I remember the first time I opened my Robinhood account back in 2015. The question hit me immediately: how does Robinhood make money if trading is completely commission-free? It seemed too good to be true. Stock trading used to cost $7-10 per trade at traditional brokerages, yet here was this fintech company offering the same … Read more
Learning to trade stocks without risking real money is one of the smartest moves any beginner can make. I spent my first six months of trading education on simulators before putting actual capital at risk. This comprehensive guide will walk you through everything you need to know about using thinkorswim PaperMoney for simulated stock trading … Read more
Choosing between Bloomberg Terminal and Refinitiv Eikon is one of the most consequential technology decisions a financial firm can make. These two platforms dominate the professional financial data market, serving over half a million users across investment banks, hedge funds, asset managers, and trading desks worldwide. Whether you are a portfolio manager seeking real-time fixed … Read more
Regulation NMS (National Market System) is a set of rules established by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2005 to modernize and strengthen the regulatory structure of American equity markets. The regulation ensures that investors receive the best possible price for their trades by preventing trade-throughs and establishing a unified framework for market … Read more
Last year, I watched a scalper on our team lose $340 in a single morning. Not because his strategy was wrong. His entry signals were perfect. The market moved exactly as he predicted. But by the time his order reached the broker, the price had shifted 2 pips against him on every trade. That delay, … Read more
A feed handler is a specialized software component that receives, processes, and normalizes raw market data from exchanges and other data providers into standardized formats for consumption by trading systems. Feed handlers act as the critical bridge between exchanges that produce market data and the trading applications that consume it, ensuring traders receive accurate, timely … Read more
Key Takeaways An alternative trading system (ATS) is an SEC-regulated electronic venue that matches buy and sell orders outside traditional public exchanges. ATSs differ from exchanges because they lack self-regulatory organization (SRO) status and do not set listing standards or display orders publicly. Institutional investors primarily use ATSs to execute large block trades with minimal … Read more
An IPO (initial public offering) is the process where a private company sells shares of its stock to the public for the first time, transforming from a privately held business into a publicly traded company. This transition allows the company to raise significant capital from public investors while giving early stakeholders the opportunity to monetize … Read more
The US stock market opens at 9:30 a.m. ET and closes at 4:00 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday. Both the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq follow this schedule, excluding federal holidays and weekends. Understanding these hours helps you time your trades effectively and avoid missed opportunities. I have been tracking market schedules for … Read more
Stock market circuit breakers are temporary trading halts triggered when markets experience severe declines. These automatic mechanisms pause trading across all major exchanges to prevent panic selling and allow time for information to spread. If you’ve ever watched the market plunge and wondered why trading suddenly stopped, you’re seeing circuit breakers in action. Our team … Read more