Cobra Trading is the best direct access broker for most active day traders right now, and CenterPoint Securities is the pick if shorting is your bread and butter and you can clear its $30,000 minimum. This page ranks the five direct access brokers worth your money, as part of our full broker rankings, using the criteria in how we rate: execution and routing control first, then all-in cost, locates, and support. Every fee and minimum below was checked against each broker’s published schedules in June 2026.
One thing before the rankings: a direct access broker won’t fix a losing strategy. Most day traders lose money, and faster fills only compound whatever edge, or lack of one, you already have.
The June 4 rule change resets the entry math
The $25,000 pattern day trader minimum is gone. FINRA replaced the PDT framework with intraday margin requirements effective June 4, 2026: no trade counting, no PDT designation, no $25,000 floor. Your account just needs to hold adequate margin throughout the trading day, and $2,000 remains the minimum equity for leveraged trading under Rule 4210. We cover the mechanics in our guide to the new intraday margin rules.
Here’s the part that matters for picking a broker: firms get a transition period through October 20, 2027, and they’re responding differently. Cobra says it intends to offer a product built around the new $2,000 framework. TradeZero declared itself ready on day one. CenterPoint deliberately kept its $30,000 minimum, positioning itself as the premium desk. Lightspeed’s published day trading guidance still described the old $25,000 framework when we verified in June 2026. So the question is no longer “do I have $25k” but “which broker actually opened the door, and at what cost.”
Quick comparison
| Broker | Best for | Stock commissions | To start trading | Platform fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cobra Trading | Most active day traders | $0.0015–$0.003 per share | $10,000 ($9,000 maintained) | DAS Trader Pro $125/mo, waived at 200k shares/mo |
| CenterPoint Securities | Short sellers, larger accounts | $0.001–$0.003 per share | $30,000 | CenterPoint Pro $120/mo, waived at 250k shares/mo |
| Interactive Brokers | Lowest fixed costs | Tiered from $0.0035 per share, $0.35 min | No minimum | None |
| TradeZero | Small accounts | $0 on qualifying limit orders; $0.005 otherwise, $0.99 min | $2,500 | TZ1 browser platform free |
| Lightspeed | Per-trade pricing | Per-share to $0.001; per-trade to $2.00 | $25/mo minimum commission under $15,000 | Lightspeed Trader $130/mo minus commissions |
1. Cobra Trading: best direct access broker overall
Cobra gets the top spot because it nails the three things this category exists for: serious platforms, real locates, and a human on the phone. You trade through DAS Trader Pro or Sterling Trader Pro, both with dozens of published equity routes including dark pool access, and both with an integrated locate monitor for hard-to-borrow names. Our DAS Trader review covers why that platform is the default for momentum traders.
Per its published commission schedule, equities start at $0.003 per share and step down to $0.0015 above 10 million shares a month, with options at $0.30–$0.50 per contract and a flat 8% margin rate. Day trading accounts open at $10,000 and must keep $9,000; below that, Cobra points you to its Venom brand with deposits from $3,000. Buying power runs 4:1 intraday on qualified accounts.
The drawback: software fees stack on top of commissions until you trade 200,000 shares a month, and the platforms don’t support Mac. Read the full Cobra Trading review for the fee math.
2. CenterPoint Securities: best for short sellers with bigger accounts
CenterPoint kept its $30,000 minimum after the rule change, on purpose. Its public position is that the service model, fast phone support, and locate access don’t scale to a mass audience, and for traders shorting low-float garbage every morning, that focus is exactly the value. The short inventory and the locate workflow are the reasons to pay up; our short locates explainer covers how that game works.
Commissions run $0.003 per share down to $0.001 at volume, options reach $0.20 per contract above 100,000 contracts, and the published margin rate was 5.31% as of late 2025, well under Cobra’s 8%. CenterPoint Pro costs $120 a month, waived at 250,000 shares or 1,000 contracts; a $20 web platform covers lighter months. Funded clients also get CenterPoint Edge, a tool bundle the broker values at roughly $7,500 a year. Whether a broker can get you a scanner subscription free is covered in our guide to getting Trade Ideas without paying for it.
The drawback: a $25 monthly inactivity fee in any month you don’t trade, on top of a minimum that excludes most newer traders. The CenterPoint Securities review has the details, and Cobra vs CenterPoint settles the head-to-head.
3. Interactive Brokers: best for keeping fixed costs at zero
IBKR is the only broker on this list with no account minimum, no platform fee, and no monthly minimum commission. Per its published US stock commissions, the Pro tiered plan charges $0.0035 per share up to 300,000 monthly shares with a $0.35 per-order minimum, stepping down to $0.0005 at extreme volume; the fixed plan is $0.005 with a $1 minimum and no exchange-fee pass-through. Trader Workstation is free, and orders can go through IB SmartRouting or be directed to specific venues.
That makes IBKR the rational choice if your volume is irregular. A trader who goes hard in October and barely touches the market in December pays nothing for the quiet month, which no other broker here can say.
The drawback: on the tiered plan, exchange, clearing, and pass-through fees are added to the headline rate, so $0.0035 is not your all-in cost, and removing liquidity on thin names adds up fast. Our Interactive Brokers review works through what a typical month really costs.
4. TradeZero: best direct access broker for small accounts
TradeZero opens the category to accounts that the others price out. You need $2,500 on deposit to start trading, the new TZ1 browser platform with built-in TradingView charts is free, and the broker was publicly ready for the new intraday margin rules on day one. Its locate tool runs 4:00 am to 8:00 pm ET with dynamic pricing, and the minimum short price threshold was recently lowered to $0.25.
