Best Day Trading Platforms 2023

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Day traders often trade on margin and enter and exit markets frequently during the trading day. As a result, these highly active traders have different brokerage platform needs than less active market participants. Issues such as margin rates, available assets, control over order routing, quality of trade execution speed and price, charting, advanced options analysis tools, backtesting, and the ability to enter highly customized orders are important criteria for active day traders. 

Best Day Trading Platforms 2023

• Best Online Broker for Day Trading: Interactive Brokers
• Best Broker for Advanced Day Traders: Interactive Brokers
• Best Charting Platform for Day Traders: Interactive Brokers
• Best Low-Cost Day Trading Platform: Webull

Best Day Trading Platforms View All Best Day Trading Platforms

• Our Top Picks
• Interactive Brokers
• Interactive Brokers
• Interactive Brokers
• Webull
• See More (1)
• Final Verdict
• FAQs
• Methodology

Best Online Broker for Day Trading : Interactive Brokers

Key Specs

• Account Minimum: $0.00, although day traders will need to have an account balance of at least $25,000 to avoid pattern day trading restrictions
• Fees: IBKR Lite, which works on a payment for order flow model and does not allow customers to control how orders are routed, offers $0.00 commission for equities and ETF trading, and $0.65 per options contract. High volume IBKR Pro customers that want access to advanced trading features, such as order routing, pay on a commission schedule based on trading volumes.

Why We Chose It

Interactive Brokers is our top choice for best online broker for day trading because of its low commissions and margin rates, excellent trading technology, and industry-leading access to a wide range of tradable global assets. 

Pros & Cons  Pros

• No-commission and low-commission options

• Trading flexibility

• Widest range of markets, assets classes, and trading vehicles on a single platform

• Low margin rates

• Education portal and paper trading      

Cons

• Sophisticated Traders Workstation (TWS) platform not easy to learn

• Pricing tiers are complex for non IBKR-Lite (commission-free model) customers

Overview

Interactive Brokers, formed in 1977, is one of the first online brokerage companies, and was an early adopter of computerized technology for trading floor operations. The company, headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, holds $11.6 billion in equity capital and has more than 2,800 employees around the world as of January 2023. IBKR expanded its cryptocurrency trading capabilities through Paxos Trust Company in 2021.

Interactive Brokers is the top brokerage firm and platform for professional and active day traders because, by far, it offers the most trading products for the most markets around the world, and does so on a single platform. No brokerage company even comes close to IBKR’s breadth in this regard, as you can trade stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, options, fixed income, foreign exchange, futures, and cryptocurrencies. 

IBKR has two platforms, one being IBKR Lite, which works like a no- or low-commission platform ($0 for stocks and ETFs and $0.65 per option contract), but does not allow users to route their own orders. IBKR Pro, however, provides maximum flexibility to day traders that goes beyond the ability to route orders. The platform supports trading, position, and order monitoring directly in charts, allows backtesting of strategies, paper trading, and very sophisticated order entry options that can automate trade entry and exit. 

IBKR, with all its functionality, is not the easiest brokerage platform to learn, and IBKR Pro customers face a more complicated tiered commission schedule based on trading volumes. However, IBKR has the lowest commissions for high-volume traders who want the extra value that IBKR’s platforms and order execution offer its users. While existing traders already understand the economics on IBKR Pro’s pricing platform and have a better feel for whether IBKR’s superior order handling and execution make paying commissions worthwhile, these decisions may be more challenging for newer day traders. 

Best Broker for Advanced Day Traders : Interactive Brokers

Key Specs

• Account Minimum: $0.00, although day traders will need to have an account balance of at least $25,000 to avoid pattern day trading restrictions
• Fees: IBKR Lite, which works on a payment for order flow model and does not allow customers to control how orders are routed, offers $0.00 commission for equities and ETF trading, and $0.65 per options contract. High volume IBKR Pro customers that want access to advanced trading features, such as order routing, pay on a commission schedule based on trading volumes.

Why We Chose It

IBKR is our best broker for advanced day traders, as it has the most sophisticated tools for trading markets around the world, and has built-in functionality that allows traders to fully automate their trading strategies and trade management. The functionality includes allowing traders to test trading strategies and paper trade prior to risking capital, but IBKR also provides users the ability to route their own orders, and has excellent screeners and analytical tools for options and other markets that can be used to automate trading strategies. 

Pros & Cons  Pros

• Excellent order execution

• Trade flexibility: automated strategies and a wide range of contingency orders

• Ability to route orders

• Can backtest trading strategies

• Paper trading available

Cons

• Trade routing is only available to IBKR Pro customers

• Backtesting strategies can be difficult

Overview 

IBKR’s trading technology results in excellent order execution and tremendous flexibility for day traders. Many online brokers, including IBKR’s Lite platform, receive payment for order flow and do not give customers control over where their orders are routed. However, IBKR Pro customers do have control over how their orders are routed, resulting in better trade execution.

