Originally Posted by
orvil
Scambo
I use both TOS and Trade Monster.
No HFT.
Both are good platforms. Similar execution. IMO, TOS has the better graphical representation of your trade. TM has nice charts. Similar fills. Both are reliable and have good customer service.
Always happy to talk options. Try tastytrade.com. Starts each morning at 0800 - 1100 EDT. Can replay in the afternoons. Run by the guys that founded TOS. It has replaced CNBC. If you want to learn to trade options, and I don't mean specualate, but really learn, I can refer you.
A good investing bud of mine,with whom I confer daily on good trading days like we've had, uses think or swim. He also spends an inordinate amount of time reading and studying on the topics of option trading. Aside from the basic discussions we have, where I glean what I need for the day, our success rates have been pretty similar.
The reason I asked about HFT is that this summer I met a kid at the beach, 28 yrs old. He wrote some HFT software for himself while in college and has tweaked it over the years. His goal in the software is not to get the trade kickback from the exchange, it is just to make the marginal penny and get out. His software runs on autopilot with little or no input from him using automated inputs pulled from securities trading at high volumes at that time.
He paid cash for a beachfront place in june, $2.8M, and w-2 in 2010 $1.8M. Geek, but I wouldn't even begin to understand how to do what he did. He started with next to no money and I suspect when he is old there will be a 100' speed yacht parked out front.