its what I do for a living.....
I trade through a prop firm. Google echotrade, assent, bright trading. These are some of the prop firms out there.
Tradestation, IB (interactive brokers), etrade, scottrade, genesis are all retail shops. Meaning, they cater to the average investor, usually the non pro. Very few successfull big traders trade retail because of the reasons below: The big difference between prop (you need to have your securities license--unless there shady) is that prop you get more leverage on your money and you pay ALOT less in commissions and have access to usually more stocks available to short. As a serious daytrader who does it for a living, you need as many outs as you can get. Sort of like gambling.
Investing and daytrading are 2 different animals. 99% of what you read and see for sale (systems) are all snake oil....
