10 Best Day Trading Platforms in 2024
Articles
The financial market is full of opportunities to make money, and you can be a decision away from hitting the jackpot and making considerable returns, depending on your trading strategy.
Day trading is a common strategy for investing in financial markets. It is a versatile approach that works with beginner and professional traders across multiple asset classes. Choosing the right day trading platform that offers a wide selection of securities, daily price projections, and advanced charts is key to making the most of your investing sessions.
Let’s review the best day trading platforms and evaluate the features and functionalities required to make informed trading decisions.
Key Takeaways
- Day trading entails investing in financial markets and executing multiple orders without rolling them over to the next day.
- Day traders use various tools to locate gain opportunities, such as short-locators, algorithmic trading, and copy trading.
- Day trading can offer generous returns during high volatility when prices move dramatically within a few hours.
- Many online brokers offer specialised day trading tools and platforms, such as margin accounts and smart investment rerouting.
Understanding Day Trading Strategy
Day trading entails opening market positions and concluding all trading activities by the end of the trading day. It is considered a fast-paced strategy, although investors have eight hours to make decisions during the market’s working hours.
Traders start their activities as markets open. For example, the New York stock market opens from 09:30 to 16:00 ET. By the end of the day, investors liquidate their positions and realise all the gains or losses resulting from their investments.
Investors must factor in quick and accurate technical and trend analysis to locate the best market opportunities and earn as much as possible within working hours.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Day Trading
Day traders target short-term investments yielding rapid returns without keeping the position open for multiple days. There are different benefits and challenges to this strategy, such as the following:
Pros
- High potential profits: Volatile markets can be risky if traded for multiple days. However, locating the right price trend at the right time can offer traders lucrative returns within the same day.
- Quick returns: Day trading allows investors to realise their gains quickly as opposed to position trading, which requires leaving the market positions open for days, weeks or months.
- High accessibility: Day trading is a common tactic offered by most brokers and supported by top trading software like MetaTrader and cTrader.
- Avoiding rollover fees: Holding a Forex market position for an additional day exposes the trader to the swap fees imposed as the order rolls over to the next day. Day trading eliminates this risk by requiring closure by the end of the day.
Cons
- Dynamic market risks: Tradeable securities fluctuate broadly during the day. When markets face stagnation, returns are difficult to achieve or even dramatically swing sideways.
- Timely decision-making: Day trading entails making decisions within a short time window, which might not be enough to realise gains as prices require sufficient time to recover and offer returns.
- Higher trading fees: Executing multiple trades during the day is associated with numerous fees and spread commissions paid every time the order is sent, increasing the user’s trading cost and capital gains tax.
10 Best Day Trading Platforms
There is a plethora of trading platforms that allow you to trade and track your investments during the day. Some top day trading platforms offer specific mechanics for short-term trading, such as trend-tracking, copy trading tools, and real-life market sentiment.
1. Interactive Brokers
Interactive Brokers is often described as the best day trading software for professional traders who want to simultaneously execute and track multiple positions with ultimate control over these orders.
The platform offers demo trading for newly registered accounts in the first 30 days. For day traders, IBKR offers commission-free trading on US equities and ETFs, which lowers the day trader’s investment cost.
IBKR also uses IB SmartRouting, which helps traders search and find the best deals at the best prices, with a broad price consolidation across dark pools and multiple exchanges.
Other tools for day trading include fractional stock trading, comprehensive reporting, and tens of advanced trading tools like spread-split, bracket order and a sophisticated exit strategy window to show potential losses/gains when a trader closes a position.
Day traders can use and customise a bunch of complex algorithmic tools and modify them in the most suitable way to fit their investments.
2. eToro
eToro is a popular trading platform launched in 2007, facilitating multi-asset investment across stocks, bonds, ETFs, Forex, and cryptocurrencies. It offers low spread charges, starting from 0.1 pips on the currency market.
When it comes to crypto trading, eToro stores virtual coins and tokens in cold wallets, making it the best crypto day trading platform, ensuring clients’ funds and promoting user privacy.
