Lightspeed Review

Broker Review

 

Likes - Quality trade executions; discounted stock trades.

Dislikes - No support for mutual funds or bonds; trade platform not suitable for the casual investor; very basic website; misc. trade fees.

Bottom Line - Lightspeed focuses on a specific niche of traders well but leaves casual investors with little to offer including limited functionality and a non-user friendly site.

Lightspeed best commissions - Lightspeed active trading

2011 Review Results - Lightspeed was awarded five stars for Commissions & Fees and four stars for Active Trading. Read More.

Lightspeed Trading is an online broker that provides direct market access and brokerage services for investors and hedge funds. They offer both electronic trading and algorithmic trading services for their clients. Lightspeed Trading is continuously improving and updating their trading systems to maximize the overall platform performance for its users. There is also a division of the group that specializes in real-time risk management for traders.

Commission Notes

It should be noted that Lightspeed offers two trade platforms: Lightspeed Web Trader and Lightspeed Trader. The Web Trader platform requires only a $5,000 minimum deposit and designed for low activity customers. The Lightspeed Trader platform requires a $25,000 minimum deposit and is designed for active traders seeking the best possible executions and data speeds.

Lightspeed offers per share pricing alongside a per trade rate. Throughout the StockBrokers.com website we display the Lightspeed Web Trader flat per trade rate. Full commissions schedule breakdown below.

Stock Trades

  1. Lightspeed Web Trader - $3 per trade flate fee (up to 50k shares order size). Phone orders are $20 + standard commission rate.
  2. Lightspeed Trader - All stock trades are $.0045 per share or $4.50 per trade flat ($1 minimum charge) plus/minus applicable market center fees. OTCBB trades cost a flat $10 per order.

Options Trades

  1. Lightspeed Web Trader - $.60 per contractwith a $3 minimum order charge.
  2. Lightspeed Trader - $.60 per contractwith a $1 minimum order charge.

All excercise and assignments cost $25.

Mutual Funds - Mutual funds are not currently offered by Lightspeed.

Other Investments - Lightspeed also offers futures and forex trading.

Retirement Accounts - Lightspeed offers retirement accounts but charges a $35 annual fee.

Lightspeed was reviewed by StockBrokers.com on 2012-01-25 with an overall rating of 2 Stars.

Trade Platform

reviewpage-asterik-ps.gif