In addition to control over order routing, IBKR’s platform offers traders the opportunity to largely automate their trading strategies, including trade identification and the establishment of a position, as well as the ability to have complete control over how the position is managed. This is accomplished through a wide variety of contingent orders, such as one-cancels-the-other options. In addition to this, however, IBKR can be set up to look for and execute a trade in a stock that meets user-set criteria. Criteria can include market capitalization, trading volume, PE ratio, and many other factors. 

In addition to these sophisticated tools for trading based on specific criteria, IBKR also offers its pro customers backtesting technology, and paper trading is available on all IBKR accounts. Many brokerage companies don’t offer backtesting or paper trading, to say nothing of the more sophisticated technology for entering market orders. 

Best Charting Platform for Day Traders : Interactive Brokers

Key Specs

• Account Minimum: $0.00, although day traders will need to have an account balance of at least $25,000 to avoid pattern day trading restrictions
• Fees: IBKR Lite, which works on a payment for order flow model and does not allow customers to control how orders are routed, offers $0.00 commission for equities and ETF trading, and $0.65 per options contract. High volume IBKR Pro customers that want access to advanced trading features, such as order routing, pay on a commission schedule based on trading volumes.

Why We Chose It

Interactive Brokers is our choice for best charting platform for day traders because it provides charting information with a wide range of indicators and drawing tools for multiple product types for markets around the world. In addition, IBKR’s charting platform shows positions and outstanding orders directly on the chart, so traders can truly trade directly from a chart.

Pros & Cons  Pros

• Trading and position management directly from charts

• Chart templates can be customized

• More than 120 technical indicators

• Drawing tools

Cons

• Customization is a timely process

• Backtesting is not available on IBKR Lite 

Overview 

IBKR’s charting is better than most online brokers, as it provides a wide range of more than 120 technical indicators and drawing tools for multiple product types and markets around the world on its desktop and mobile platforms.

IBKR’s charting platform, on the desktop or mobile app, has trading built into the application. While other brokers allow order tickets to be opened directly from a chart, IBKR’s platform integrates the trading into its charting application, so you can see open positions and orders directly on charts.

Although charts can also be customized, it can take a fair amount of time for users to accomplish this. 

Best Low-Cost Day Trading Platform : Webull

Key Specs

• Account Minimum: $0.00, although day traders will need to have an account balance of at least $25,000 to avoid pattern day trading restrictions
• Fees: No commissions or fees for US equity, ETF, or options trades. There is no commission for cryptocurrency trading, but a small markup is priced into the exchange rate.

Why We Chose It

Webull is our choice for best low cost trading platform because it has a robust platform for US equities, ETFs, and options, and charges no commissions or fees to trade these markets.

Pros & Cons  Pros

• No commissions, fees, or account minimums

• Robust, free trading platforms

• Access to extended hours trading

• Paper trading available

Cons

• Limited choice of assets to trade

• Payment for order flow model could result in slower order executions

• No income on excess cash

• Customer support is weak

• Educational offerings, though sparse, are improving

Overview

Webull, a newer online broker formed in 2017, has its headquarters in New York City, and operations that have now expanded to Hong Kong and Singapore. While Webull is a U.S. company, the holding company that owns it is Chinese-owned. Webull launched its mobile app before its desktop app because of millennials, who are an important target market for Webull; the company wants to provide services to younger, more active investors.

If you are interested in day trading U.S. equities, ETFs, related options, or cryptocurrencies, Webull has a robust platform that has you covered at no fees or commissions. Futures, foreign markets, mutual funds, and fixed income are unavailable on Webull. Also, while there are no minimum balance requirements at Webull, traders will need to maintain a balance of at least $25,000 in their account to day trade. 

Although there are no commissions or fees for trading on Webull, traders do not have the ability to route their orders because of Webull’s payment for order flow arrangements, and this may prevent traders from receiving the best prices for their orders. There are, however, more than 2,500 stocks on Webull’s easy to borrow list available for traders to sell short.

Webull also offers stock and options screeners, which can easily be turned into a watchlist. For a low-cost broker, the charting capabilities are pretty decent on Webull, with many technical indicators available. Webull also provides customers with real-time quotes, news updates, and a preset watchlist that shows the best performing indicators and the most popular ETFs for the trading day,

For day traders, however, Webull does not support trading and position monitoring directly from charts. Further, the Webull platform has no functionality for backtesting or automating strategies. Therefore, Webull is the lowest cost choice for day trading, and a solid choice for getting started with day trading, even though Webull customers may not get the best trade execution because of Webull’s payment for order flow model. 