It is a highly reliable platform that offers demo trading for beginners, social trading, and copy trading. Its intuitive user interface and layout designs appeal to beginners and experienced traders.
eToro excels in copy trading, allowing novice traders to follow the strategies of many professional traders with proven experience. This lowers their entry barriers to the market and enables them to explore opportunities to earn trading profits.
It is one of the best platforms for day trading, offering various sentiment indicators, smart portfolio investments, and low trading costs that make opening multiple positions more affordable.
3. Charles Schwab
Charles Schwab is an old-school trading platform created in 1971. It offers a classic combination of financial instruments such as stocks, ETFs, bonds, commodities, and Forex.
The platform offers a dedicated day trading feature called the Day Trade Buying Power, which requires a minimum balance of $25,000 as the amount of marginable stock you can day-trade in a margin trading account.
Charles Schwab offers an online trading coach that guides beginners through their first orders, while wealthy investors can join the “Schwab Private Client Services” program that provides personalised services for multi-million dollar trades.
When it comes to day trading, Schwab offers a wide range of tools, such as market live streaming, one-click buy/sell, direct market routing for stocks, level II stock quotes, and a short locator to help you profit from declining stocks.
4. AvaTrade
AvaTrade is a renowned online trading provider and one of the oldest online Forex trading platforms that exist today. It offers investors a variety of securities, markets, day trading strategies, and features.
The platform allows you to trade through leading software such as MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, as well as a branded webtrader and a mobile app trading terminal, to track investments from anywhere.
AvaTrade implements a zero-fee policy for deposits and withdrawals and competitive spreads that start from 0.0 pips for Forex pairs. These features make AvaTrade one of the best trading platforms for day traders with low trading costs.
Day traders can enjoy various tools, such as AvaProtect for customisable stop-loss configurations, AvaSocial for copy trading capabilities, and AvaAlerts for real-time market tracking and notifications.
5. IG
IG is an industry-leading trading platform founded in the 1970s. It offers multi-asset investments in currency pairs, stocks, ETFs, indices, bonds, commodities, and cryptocurrencies.
The platform offers an expansive online trading academy that provides webinars, guidelines, and tutorials and helps users learn to day trade for free. IG also offers multiple trading tools, charting options, built-in signals and indicators that help traders make informed decisions.
IG’s day trading tools include an L2 dealer feature, offering direct market access and allowing users to get consolidated prices from stock exchanges, like the London Stock Exchange or NYSE.
Other tools for day traders include ProRealTime, which offers quick trade automation and a fast algo-trading builder, sentiment indicators, diverse API integrations, and advanced order types that suit short-term trading strategies.
6. Plus500
Plus500 is one of the best day trading platforms, offering over 2,500 instruments across various asset classes suitable for investors with different experiences.
Its competitive pricing policy makes the day-trading strategy more practical, such as low spreads (0.08 pips for EURUSD) and zero fees for deposits and withdrawals, enabling traders to execute multiple orders and accelerate their financial operations.
Plus500 does not integrate flagship trading software like MetaTrader or cTrader. Instead, it uses its branded WebTrader, which is equipped with many day trading tools, such as guaranteed and trailing stop-loss orders, an economic calendar, a live market newsfeed, and various technical analysis tools.
The platform offers +Insights, a unique feature that allows investors to analyse Pluss500 users’ activities, including trends, most-demanded assets, and other crucial insights. This function helps day investors to make informed trading decisions using big data and actionable insights.
7. Pepperstone
Pepperstone is a reliable trading brokerage offering a wide range of asset classes and CFD securities, including stocks, bonds, commodities, Forex, cryptocurrencies and other 1,200 instruments.
The platform is known for its convenience and simplicity. It offers a streamlined experience, from guided onboarding to diverse payment methods, extending the trader’s options to pay and cash out their returns.
Pepperstone makes day trading more affordable by integrating a low bid-ask spread that starts from 0.0 pips for Forex pairs and 0.1 on EUR/USD positions.
Additionally, traders can enjoy a diverse trading software selection featuring the renowned cTrader platform and MT4/MT5, which are world-class trading systems many investors use worldwide.
