If you trade a few times a week from your phone, open thinkorswim through Schwab. If you trade every morning, short low floats, or care which route your order takes, Cobra Trading is the direct-access broker to beat. Those are the two answers; everything below explains which one is yours.
This page is the broker section of our full day trading app comparison, and every pick is scored against the same five criteria we use sitewide: see how we rate. Every price on this page was verified against the broker’s own published pricing in June 2026.
One more thing before the table. The $25,000 pattern day trader minimum is gone. FINRA’s replacement, the intraday margin requirements, took effect June 4, 2026, and brokers are migrating to the new framework on their own schedules through October 2027. That changes who the best broker is, especially for small accounts. Details further down.
Retail or direct access: pick your column first
Day trading brokers come in two kinds, and comparing across the line is how people end up at the wrong one.
Retail brokers (Webull, Schwab, Robinhood, E*TRADE, moomoo) charge $0 commissions on listed stocks and route your orders for you. The price is right and the apps are slick. You give up route selection and, at most of them, any serious short-locate inventory.
Direct-access brokers (Cobra Trading, CenterPoint, Lightspeed, TradeZero) charge per-share commissions plus routing fees, and often a monthly platform fee on top. In exchange you pick your route from a published table, you get a locate desk for hard-to-borrow shorts, and your orders hit the market the way you sent them. Interactive Brokers and TradeStation sit between the columns: retail pricing with direct-routing options on the menu.
Here’s the math that decides it. A 2,000-share round trip at Cobra’s base rate of $0.003 per share costs $12 in commissions before routing fees. At Webull it costs $0. If you make that trade twice a month, the $0 broker wins on cost and nothing else matters. If you make it ten times a day, you’re paying roughly $2,400 a month for execution quality, route control, and locates, and whether that’s worth it depends entirely on whether those things make you more than $2,400. For most high-volume traders shorting thin names, they do. For everyone else, they don’t.
The full breakdown lives in direct access vs retail brokers, and the direct-access side has its own ranked page.
Quick comparison
| Broker | Type | Best for | Stock commissions | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cobra Trading | Direct access | Active day traders, shorts | $0.0015–$0.003 per share by volume | DAS Trader Pro $125/mo, waived at 200K shares/mo |
| CenterPoint Securities | Direct access | Short sellers at size | $0.001–$0.003 per share by volume | 5.31% margin rate; $25/mo inactivity fee |
| Lightspeed | Direct access | High-volume veterans | As low as $0.001 per share ($0.25 trade min) | $25/mo minimum commission under $15K equity |
| TradeZero | Direct access | Small-account direct access | $0 tier available | $2,500 account minimum; locate desk |
| Interactive Brokers | Hybrid | Pricing control, global reach | Lite $0; Pro $0.0005–$0.0035 per share | Options $0.15–$0.65/contract; no account minimum |
| thinkorswim (Schwab) | Retail | Best retail platform | $0 listed stocks | $0.65/contract options; paperMoney sim built in |
| E*TRADE | Retail | Active options traders | $0 listed stocks | Options drop to $0.50/contract at 30+ trades/qtr |
| Webull | Retail | Free starting point | $0 | Index options carry a $0.50/contract fee |
| moomoo | Retail | Cheapest all-in | $0 | $0 platform fee; options $0 labeled promotional |
| TradeStation | Hybrid | Growing into direct routing | $0 listed stocks | Sub-dollar/OTC stocks cost $0.005 per share |
| Robinhood | Retail | Simplest, cheapest entry | $0 | Gold runs $5/mo; accounts open from $1 |
The direct-access picks
Cobra Trading: best direct-access broker for active day traders
Cobra’s pricing is the cleanest read in the direct-access tier: equities from $0.003 per share at the base tier down to $0.0015 above 10 million shares a month, options from $0.50 down to $0.30 per contract, and an 8% margin rate published right on the pricing page. Platforms are DAS Trader Pro at $125 a month or Sterling Trader Pro at $150, both waived once you trade 200,000 shares in a month. Cobra committed to day-one readiness for the June 4 rule change and is now openly courting accounts funding at $10,000, territory that used to be locked out by the old $25,000 floor.
Know what you’re signing up for: costs here are line items. At 100,000 shares a month you’d pay around $300 in commissions at the base rate, plus routing fees, plus the $125 platform fee because the waiver doesn’t kick in until 200,000. That stack only makes sense if you trade most mornings. Read the full Cobra Trading review.
CenterPoint Securities: best for short sellers trading size
CenterPoint publishes the most aggressive volume ladder in this group: $0.003 per share under 500K shares a month, stepping down to $0.001 at 10–20 million, with options reaching $0.20 per contract at the top tier. The margin rate is 5.31% (as of its December 2025 update), well under Cobra’s published 8%, which matters if you hold leveraged positions overnight. You get 40+ routing options including dark pool access, a daily-billed locate desk for hard-to-borrow names, and a choice of CenterPoint Pro at $120 a month (waived at 250,000 shares or 1,000 contracts) or CenterPoint Web at $20.
