Updated on Friday, June 4, 2021

Lightspeed Trading is an online brokerage firm for active traders. A division of Lime Brokerage, the company is best for professional investors — for casual investors or those who want to explore passive investing, Lightspeed might not work for you.

If, however, you’re a day trader or someone committed to active investing, you can take advantage of the real-time data and advanced apps to track your investments, whether at your desktop or on the go.

What Lightspeed offers and who it’s for

Lightspeed Trading is best for active and day traders, or those people who trade professionally. Active traders will find a lot to like with Lightspeed, including streaming quotes and customizable watchlists, custom layouts for certain trading platforms, customizable charts and studies, market and options scanners, historical data and more.

Beginning investors could have a hard time using Lightspeed — not just because of the costs, but also because these platforms can be complicated to navigate. Additionally, Lightspeed doesn’t offer commission-free ETFs or any mutual funds at all, so hands-off investors would need to look elsewhere.

Lightspeed fees and costs

While Lightspeed has high minimum balance requirements, it is less expensive than many competitors when it comes to individual trade and share costs.

Multiple trading platform choices

You can choose the platform that best fits your needs. Whether you’re a day trader, options trader or you work for hedge funds or firms that make a high volume of trades, there’s a platform for you. Lightspeed Trader is a great choice for day traders, while Eze EMS (formerly RealTick) Pro and Express are great for active traders, investment advisors and hedge funds.

Real-time streaming data

With Lightspeed, you get a live market scanner to make trades based on the latest information. Lightspeed Trader lets you scan and filter potential trades by net or percentage change, by price range, by market and even by specific symbols. You can have multiple customizations set up to provide the most specific analytics you need to make your trade. You can also make your trades using specific strategies by using the Lightspeed Trader Application Programming Interface (API).

Risk management software

All investments have some level of risk, and professional traders know this firsthand. Lightspeed offers pre-trade risk management, a risk suite, options risk management and automated risk features. Different software applications are best for different types of traders, but they all serve to make sure you completely understand the risks involved with your trades.

Lightspeed user experience

With so many platforms to choose from, you can find a user experience that best fits your trading style and needs. The Lightspeed Trader integrates charting with studies and is completely customizable. You can arrange your setup to have your favorite investing tools front and center, so you won’t always have to go digging for the things you use the most. You can also use the web version if you want something a little more straightforward.

The web and mobile applications let anyone with the app make trades, as long as they have an internet connection. You can make trades on the go all within one screen — with no desktop application required to trade.

Lightspeed investor education

Before you even join Lightspeed, you can take advantage of its trading tutorials through platform demos. You can also learn about the tools to make sure this is the right spot for your money.

There’s also an extensive education center with an in-depth glossary of terms and basic investor knowledge. If you want to brush up on your skills — whether that’s rules and restrictions or how options work — the library has resources that could suit every need.

Lightspeed security

• SIPC member: Lightspeed is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which means cash deposited in your account is insured and secure in case the broker runs into financial problems.
• Excess insurance coverage: Excess insurance coverage is also provided by Wedbush on behalf of Lime Brokerage, protecting amounts up to $25,500,000 at no charge.
• Two-step verification: To give you the extra boost of security, Lightspeed offers two-step verification to sign in to your account.

Alternatives to Lightspeed to consider

Lightspeed could be a great option for professional traders. With low costs for high-volume trades and real-time streaming data, it’s a choice many day traders may want to pursue. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the only option — or even the best one for you. Here’s how it stacks up against competitors.

Lightspeed vs. Interactive Brokers

Both Lightspeed and Interactive Brokers cater to active traders and day traders. However, Interactive Brokers doesn’t have a minimum deposit threshold (like Lightspeed’s $10,000 requirement) to get started, which means you can start trading today with just a little bit of extra cash. Interactive Brokers also offers a broader range of tradable securities compared with Lightspeed: Its offerings include fractional shares, mutual funds, forex and metals.

Interactive Brokers also has a wider variety of investment opportunities for both professional and casual traders. These might be more enticing offers compared to Lightspeed’s limitations and high minimum deposit barrier.

Lightspeed vs. Thinkorswim

Active day traders who are already TD Ameritrade customers may be ideal candidates for Thinkorswim. Non-customers don’t have access to Thinkorswim, but the benefits might entice you to switch over.

With a $0 minimum deposit and dozens of account types, Thinkorswim is great for day traders looking for more tradable securities than what Lightspeed has to offer. Thinkorswim, for example, offers forex and mutual funds — Lightspeed doesn’t. Thinkorswim offers trading on some securities 24 hours a day, five days a week, which is great for traders looking to make immediate moves based on the latest information available and who want to trade based on their own schedule. The requirement to be a current TD Ameritrade customer might turn some people away, but for current customers, these advantages stand out when compared with Lightspeed.

All information included in this profile is accurate as of 5/11/2021. For more information, please consult Lightspeed’s website.

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Source: https://www.magnifymoney.com/blog/investing/lightspeed-trading/

Interactive Brokers