Day Trading

Day trading is very risky and you should only try that with extra income that you can live without. Since you are asking this question I know you are not qualified to trade at that level. Most brokers will want you to have at least $25,000.00 deposited in your account before you can Daytrade so you need to be aware of that. The stock market can be very lucrative but you must know what you are doing.

I use Scottrade and love it! The stream from Scott works great. I don't know about BofA, but I suspect it's comparable. I'd think again about using Scottrade, they do one thing only and are very good at it. BofA does hundreds of things, some good, some not so good.

Thinkorswim.com open an account with $3500 and download the desktop. best broker firm and if you make 30 or more trades a month they will pay for you internet service! i daytrade with them and as long as you want to buy between bid and ask and place the order it gets you in instantly. $3 option trades. $5 stock trades up to 1000 shares .0125 cents per share after that. cant beat that! email me if you need some help too im always on the market M-F during market hours.

Actually, day traders MAY qualify to do that, but you have to be a certified investor, which means experience and plenty of cash to cover trades. What that essentially means is you have enough extra cash that the surplus cash is buying and when the trades clear that then becomes the surplus cash. Think of it as a different kind of "margin" that the government requires you keep to do this.

There is nothing called day trading anymore. since 2005 the concept was abolished when the SEC issued the law of locking the funds for 72 hours from the day of purchase. Meaning if you buy the stock today and you sell it tomorrow, you cannot recover your funds until two more days.

I use interactivebrokers.com because they are by far the cheapest, but they are not nearly as user friendly as most. Optionsxpress has great tools, virtual trading and good learning items but your at 9.99 on both sides of the trade. Ive also heard good things about think or swim, schwab, and scottrade too. It all depends on how much hand holding you need in your trading.

Good luck

Http://www.InteractiveBrokers.com

Yes I have. When I first started trading I had an E*Trade account. One month I went to take out some money and I requested a check. I checked to MAKE SURE that they had the right address and they did, so I waited….and waited…and waited. Three weeks later I was told that it was not their fault, even though I never received the check. "We mailed it out," was the only response. I never had any mail not get there from other sources-they dropped the ball somewhere. I ended up having to pay them to cancel the check AND pay for the wire through to my bank-they refused to take ownership of the problem. I told them to forget it and just close the account.

Did you trade during that time? Day trade restrictions are sticky, but usually the rep can remove them on a one-time basis. If its the first time there should be no problem at all. Did you speak to a manager? Thats a day trade call-similar to a margin call but generally much lesser priority. Once you bring the account back up, at most brokers, everything should be roses.

If you are generating that kind of commission any of the other discount houses would be glad to have you. There is no sense in going with such a no frills broker if you are treated like that.

You get taxed only on your profits.

If you have to ask this question you are in no way ready to trade stocks online. Really.

Learn how to invest:

1. Do not chase past returns. People that buy stocks or funds because they have done well in the past are doing exactly that.

2. Do not market time. Market timing is buying based on your (or your newsletter, or your TV, or neighbor's) guess about what is going to happen in the future. Even if someone knows something, you've already missed the boat. The price already reflects what you just found out.

3. Use index funds. Over time, index funds outperform actively managed funds, mostly because they do not have those high expense ratios. Some actively managed funds do beat their index, but the ones that do usually do not do so consistently. So why gamble? Use index funds. If you want to use a few actively managed funds, make sure that the costs are very low. Vanguard has some good ones.

5. Diversify. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Own a mix of bonds, domestic equities (large, small and mid cap funds), an international fund and perhaps a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) and emerging market fund. Four to six funds is all you need. Know your risk tolerance and set up an appropriate asset allocation. Rebalance as needed.

6. Consider taxes. Use the least tax efficient funds in your tax-deferred accounts and the most tax efficient funds in your taxable accounts.