The broker shortlist
Best Day Trading Broker
| # | Broker | Stock trade (USD) | Min. deposit (USD) | Platform | Routing | Short locates | Paper trading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  CenterPoint Securities | $0.003 a share | Not published |  | Direct access | Yes | — | View broker |
| 2 |  ChoiceTrade | $0.002 a share | Not published | | Direct access | Yes | — | View broker |
| 3 |  CMEG | Not published | Not published | Direct access | Direct access | Yes | — | View broker |
| 4 |  Cobra Trading | $0.0015 a share | Not published |  | Direct access | Yes | — | View broker |
| 5 |  Futu | $0 a trade | None |   | Smart routing | — | — | View broker |
| 6 |  Guardian Trading | $0.0005 a share | Not published | | Direct access | Yes | — | View broker |
| 7 |  Interactive Brokers | $0.0035 a share | None | | Smart routing | — | Yes | View broker |
| 8 |  Lightspeed | $0.0035 a share | Not published | | Direct access | Yes | — | View broker |
| 9 | Moomoo | $0 a trade | Not published | Desktop, Mobile, Web | Smart routing | — | — | View broker |
| 10 |  Ocean One Securities | $0.00085 a share | Not published | Direct access | Direct access | Yes | — | View broker |
| 11 |  SageTrader | $0.001 a share | Not published |  | Direct access | Yes | — | View broker |
| 12 |  SpeedTrader | $0.0025 a share | Not published | | Direct access | Yes | — | View broker |
| 13 |  SuccessTrader | $0.0000 a share | Not published | Direct access, Route selection | Direct access | Yes | — | View broker |
| 14 |  thinkorswim | $0.00 a share | None | | Direct access | Yes | — | View broker |
| 15 |  TradeStation | $0.00 a share | $2,000 for margin |  | Smart routing | — | Yes | View broker |
| 16 |  TradeZero | $0.005 a share | Not published | | Direct access | Yes | — | View broker |
| 17 |  Venom Trading | $0.004 a share | Not published | | Direct access | Yes | — | View broker |
| 18 |  Zimtra | $0.0015 a share | $2,000 bond | | Direct access | Yes | — | View broker |
How we rank a day trading broker
Five things, weighted. Execution is 25%: fill quality, rejected orders, stale quotes, and whether traders can manage a position when the market moves. Regulation and safety is 20%: the legal entity, the regulator, the clearing firm and any disciplinary record.
Shorting is another 20%, because most day traders here are short at some point. That means how deep the hard to borrow list is, whether the locate price shows before you pay it, and whether you can sell an unused locate back.
Then cost at 15%, platform and execution at 10%, and support at 10%. Cost is the whole cost: the rate per share, the routing fee, the platform fee, the data fee and the quarterly inactivity fee.
A trader report is evidence of what one person experienced. We weight an official incident acknowledgement highest, then several independent reports on the same day, then a pattern over time, then a single angry review.