I have three brokerage accounts TD Ameritrade (TD), ETrade, and Interactive Brokers (IB). Each one has great trading tools, but they're all different. Each chart from each broker reads different, and often times the tools have a large learning curve. Using Stocks to Trade (STT) makes things a lot easier and more productive for a number of reasons:
1) STT has several tools like real time paper trading (both TD and IB have paper trading but it's not real time)
2)STT charts are more accurate. Look at the examples below. Both are the same chart for the same stock I was shorting.The top chart is IB and the bottom STT. The wicks on the candles and the color of the candles makes a difference (my camera didn't catch the green on STT) when you're trying to decide to stay or go. Notice the center candles touching the top of the range (.65). Notice that IB shows two full candles, but STT show pull back (the wick is exposed) on each candle. Indicating that though the stock reached a high there was pull back because the sellers were putting up a fight. This along with the downtrend gave me the go ahead to short. Though this example isn't as drastic as some of the others I've witnessed it can help.
3) STT has twitter integration, as well as scans that are pre programmed. I'm constantly locating stocks using the "highest percent gainer" scanner.
4) STT also has all the valuable information needed like news,stats,float,etc.
5) When using multiple platforms STT gives me a consistent look and feel.
In conclusion if you cannot yet afford STT that's understandable, but when you can I highly recommend it. Before getting STT make sure your computer is able to handle it. I often hear complaints of STT crashing. I've used it for 3 months and have no issues of it crashing, but I'm using a laptop that is a powerhouse (Intel Core i7,12Gb ram,1TB HD, and 256mb SSD drive). Here are the minimal req from the STT website below. If you enjoyed this please follow me. I'll be sharing on what I'm learning along the way.
I have the same CPU,Ram and HD as you and I constantly have bugs using STT, cancelling it and going back to old faith full TOS.
Isnt the charts in different time frames? Looks like STT is 2 minutes and IB 1 minute. I use both (TWS and STT) and candles always look the same when using the same time frame.
I'm using STT, just paper trading. It's a complete platform with everything you need contained within it. From that standpoint it's great but it has a tendency to crash every now and then. I know it's just getting up and running but I believe that the bugs will eventually get worked out in the future. The problems to me are not big enough to want to cancel. I'll be taking my computer to a friend to do some updating so we'll see how it helps to perform better.
Hope it works out for you, it's definitely an awesome platform. I may return once they get the broker integration.
Join now or log in to leave a comment