About a year ago, I got some news I really didn’t want to get: my prime broker, BTIG, was giving me the boot. I hadn’t done anything wrong, but they were nuking all their accounts less than a certain threshold, and I was below it, so, bang, I was slated to be out by the end of the year.
Big deal, you might say. There are dozens of brokers out there, and any of them can execute 
stock trades. Well, yes, I know that, but when you get accustomed to a certain platform over a period of years, it’s very hard to change. I do a tremendous amount of trading, and being able to easily “flow” with my trading system is important to me. Even the little stuff – – like the fact I knew the names of the personnel at the local office, and my familiarity with all the little routines that were required each day – – was tough to abandon. I didn’t want to change.
But, whether I liked it or not, I had to go somewhere else. On the advice of some folks here, I opted to go to Interactive Brokers. I only had a passing knowledge of them, and I had tried them once, and at the time, I was incredible underwhelmed. I simply didn’t understand their success.
I’ll save you all the boring part of the story by simply stating this: holy God in heaven, am I glad I changed. I haven’t missed BTIG one tiny bit. Indeed, I wish they had given me the boot one year earlier. I could never imagine going back. And to think I was begging and pleading to be allowed to stay!
I am reminded of this because I got a bit of a bombshell in my inbox today. I won’t go into details, but I need to pick a new charting platform (I’m sure I’ll make a lengthy blog post about this news at a later, more appropriate date; for now, I’ll simply leave it at that – I need to switch charting systems soon).
For me, this is a very big deal. Those of you who know my history can imagine how intimately intertwined my life is with my charts. This isn’t some casual decision. It may sound ridiculous, but I can’t imagine any product or service in my life that I’m more sensitive to having – – how can I put this? – – a relationship with.
Having spelled out this bizarre scenario, I’ll ask the good people of Slope to tell me what charting system they recommend. I’m after:
- excellent watch list management;
- DEEP history going back decades;
- great ease of use
I couldn’t care less about many hundreds of studies it has. I don’t use technical indicators. I’m after something which I can use like a paintbrush.
Dr. Strangelove already suggested Multicharts to me, and that looks promising. But I’m quite interested in a variety of opinions. Thank you, everyone, and I hope this shared information benefits the group in general, not just me.
