Cobra Trading is the best DAS Trader Pro broker for most day traders in 2026: a $10,000 minimum under the new margin rules, a $125 platform fee that disappears at 200,000 shares a month, and web and mobile access included. CenterPoint Securities is the pick if you short hard-to-borrow names and can clear its $30,000 minimum, and SpeedTrader is the cheapest way into the full desktop. This page is one slice of our full day trading app rankings; here we’re only ranking brokers that put DAS Trader Pro in your hands, scored against our published criteria.
If you’re still deciding whether the platform itself is worth $100+ a month, start with our DAS Trader review. If you’ve already decided, the broker choice matters more than most traders realize, because the software is identical everywhere. What changes is what’s underneath it: minimums, commissions, locates, data fees, and how your orders actually reach the market.
Quick comparison
| Broker | Best for | DAS platform fee | Fee waiver | Account minimum | Equity commissions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cobra Trading | Most day traders | $125/mo, web and mobile included | 200,000 shares/mo | $10,000 ($9,000 maintained) | $0.003/share, no order minimum |
| CenterPoint Securities | Short sellers, larger accounts | $120/mo, mobile included | 250,000 shares or 1,000 contracts/mo | $30,000 | $0.003/share, no order minimum |
| SpeedTrader | Lowest cost of entry | $125/mo (Pro); $35/mo (ActiveWeb) | $499+ in monthly commissions (Pro) | $10,000 Pro; $2,500 ActiveWeb | $0.0025/share, no order minimum |
| Lightspeed Premier | Bundled data, bigger accounts | $150/mo all in (data included) | $125 portion waived at $100 commissions/mo | $50,000 ($25,000 maintained daily) | As low as $0.001/share |
| Interactive Brokers | DAS without a direct-access broker | $100–$200/mo, paid to DAS directly | None | IBKR Pro account required | Per IBKR’s schedule |
| Guardian Trading | Negotiated per-share rates | Quoted by the desk | Quoted by the desk | Quoted by the desk | $0.0015/share, $0.25 order minimum |
All platform and commission figures were verified against each broker’s published pricing pages in June 2026. Routing and regulatory fees are charged separately everywhere on this list, and at Cobra, CenterPoint, and SpeedTrader the better volume tiers are not automatic; you have to contact the desk and ask.
How DAS access actually works (and why it changes the ranking)
There are two ways to trade on DAS Trader Pro, and DAS itself draws the line clearly in its own documentation. With a first-party broker (Cobra, CenterPoint, SpeedTrader, Lightspeed Premier, Guardian), DAS sends your orders directly to the market. With Interactive Brokers or Charles Schwab, you buy the software subscription from DAS separately, and every order passes through a gateway or API to be processed and filled by that broker. DAS’s own supported-functions page says it plainly: if millisecond latency matters to you, use a first-party broker.
The same page settles a second question that matters for short sellers. The built-in short locate tool, the window where you inquire, price, and accept borrows without leaving the platform, works only through DAS’s broker network. It’s marked unavailable on both the IBKR and Schwab connections. So if locates are the reason you want DAS in the first place, the IBKR route quietly removes the feature you came for. That’s why the direct-access brokers own the top of this list.
1. Cobra Trading: best DAS broker for most day traders
Cobra charges $125 a month for DAS Trader Pro with web and mobile access included, and waives the fee entirely once you trade 200,000 shares in a month. Data starts at $20 a month for the basic non-professional package. Commissions run $0.003 per share at the lowest tier with no per-order minimum, stepping down to $0.0015 above 10 million shares, and margin is a flat 8%.
The minimum is the headline in 2026. With the old $25,000 PDT requirement eliminated on June 4, Cobra’s updated FAQ puts day-trading accounts at $10,000 to open with $9,000 maintained, and its rule-change page confirms 4:1 intraday buying power for qualified accounts with no round-trip cap. Locates run through the live chat desk or the short locate tool inside the platform, and the trading day runs 4 am to 8 pm ET.
The drawback: that $0.003 entry rate stays in effect regardless of your volume unless you call and negotiate a better tier, and ECN routing charges stack on top of it. Read our full Cobra Trading review.
