

There is no depth of market visibility on a real-time basis. When you go on to Google or Yahoo finance, these free platforms merely show NBBO quotes for stocks and options. Simply put, a level 2 trading platform doesn’t just provide the NBBO (National Best Bid and Offer) for an asset, it shows an order book that contains all of orders of buyers and sellers. Professional traders who place large orders always check the depth of the market prior to trading. If you want to buy 5,000 shares of a stock, and there are only 700 shares visible for sale in the order book, you might run into an issue. Level 2 is totally necessary if you plan on trading any illiquid securities. When it comes to level 2 trading platforms, looking at the depth of the market, and how quickly it changes, will most likely not turn you into the next Warren Buffett, but it might give you an advantage over other retail traders. If you’re planning on trading, as opposed to passively investing, and you want to have a fighting chance of survival, why not have the best technology possible? We think trading technology matters a great deal. We’ve used thinkorswim for a long time, but lately we have noticed that there are indeed memory leaks and choppy data, especially during peak market hours. The second reason why TradeStation has the best level 2 trading platform is that whether you’re using the mobile, desktop, or web platform version, pricing data always seems to load quick without any lag or memory leaks. Other brokers like Interactive Brokers offer full level 2 depth of market, but they charge anywhere from $10 to $40 per month for it. Great for investors seeking a free version of Interactive Brokers’s platformįor level 2 trading, Tastyworks is the best choice for a few reasons.