The structure is priced for traders who show up: any calendar month with zero transactions draws a $25 inactivity fee, and the Pro platform fee is real money below the waiver threshold. This is a primary account for a working trader, not a backup account you visit quarterly. Read the full CenterPoint review.
Lightspeed: best for high-volume traders who already know their numbers
Lightspeed advertises equities as low as $0.001 per share with a $0.25 trade minimum and options as low as $0.20 per contract, floor pricing that competes with anyone in the tier. The catch sits at the other end of the account scale: accounts under $15,000 in equity are charged a $25 monthly minimum commission fee, minus whatever commissions you actually generated. Trade enough and you’ll never see it; park a small account here and you’re paying $300 a year for the privilege.
That fee is the screening mechanism, and it tells you exactly who Lightspeed wants: funded, high-frequency accounts that find the floor rates. If that’s you, it belongs on your shortlist next to Cobra and CenterPoint. If you’re under $15K, start a column over. Read the full Lightspeed review.
TradeZero: best direct-access entry for small accounts
TradeZero America opens accounts from $2,500, by far the lowest published entry point on the direct-access side, and runs a zero-commission tier alongside a locate desk for shorting hard-to-borrow stocks. That combination (free trades plus locates plus a real platform) is the bridge product for traders graduating from a retail app who can’t yet justify Cobra’s cost stack.
The thing to check before funding: your exact commission and fee terms depend on the offer tier you sign up under, and those tiers are keyed to deposit size. Read the terms attached to your tier before you assume the $0 headline applies to your order types. Read the full TradeZero review.
The retail picks
Interactive Brokers: best for traders who want pricing control
IBKR is the only broker here that lets you choose your pricing model. IBKR Lite gives US residents $0 stock commissions. IBKR Pro charges tiered rates of $0.0005–$0.0035 per share (or a fixed $0.005), with options at $0.15–$0.65 per contract depending on volume, and per its own pricing pages there are no platform fees or account minimums attached. Pro is the configuration day traders actually want: it’s where the routing control and the volume math live.
The drawback is the homework. Lite versus Pro, tiered versus fixed, exclusions for OTC names: the pricing documentation takes a sitting to digest, and picking wrong costs real basis points. Decide your monthly share volume first, then pick the plan. Read the full Interactive Brokers review.
thinkorswim (Schwab): best retail platform for day traders
thinkorswim is three platforms (desktop, web, mobile) and the desktop version remains the most capable charting and order environment you can get at a $0-commission broker. Listed stocks trade free, options run $0.65 per contract, Schwab publishes no account or trade minimums, and paperMoney, a live-market simulator, is built into all three versions. For a trader who wants professional-grade tools without per-share commissions, this is the default answer.
The honest gap: that $0.65 contract fee has no published volume discount, while ETRADE cuts active traders to $0.50 at 30 or more trades a quarter. An options trader doing 200 contracts a month leaves $30 a month on the table at Schwab versus the discounted ETRADE rate. Stock-focused traders won’t care. Read the full thinkorswim review.
E*TRADE: best retail broker for active options traders
E*TRADE charges $0 on US-listed stock and options trades, and its options contract fee drops from $0.65 to $0.50 once you execute 30 or more trades a quarter, a published active-trader discount most retail rivals don’t match. Ten trades a month gets you there without trying.
The line item to watch: OTC stocks cost $6.95 per trade, or $4.95 at the 30-trade tier. If your strategy lives in sub-dollar and OTC names, those flat commissions stack up fast against brokers that price OTC per share, and you should run your own monthly math before settling here. Read the full E*TRADE review.
Webull: best free starting point
Webull’s published pricing is about as simple as the retail tier gets: $0 commissions on US-listed stocks, ETFs, and options. For a first real-money account to learn order types and build screen time without commission drag, it’s the easy pick.
The footnotes are the drawback. Certain index options carry a $0.50 per-contract fee, and regulatory pass-through fees apply to every sale, so “free” means “free minus the fine print.” Small numbers, but day traders generate a lot of sale transactions, and you should know the fee schedule before the trade count climbs. Read the full Webull review.
moomoo: the cheapest all-in retail account
moomoo publishes $0 commissions on US stocks and options and a $0 platform fee, which on paper makes it the lowest all-in cost on this page. Regulatory pass-throughs (SEC, TAF, OCC, ORF) still apply per its fee schedule, as they do everywhere.
One detail deserves your attention: the $0 options commission is labeled “during promotion” on moomoo’s own pricing page. Promotional pricing can end, so check the current fee schedule before you build an options-heavy strategy around it, and don’t be surprised if the number changes. Read the full moomoo review.
