Here's another link:

http://www.worden.com/training/default.aspx?g=posts&t=10792


and here's a review I found on another site about IB vs. Etrade (I think this was a good depiction of how etrade is and I use them with great satisfaction -- excellent trading platform in Etrade Pro which also gives you the option of using direct access trading. But, I am also partial to Etrade also because as a former Brown and Company customer, I was allowed to keep my low commission rates when Brown and Company sold out to Etrade):

"Interactive Brokers has A LOT of bells and whistles. It is very advanced and sophisticated, but don’t even think about hand holding. Their costumer service sucks, however, if you do know what the heck you are doing, and like to be left alone go for it."

They kick ass ! 

I dissagree with the above.  I am an IB customer.  They were my irst account.  True they make you take an aptitude test for each issue you intend to trade and wan't to see at least 100 trades before taking you on as a customer but I papertraded and took an online course so I aced their little exame thing.  The thing is, yes.. they aren't into hand holding and stroking their cutomers.  I don't want tea and crumpets with my broker....  But they do offer full service broker asisted trades if yo ureally wan't that at the going rate for that sort of brokerage, advisory service.  A stupid fee.

As far as being complex in their interface... I don't think so.  It was intimidating at frist BUT your possibilities are totaly limited by your imagination.  it's truely a profesional platform and interface.  But it's totaly customizeable.  If you are used to and comfortable with "trade tickets" then use that interface.  if you wan't to trade directly from charts with trend lines that are submitted as live orders on any time frame .. use that interface.  If you are a scalper or agresive day trader and need speed of execution and buying and selling with in secconds while still using limit or stop orders then use the book trader interface where you have one click transmittals, because the time to key in price could cost you your entry tick.

You can set in saftey stops where if you exceed a predefiend risk level or what ever.. you get a prompt that asks you  if you really want to submit that order.  Say you generaly buy between 100 - 300 shares.. then accidentaly enter an order for 1000.  it's an easy typo to make.. a warning box pops up and makes you confirm it because it way outside your normal trading habbits.(not the best described by me) IB does not pattern it's traders.

They have order types and combinations that most people will never use.  conditional orders, basket orders, order cancells order,  orders that automatically reduce them selves based on other fills for the portfolio.  

Pluss the real time quotes and other interfaces, news, blah blah .. stuff i've never even tried to use.  Tons of learning videos for Options players.  Access to stocks, options, currencies and futures.  Great security.

I fully recoment IB to any trader.  take the tour, down load the demo and get comforatble with it.  Papertrade and set up your interface.  Once you have set up the interface it as easy as working with Telechart or easier actually.  It looks intimidating at first but it's AWESOME.  Just like Telechart most people never use all it's functions.

AND all that comes with their super low transaction costs.  I think only BOK and Zeeco trading are cheaper but you don't get any of that.. not only do yo not get conditional order.. but you don't get much beyond market orders with allot of those companies for the "discout price"  Try submitting a "bracket order for $7 at Scott trade.  Cant do it.

With Ib my day .. when not day trading (which I have stopped) goes like this (before the baby):  Get up check futures  decide to enter order preselected the night before (could transmit them straight from my excel calculation sheet if I chose) Submit a buy stop order for 200 at a predetermined range order good till cancelled attach a stop loss and proffit target. turn off computer and go fishing.  come home fire it up to find I was filled at 2:03:35 for a price with in the Buy stop range and imediately my stop loss protection was inplace and my target limit, transaction cost $1.00.. record the P/L for the day.. update charts and make management decisions.. look for new oportunities. Repeat next day.

At scott trade I get to submit a market order for 7$.  AFTER I own the stock I can submit my stop loss. (or at leat that is how it was)  if I trade a few thousand shares my transaction fee goes up but it never gets higher than $7.00 at IB and I get all the bells and whistles.