Final Verdict

Although there is tremendous competition among online brokers, for serious day traders, Interactive Brokers is unrivaled on an overall basis because it covers all trading markets in many countries around the world, and its technology is superior in regards to the flexibility it provides customers for routing orders, automating their trading strategies, and identifying trading opportunities. Serious day traders also choose IBKR because of its low scaled commission rates and the speed of its platform.

For those looking to give day trading a try without additional costs, commissions, or fees, Webull offers stock, ETF, and options trading. While Webull does not provide traders with tools to route orders or fully automate their trading strategies, Webull’s trading platforms are well built and responsive. Over time, however, serious day traders are likely to migrate to IBKR for the better trading execution and ability to see all their trading on a single platform. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Day Trading and How Does It Work?

Day trading consists of a trader entering and exiting (buying then selling; or selling then buying) multiple trades in a particular security during a single trading session. Rather than investing over a longer time frame, day traders are looking for price action that allows them to trade in and out of the market. Day traders typically use a margin account so they can sell stocks short, but also to obtain leverage in their trading account.

Because day traders are very reliant on execution speed, they often trade in very liquid issues with high trading volume to ensure they can enter and exit trades. Because of the short-term nature of day trading, charting and technical analysis are typically utilized by day traders, and many automate their trading strategies to look for opportunities to act on instantaneously. 

What Are the Risks of Day Trading?

Day traders face several risks, first of which is market risk since markets can move very quickly. These sharp swings can result in orders being filled at poor price levels. Further, day traders are competing against large institutional traders and hedge funds that are well capitalized and often have better access to news, information, and price discovery. In addition to market risk, day traders may also have risk if they use margin to maximize trading leverage or maintain a position overnight to maximize trading leverage. 

Beyond market risk and competition with sophisticated traders, day traders often have additional costs, which include commissions on a high volume of trades. Further, day traders often have additional costs for real-time data fees and other technical analysis tools they may use. 

How Do Margin Rates Affect Day Trading? 

Margin is charged to customers that borrow money to sell or purchase stocks and hold those positions. Therefore, there would typically be no margin interest payments for day traders that close out their positions at the end of each trading day. Day traders use margin accounts to both facilitate short positions and to leverage their positions up to four times the cash value of their accounts. The leverage component of margin account trading provides traders with greater profits, but also with commensurately higher risks on losing trades. Further, losing intraday trades can also result in margin calls or the need for traders to post additional maintenance margin to maintain a position.

What Should You Consider When Choosing a Day Trading Platform?

Once a trader determines they will begin day trading, they have multiple decisions to make regarding the platform they choose. This should be done by the trader first determining the markets and trading vehicles they will transact in, then determining which brokers support those markets. 

Since day trading consists of multiple trades in and out of the market, the use of strong technology platforms that offer faster execution or trade automation has become more desirable, and the capabilities of the various platforms vary. Day traders should, first and foremost, look for a platform that offers fast execution, and this often means having the ability to route their orders to their exchange of choice. Second to this is the cost of trading; keeping commission rates and other fees low is very important for day traders. Further on this theme, many day traders also look for a platform that can be customized, that has strong market screeners, and can be programmed to enter and exit trades independent of the trader based on their rules. Other factors to consider on cost include whether there is a platform charge and what commission rates and fees will be on the platform chosen. 

Finally, outside of trade execution and management, day traders want access to strong charting and other analytical tools, including options analysis tools. Other traders will look for more advanced technology, such as the ability to backtest strategies and paper trade before risking capital. Finally, customer support may be important to new day traders just getting started. 

Methodology

Day trading is a highly active form of market speculation that requires a different set of tools than less active forms of trading. We reviewed several of the top online brokers based on their margin rates, available assets, order routing controls, quality of trade execution speed and price, charting, advanced options analysis tools, backtesting, and the ability to enter highly customized orders to determine our list of the top day trading platforms in the industry.

Article Sources

1. Interactive Brokers. "Day Trading FAQs."

2. Interactive Brokers. "Commissions: Options."

3. Interactive Brokers. "About the Interactive Brokers Group."

4. Interactive Brokers. "Commissions: Stocks and ETFs."

5. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "Annual Audited Report Form X-17A-5," Pages 1, 7.

6. Webull. "Webull Financial Fee Schedule."

7. Webull. "Pattern Day Trader (PDT)."

8. Webull. "SEC Rule 606 and 607 (Disclosure of Payment for Order Flow and Order Routing Information)."