TradeStation: best for traders growing into direct routing
TradeStation charges $0 on listed stocks and ETFs but, unusually for the retail tier, publishes a direct-routing menu with per-share surcharges, letting you graduate to route selection without changing brokers. That makes it a reasonable home for a trader who expects to want direct-access features within a year.
Check one number first: sub-dollar and OTC stocks cost $0.005 per share. On a 10,000-share position in a $0.40 stock, that’s $50 each way, which changes the math on penny-stock strategies completely. Read the full TradeStation review.
Robinhood: the simplest, cheapest entry
Robinhood is commission-free on stocks, ETFs, and their options, opens accounts from as little as $1, and prices its premium tier (Gold) at $5 a month. As a first brokerage account it has the lowest barrier to entry in the industry, full stop.
The fit question is the drawback: you won’t find routing tables or locate pricing on its published price list, because that’s not the product. Robinhood is built for accessible investing with trading on top. Day traders who outgrow it tend to know exactly when: the first time they care which route an order took, or can’t get a borrow. Read the full Robinhood review.
The new margin rules change the shortlist
The pattern day trader rule, the one that required $25,000 to day trade in a margin account, was eliminated effective June 4, 2026. FINRA replaced it with intraday margin requirements: no PDT designation, no trade counting, no $25,000 floor. Instead, your account must hold adequate maintenance margin (25% of the market value of long margin-eligible equities) throughout the trading day, $2,000 remains the minimum equity for leveraged trading, and repeatedly failing to cover intraday deficits promptly can get an account restricted for up to 90 days. The full rule text is in FINRA Regulatory Notice 26-10.
Two practical consequences. First, brokers get a transition period through October 20, 2027, and they’re moving at different speeds: Cobra committed to day-one readiness, while others may run the old framework for months. Before you fund anywhere on the strength of the new rules, confirm that broker has actually migrated. Second, sub-$25K margin accounts are now a real product category, and the brokers competing for them are ranked on our best brokers for small accounts page. The mechanics of the new regime get a full explainer in intraday margin requirements.
How we picked
Brokers are scored on the five criteria from our rating methodology, with core capability for this category defined as execution, routing, and locates. Beyond the scores, this list weighted four things: the real all-in cost of a typical trading month (commissions plus platform plus data, not the headline rate), published pricing transparency, platform fit for intraday work, and readiness for the post-PDT margin framework. Every number came from the broker’s own pricing or policy pages, checked in June 2026. Nobody on this list paid to be here; this site has no paid relationships with any broker it covers.
Who should skip all of these
If you’re investing for years rather than trading for minutes, you don’t need anything on this page; any major $0-commission broker holding index funds will serve you better than a locate desk ever will. And if you haven’t yet traded through a few hundred simulated sessions, opening any account is premature: most day traders lose money, and the cheapest mistakes are the ones made with fake money. Start with the best paper trading apps and come back when your sim results give you a reason to.
Short-biased traders have their own shortlist with locate inventory and borrow costs front and center: best brokers for short selling.
FAQ
Do I still need $25,000 to day trade?
No. The $25,000 pattern day trader minimum was eliminated on June 4, 2026, when FINRA’s intraday margin requirements took effect. There’s no longer a PDT designation or trade counting; instead your account must maintain adequate margin throughout the trading day, and $2,000 is the minimum equity for leveraged trading. Brokers have until October 2027 to migrate, so confirm your specific broker has adopted the new framework before relying on it.
What’s the difference between a retail and a direct-access broker?
Retail brokers charge $0 commissions and route your orders themselves. Direct-access brokers charge per-share commissions and routing fees, and in return you choose your route, get faster and more controllable executions, and gain access to a locate desk for shorting hard-to-borrow stocks. Cost favors retail; control favors direct access. Volume and strategy decide which one pays for itself.
Are $0-commission brokers really free to day trade with?
The commission is genuinely $0 at brokers like Webull, Schwab, Robinhood, moomoo, and ETRADE, but regulatory pass-through fees apply to sales everywhere, some index options carry per-contract fees, and OTC stocks can cost extra (ETRADE charges $6.95 per OTC trade, for example). For listed stocks, the costs are small. Read the fee schedule once before your trade count makes the footnotes matter.
Which broker is best for short selling?
Among these picks, Cobra Trading and CenterPoint Securities, because both run dedicated locate desks with published processes for borrowing hard-to-borrow shares, which is the capability that decides whether you can even enter a short on a low-float runner. The full ranking, including borrow-cost considerations, is on our best brokers for short selling page.
What does a direct-access account actually cost per month?
Add three lines: commissions (at Cobra’s base rate, 100,000 shares a month is about $300), the platform fee ($125 for DAS Trader Pro at Cobra, $120 for CenterPoint Pro, each waived at high volume), and market data (basic packages start around $20 a month). A moderate-volume trader should budget roughly $400–$500 a month all-in until volume waivers kick in. That’s the number to beat with improved executions.