Down side $10 a month data fee for the quotes if I don't make 10 transactions in the month ... If I do it's free.  The few months I didn't, my interest rate on cash more than covered it and left some profit behind.

customer service has been great to me. But when I call I'm not calling to chat.. I know what i need from them and what to ask.  BUT even for questions on how to construct one of their complicated orders I got great people.  Who also directed me to a video on using the function I had overlooked.

yea, Interactive Brokers is not for everyone . . . .  but if you can read charts / fundamentals and make your own descisions then a full service brokers are not for you.  You are giving away money.  If you are comfortable making your own decisions and view any brokers recomendation with scepticism there is no reason why IB is NOT for you.

Next in line would be Tradestation for a slightly higher fee .. you get a pretty cool backtesting software intot he bargain and most of the cool order types of IB.  Tradestation will allow you to totaly automate your trading if you are comfortable with that.. and can program it properly.  So imagine saying "i'm going to trade the turtle strategy on the intraday 5 min charts over these 5 stocks"...you set up the list .. program the parameters hit go and go to work or fishing or what ever.  Come home and find 5 transactions (or whatever) entered and exited or pyramided according to your trade rules pre programed. . . . If you are comfortable with that.

I don't know much about MBTrading.

I hope this helps.
Scott.

Everything Scott says he can do with IB, I can do with Etrade Pro.

I can trade from charts simply by double clicking on the price bar or I can trade from my watchlist simply by double clicking in the cell for the ask price if I'm buying or double clicking in the cell for the bid price if I'm shorting and in either case, everything is already filled out for me on the order screen e.g. shares (which I can predefine), current ask (or bid) price ready execute on limit (or I can change the order type if I wish).

There is also a safety feature which you can turn on or off called the preview window which will enable you to catch any mistakes you may have made in your order before you execute it.

As far as charts are concern, I have numerous technical studies at my disposal including being able to draw trend lines on my charts, Williams %R, advance/decliners, slow, fast and full stochastics, MacdH, Accumalation/Distribution, simple moving averages, linear weight moving average and many many more technicals I would never use.

Newly added features includes charts for options, implied volatity for options, and an integrated Excel Spreadsheet which allows you to import your current watchlist and trade from the spreadsheet.
You can also import historical data into the spreadsheet for any stock symbol.

Everything in Power Etrade Pro is extremely intuitive and you don't have to switch to a different facility to trade from charts only.
We get on the spot streaming news that updates on its own for any particular symbol your cursor may happen to be on in your watchlist at that time.

Conditional orders are a snap and are very intuitive to set up and can do everything Scott says IB's platforn can do.

In order to use Power Etrade Pro free of charge, you have to trade at least 30 times per quarter.

I'm sure I've left alot of things out but I think that maybe I've given you a pretty good picture of how good this platform is.

Oh and we have a New Highs/New Lows ticker window, of course nasdaq levell II and open book and market depth (which I think is the same as TotalView, not sure).

We have direct access or automatic thru the broker order submissions

etc. etc. etc.
Well you get the picture.

Thanks for your time,
mp

Oh yeah, I forgot about you futures and forex guys. I'm just interested in stocks and options. I apolgize for my narrow mindedness.

In all fairness though, I've been reading some horror stories about IB as well as stories like Scott's  -- you either love 'em or you hate 'em.

For instance, if their platform is messing up your order, you can't get those guys on the phone  -- that sort of thing.  Or easy access to your money can be a hassle (Etrade gives you checks and/or a debit card)

Or when you call customer service, you might have a 30 min wait time (or more).

Deplorable customer service is what I hear from most reviews  -- but Scott says differently.

Who knows. 

Also, I was surprised to hear from Scott that they give you some sort of aptitude test  -- Who does that?  Ridiculous.

mp, I only know what I read, which should be facts since it's all over the net. When I read things like:

E-trade cut staff and sold a $3 billion portfolio of mortgage debt to Citadel Investment Group at a $2.2 billion loss. In November and December alone, the money E-Trade's clients keep in their accounts has dwindled from $226.7 billion to $190 billion and drove a panic in the marketplace, and customers who had no reason to be concerned got concerned and moved their money away.

To me, the stock price not being able to get out of the $3 range speaks volumes about what people think of E-trade.

well well well....this is a day I will mark on my calendar. How about that... mp actualy agreed with something I said and did not give me hell for saying it.

Does this mean we can be friends?