The pricing model is the hook: limit orders that add liquidity on NYSE, AMEX, or NASDAQ stocks above $1, at 200 shares or more, are commission-free. Everything else, market orders, marketable limits, and sub-200-share orders, costs $0.005 per share with a $0.99 minimum. If you trade patiently with size, your commission bill can genuinely approach zero. If you chase entries with market orders, it won’t.
The drawback: that conditional structure means your real cost depends entirely on your order habits, and platform fees for paid tiers bill on the 1st of each month whether you traded or not. Full breakdown in the TradeZero review.
5. Lightspeed: best for per-trade pricing on a proprietary platform
Lightspeed Trader remains one of the fastest proprietary platforms in the business, and the fee design rewards activity: the $130 monthly software fee is reduced dollar-for-dollar by your commissions, so anyone generating $130 a month in commissions pays nothing for the platform. Market data adds $25 for stocks and $10 for options. Per-share pricing runs as low as $0.001 and per-trade as low as $2.00 at volume, and unlike Cobra’s lineup, a Mac version of the platform exists. Sterling Trader Pro is also available there at $240 a month.
Accounts under $15,000 face a $25 monthly minimum commission fee, which functions as a floor on your costs in slow months.
The drawback: Lightspeed’s published day trading guidance still described the old $25,000 PDT framework when we verified in June 2026. FINRA gives firms until October 20, 2027 to transition, so confirm directly where Lightspeed stands before funding a small account there. More in our Lightspeed review.
What a month actually costs
Rate cards hide the real bill, so run the numbers on a concrete trader: 100,000 shares a month, base commission tiers, before routing and regulatory fees.
At Cobra, that’s $300 in commissions plus $125 for DAS Trader Pro (the waiver needs 200,000 shares) plus $20 for the basic data package: about $445. At CenterPoint, $300 in commissions plus $120 for CenterPoint Pro (waiver needs 250,000 shares) plus roughly $28 in a-la-carte Level 1 and Level 2 data: about $448. At IBKR on the tiered plan, $350 in commissions and no platform fee, with data billed separately and third-party fees added per fill. At Lightspeed, $300 in commissions would wipe out the $130 software fee entirely, leaving $35 in data.
The spread between the top brokers at this volume is smaller than their rate cards suggest. What you’re actually choosing between is routing control, locate inventory, and support, not headline pennies per share.
How we picked
Execution and routing control carried the most weight, because that’s the entire reason to pay per-share commissions instead of trading free at a retail broker. After that: all-in monthly cost at realistic volume (commissions plus platform plus data, as worked above), locate access and short inventory for the shorting crowd, account minimums under the new rules, and support quality as documented in each broker’s published service model. Every number came from the brokers’ own pricing and policy pages, scoring per our rating methodology. No broker on this list paid to be here.
Who should skip a direct access broker
If you place fewer than a handful of trades a week, the math doesn’t work. A $145 monthly platform-and-data bill on 20 trades is $7.25 per trade in overhead before commissions, and a free retail broker fills a 500-share order in a liquid large cap just fine. The honest dividing line is whether execution speed and routing actually show up in your results, which we unpack in direct access vs retail brokers.
Small accounts have better starting points too. Under the new rules you can day trade a margin account with $2,000, but software fees eat small accounts alive; the picks in best brokers for small accounts fit that stage better. And if shorting is the whole reason you’re here, the locate-focused rankings in best brokers for short selling go deeper than this page.
Frequently asked questions
What is a direct access broker?
A direct access broker lets you route orders yourself to specific exchanges, ECNs, and dark pools instead of handing them to the broker’s routing arrangements. You pay per-share or per-trade commissions in exchange for speed, routing control, and tools like Level 2 and hotkeys built for fast execution.
Do you still need $25,000 to day trade?
No. FINRA eliminated the pattern day trader rule and its $25,000 minimum on June 4, 2026, replacing it with intraday margin requirements. The minimum equity for leveraged trading is $2,000, individual brokers can set higher minimums, and firms have until October 20, 2027 to fully transition to the new framework.
Which direct access broker has the lowest minimum?
Interactive Brokers has no account minimum. TradeZero requires $2,500 on deposit to start trading. Cobra Trading’s day trading accounts open at $10,000, with its Venom brand taking deposits from $3,000, and CenterPoint Securities requires $30,000.
Are per-share commissions worth paying when retail brokers are free?
Only if you trade enough for execution to matter. Commission-free brokers are paid through order flow arrangements, and for an active trader the cost of slower fills and slippage on momentum names can exceed a per-share commission. For a few trades a week in liquid stocks, free is genuinely fine.
Can you use these platforms on a Mac?
Lightspeed publishes a Mac version of Lightspeed Trader, and TradeZero’s TZ1 runs in a browser on any system. Cobra Trading states its platforms are not supported on Mac and recommends a Windows PC. Check system requirements before funding, because platform choice is locked to your broker.
How do locates work at these brokers?
When a stock is hard to borrow, you pay a locate fee to reserve shares before shorting. Cobra and CenterPoint offer locates through tools built into their platforms, and TradeZero’s locator runs from 4:00 am to 8:00 pm ET with dynamic pricing. Fees are charged per locate and can get expensive on low-float names, so price the locate against your expected gain before taking the trade.