide to margin trading.

This is a loaded question. The trading platforms on our list don’t have minimum account requirements, but as noted above, you’re required to maintain a minimum of $25,000 in equity to engage in pattern day trading. That equity can be in cash and eligible securities. That’s the minimum amount you need to maintain in your account; on top of that, you also need the money you’ll use to day trade.

But just as important is setting a limit for how much money you dedicate to day trading. Those dipping into this kind of active trading may want to risk only a small portion of their account balance — 5% to 10% of your investable assets, at most.

Using a trading platform isn’t risky — many investors invest through trading platforms. But day trading can be risky. In short: You could lose money, potentially lots of it. Day trading is exactly what it sounds like: Buying and selling — trading — a stock, or many stocks, inside of a day. It’s all about making predictions and timing the market, with the goal of making a small profit on each trade. In an ideal world, those small profits add up to a big return.

But research has shown that only 1% of day traders consistently earn money; many, many lose it. It’s essentially a full-time job, because you need to constantly be watching — and timing — the market, waiting for your next move. It isn’t for beginner, or casual, investors.