I have about $1200 and sure trader and it has worked pretty well. I have had some issues here and there, every now and again the software goes down and the customer support is sometimes hit or miss. But for a low account, not having the day trader rule is pretty nice. However, since you have 3k, I would consider the other brokers like E trade or interactive brokers. Interactive brokers is Tim's favorite and if you are 25 and under you can start with a 3k account. Trade is a minimum of $500

E trade has a minimum of $500. But you would only be able to do 3 - 5 trades a week while under 25k. So if you want to catch more plays, sure trader is better. But the unlimited trading can make you overtrade, which I ran into. It can really kill you on the commissions with a low account as well.

The commissions can kill you if you overtrade and start accumulating a lot of losses on top of the commission fees. Also Suretrader doesn't have as many shares to borrow so you are kind of handicapped there. Every now and again you find shares to short, but interactive brokers and etrade are the best.

Yeah I really don't want to have to contend with the day trader rule...but I also like the idea of my money being stateside. Going to train up a few more weeks by paper trading...thanks for the advice