2. CenterPoint Securities: best for short sellers with larger accounts
CenterPoint’s desktop platform, CenterPoint Pro, is DAS-based, costs $120 a month with the mobile app included, and the fee is waived at 250,000 shares or 1,000 options contracts a month. Commissions mirror Cobra’s tiers ($0.003 down to $0.001 per share, no order minimums), margin sits at 5.31%, and the short locate tool is built into the platform. Clients also get CenterPoint Edge, a bundle of trading tools the broker values at roughly $7,500 a year, at no charge. If a premium scanner is part of why you’re picking a broker, it’s worth checking whether you can get Trade Ideas free through your broker before paying retail for one.
What sets CenterPoint apart in 2026 is what it didn’t do. While competitors slashed minimums after the rule change, its published response says the $30,000 requirement stays, deliberately, to keep the client base small enough for fast support and deep locate access. That’s a real trade-off, not marketing: fewer accounts competing for the same borrow inventory is a genuine edge on crowded shorts.
The drawback follows directly: $30,000 to get in, plus a $25 monthly inactivity fee in any month you don’t trade. Read our full CenterPoint review, or see the head-to-head in Cobra vs CenterPoint.
3. SpeedTrader: cheapest way into the full DAS desktop
SpeedTrader Pro is DAS Trader Pro under another nameplate (“powered by DAS Trader,” per the broker’s own pricing pages), and it undercuts everyone on the cost of getting started. The desktop runs $125 a month, drops to $75 once you generate $199 in monthly commissions, and goes to $0 at $499. The initial funding minimum is $10,000 for the Pro desktop, and just $2,500 for the DAS-powered ActiveWeb and mobile platforms at $35 a month (free above $199 in commissions). Commissions start at $0.0025 per share with no order minimum, the lowest entry tier on this list, and locates are available 4 am to 8 pm.
For a concrete comparison: a trader doing 150,000 shares a month pays about $474 at SpeedTrader ($375 commissions, $75 platform, $24 Level 2 package) versus $595 at Cobra and $590 at CenterPoint at their entry rates, before routing and regulatory fees. Not a rounding error.
The drawback: like its peers, SpeedTrader applies discounted tiers only when you request them, and the rate can be raised back if you miss the volume threshold. There’s also less around the platform here, no bundled tool suite, no futures. Confirm current terms at speedtrader.com.
4. Lightspeed Premier: bundled data for bigger accounts
Lightspeed’s DAS offering lives inside Lightspeed Premier, and its pricing is the simplest on the list: $150 a month all in, which covers the $125 platform plus ArcaBook, NASDAQ TotalView, the iDAS mobile app, and imbalance data, extras that cost $90+ a month combined elsewhere. The $125 platform portion is waived at just $100 in monthly commissions, a threshold almost any active account clears. Equities run as low as $0.001 per share with no trade minimums, the locate desk pulls from 18 sources, and the Premier page offers a 14-day demo.
Here’s the catch: the same page sets the minimum at $50,000 to open a DAS Trader Pro account, with a $25,000 balance maintained daily to keep trading. That’s the stiffest requirement on this list by a wide margin, and accounts under $15,000 face a $25 monthly minimum commission charge besides. Premier is built for traders who were never sweating the old PDT threshold in the first place.
If the account size fits, the all-in data bundle plus a near-automatic fee waiver makes this the lowest-friction monthly bill here. Read our full Lightspeed review.
5. Interactive Brokers: DAS without a direct-access broker
You can run DAS Trader Pro on top of an existing Interactive Brokers account by subscribing directly through DAS’s IBKR page. Plans run $100 a month for basic Level 1 data up to $200 for the everything tier, an IBKR Pro account is required (Lite doesn’t qualify), and every subscription includes a paper trading account. Prepaying 12 months buys you nothing: the annual price is exactly twelve times the monthly price, and DAS states that all sales are final with no refunds on any subscription. Start monthly.
Know what you’re giving up. Per DAS’s own documentation, IBKR orders travel through a gateway and are processed and filled by IBKR rather than routed by DAS directly, and the short locate tool is not available on this connection. You get the DAS interface, hotkeys, and montage on top of IBKR’s pricing and global reach; you don’t get the direct-access execution path or integrated locates that define the platform at the brokers above.