Other day trading features include algo-trading and automation tools to simplify order execution and tick charts that allow investors to analyse price movements based on the number of transactions rather than time intervals.
8. CMC Markets
CMC Markets is a UK-based trading brokerage platform launched in 1989. It offers traders investments with over 10,000 financial instruments, including stocks, commodities, bonds, ETFs, currency pairs and cryptocurrencies.
CMC Markets offers trading opportunities using MetaTrader 4, a globally popular software, and its own WebTrader, available on desktop and mobile applications.
Investors enjoy vast charting options, drawing tools, and 100+ technical indicators and trading signals supporting informed decision-making.
For day trading, CMC offers real-time market data, newsfeeds, and various order execution types, including trailing stop-loss and one-cancels-the-other.
9. TradeStation
TradeStation is a reliable brokerage software that offers over 4,500 financial instruments, including stocks, bonds, commodities, Forex, and cryptocurrencies. Investors can use the platform’s unique WebTrader, desktop software, and mobile application.
It offers many charting and automation options for day traders who want to locate and capitalise on short-term market opportunities.
TradeStation offers special margin accounts for active traders. To access all day-trading features, investors must maintain $25,000 in equities during the trading day.
Many features make TradeStation one of the best trading platforms for day traders, including direct market access to stock trading, L2 consolidated order book access, short-selling tracking tools, backtesting software and one-click trading hotkeys.
10. Spreadex
Spreadex is a licensed platform offering regulated leverage trading across multiple markets, such as commodities, indices, stocks, Forex, ETFs, IPOs, cryptos and bonds.
The platform offers competitive spread ranges, no minimum deposit requirements, and mobile trading. Spreadex does not integrate MetaTrader or cTrader software because it uses its branded WebTrader, available on desktop and mobile devices.
Day traders can experiment with different strategies, such as scalping and hedging, besides advanced charting tools with timelines extending to 10 years of historical data.
The lack of commissions, the availability of an economic calendar, limited order execution, and live newsfeeds make Spreadex one of the best day trading software.
Day Trading Advice and Tips
Day trading is a common tactic to realise gains faster and benefit from volatile market conditions. However, investors must practice utmost caution. Here are five tips for day trading.
- Do your research: many tools and signals suggest you invest in specific markets or assets. However, it is crucial to be aware of market dynamics and what events affect which securities to be able to make decisions independently.
- Timing matters: Finding the right time to enter/exit the market is essential. The opening and closing hours are usually the most volatile, while the US/UK market convergence has the highest liquidity. Use these signals to make your trading decisions.
- Use loss-limiting strategies: Find the best day trading platform that provides loss-limiting tools, such as trailing stop-loss, hedging and netting.
- Set realistic goals: Trading during the day will not make you rich overnight, especially when no significant market events occur. Therefore, research the historical margin returns that each asset offers and aim for similar ranges.
- Avoid emotional decisions: Many investors exit the market because of a few losses in the beginning or because they make a retaliatory trading decision, which can highly damage your funds.
Conclusion
Day trading is a popular investment strategy practised by novice and advanced traders. As such, investors enter the market, execute orders, and leave the market by the end of the working day.
Many brokerage platforms offer specialised trading software with day trading tools and signals that facilitate fast and accurate decision-making.
Some of the best day trading platforms offer low spreads and zero commissions to make intra-day investing more affordable. They also offer limit-order execution, live market tracking, and one-click trading, which facilitate quick order execution.
FAQ
What is the best day trading software?
eToro, AvaTrade and Plus500 are popular day trading platforms offering various financial instruments and numerous tools, such as loss-limit orders, algo and copy trading, that support fast order execution.
Is day trading suitable for beginners?
Day trading requires quick decision-making and advanced analytical skills to locate the best market opportunities, which beginners may lack. Some platforms also require a minimum $25,000 deposit to become an eligible day trader.
Can you become rich by day trading?
Gaining in day trading depends on market dynamics. During market stagnation or low volatility, traders may struggle to make considerable returns.
Which tools do day investors use?
Investors use Stop-loss orders, copy trading, live market monitoring and short locators to minimise risks and identify market opportunities.
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