Check out https://www.tradeking.com/. I found opening an acct super easy --they got it connected to banking & checking etc. Any time you want to get something fixed w/ a human you just click on the 'CHAT' in upper right hand corner. The bell'n'whistles aren't as good as say ScottradeElite but they got streaming quotes w/ tradeking live which I've never tried.
Roger on the stop loss thing. I hated posting a stop trade only to find out it fired off on some 2-second dip. Having paid my 'tuition' on that lesson I've been just holding when I can watch it; sometimes I prevail upon one of my kids to watch it & I tell them the current sell rules etc.
It's possible the market makers blew a lot of stops this morning to rake in some cash but I think for some reason there was a massive selloff. I would say I watch for 1/2 the time the market is open.
That's good to know about tradeking. ST Elite only works on PC's. I think I'll stay where I am right now but ST has offices all over the country. You think $7 trades support that?
They seem to promote certain stocks. Maybe they get a commission both ways? You'd think they'd take AA off their front page as an example with their indicators.
But I can call them on the phone and they always answer or kick me up to the corporate level.
Rather than switching horses right now, I think I'll put my energy into learning options even if I end up not trading them.
In 2008, one person on my comm forum said they lost 200,000 day trading. So they learned to short, said they shorted Lehman Bros all the way down and got their money back. That's gutsy. Now they just daytrade one stock, says you should know all their moves over a period of time.