That makes this the right pick for exactly one trader: someone committed to IBKR for other reasons who wants the DAS front end. Read our full Interactive Brokers review.
6. Guardian Trading: negotiated rates, with a catch
Guardian, a division of Velocity Clearing, offers DAS Trader Pro alongside Sterling and posts the most aggressive published per-share rates here: $0.0015 under 500,000 shares a month and $0.0012 up to a million, per its pricing page. Platform fees and account minimums are quoted by the desk rather than published, and its current Elite promotion advertises three months of the DAS platform free with Level 2 included.
The catch sits in the same rate table: a $0.25 minimum fee per order at the entry tier. Guardian is the only broker on this list with an order minimum, and for a scalper firing dozens of small orders a day, that quarter per ticket can erase the headline rate advantage. Take a 200-share scalp: $0.0015 × 200 is $0.30, so you’re barely above the floor; a 100-share starter costs $0.25 instead of $0.15. Do your own order-size math before the low rate wins you over.
How we picked
Same platform everywhere means the ranking comes down to everything around it. We weighted five things: total monthly cost of ownership (platform fee, realistic data package, and how reachable the fee waiver is), account minimum under the post-June-2026 rules, published commission structure including order minimums, short locate access through the platform, and execution path (direct routing versus gatewayed orders, per DAS’s own documentation). Every number traces to the broker’s published pricing or policy pages as of June 2026, and the scoring follows the criteria laid out in how we rate. None of these picks is sponsored.
Who should skip a DAS broker
Run the math before you commit, because the platform tax is real. At $125 for software plus $20 in data, you’re down $145 before your first trade of the month. On a $10,000 account that’s 1.45% a month, roughly 17% a year, that your trading has to earn back before commissions, routing, and locates. Most day traders lose money before any of those costs; stacking a fixed monthly bill on top only raises the bar.
Skip the DAS route entirely if you trade a few times a week, if your account is under five figures, or if you’re still learning. The fee waivers on this list start at 200,000 shares a month, which is serious volume. Traders with smaller accounts should start with our picks for brokers for small accounts, where $0-commission platforms with decent built-in tools cost you nothing in fixed fees. Mac users should also know what they’re signing up for: DAS Trader Pro is Windows software, and both Cobra and CenterPoint direct Mac owners to Boot Camp or Parallels workarounds. New rules also haven’t changed the basics of margin risk; the rules that replaced the PDT framework are covered in our intraday margin requirements guide.
FAQ
How much does DAS Trader Pro cost per month?
Plan on $120–$150 for the platform plus $15–$25 for non-professional market data at the direct-access brokers, before commissions and routing fees. Every broker on this list waives or reduces the platform fee at volume: 200,000 shares a month at Cobra, 250,000 shares at CenterPoint, $499 in commissions at SpeedTrader, and $100 in commissions at Lightspeed Premier.
Can I use DAS Trader without a broker account?
Yes. DAS sells a standalone real-time simulator subscription on its own site, and first-time users can take a 14-day trial of the platform. The simulator can’t be tied to a live brokerage account, and market replay during market hours is available only on the simulator packages.
Did the PDT rule change DAS broker minimums?
The $25,000 pattern day trader requirement was eliminated on June 4, 2026, and minimums are now set by each broker. Cobra opens day-trading accounts at $10,000, SpeedTrader Pro at $10,000 with a $2,500 web option, CenterPoint has deliberately kept $30,000, and Lightspeed Premier requires $50,000 with $25,000 maintained daily.
Does DAS Trader Pro work on a Mac?
Not natively. The platform is Windows software, and brokers that offer it point Mac users to Boot Camp or Parallels to run it. CenterPoint’s web platform and the DAS-powered web platforms at other brokers work in any browser.
Which DAS broker is cheapest?
It depends on your volume. Under roughly 200,000 shares a month, SpeedTrader usually wins on total cost thanks to its $0.0025 entry rate and $75 platform tier. Above the waiver thresholds, Cobra and CenterPoint drop their platform fees entirely and the per-share rate becomes the whole game, so negotiate it.
Is there a free trial of DAS Trader Pro?
DAS offers a 14-day trial to first-time users on its own site. Among brokers, CenterPoint offers a 14-day platform trial, Lightspeed Premier offers a 14-day demo, and Cobra provides demos on request.