online trading brokerage accounts

Why, when and how to use

Web-based stock trade software

Internet access to our online trading brokerage accounts is necessary to be able to trade online. We, private traders, use the internet as our medium that connects us with our online trading brokers.

There is typically one fixed place from where we trade. It can be a home office or trading office, trading room or some other place dedicated to trading. Here we also have the best Internet connection available — it can be a dedicated line or DSL connection or cable connection. These are the best Internet connections for online traders.

Online trading broker

stock trade software

When we trade in our main trading place/office, we often use the best platform that is offered by our online trading broker. I think it is mostly some standalone stock trade software.

This type of software is typically installed on our computer and run as an individual application.

I personally prefer to use this option for my market activities. I have my standalone stock trade software for my online trading brokerage accounts available on all computers I use. This means on my office PC, my home PC and my notebook.

Why use web-based stock trade software

My online trading brokers also provide a Web-based stock trade software option. One of my preferred online brokers — Interactive Brokers — offers a Web-based solution, too.

You may wonder why they offer this option to access brokerage accounts when they also have a standalone application — Trader Workstation (TWS). I have not thought about using of their web-based option named WebTrader until recently too. I thought that these web-based software options were obsolete.

But I had to change my opinion. I was on winter holidays in Italy. I had booked a hotel with Internet access available, as I have to be able to check the markets and my portfolio also during my vacations. Hotel staff confirmed that Wi-Fi high-speed Internet access was available in the hotel so I expected that it would be easy to use my notebook for monitoring of my brokerage accounts.

But when I arrived at the hotel and wanted to use my standalone applications I had found that they were not working. I was a little shocked. I did some technical investigation and found that the Internet provider, that provides Internet connection for the hotel and its guests, had installed some firewall that blocks all unusual traffic flow from and to the hotel Internet network.

Now what to do? I recalled that my brokers also provided another possibility to access my brokerage accounts. They have a web-based stock trade software i.e. some Java applets integrated directly into a standard web browser.

How to access web based online trading software

I checked the websites of my broker and found the link on the web page. Here is screenshot of the web pages for Interactive Brokers. This is one online broker I use for US stock markets. There is a link on the right side of their webpage that shows the menu with a direct link to Webtrader login.

Another screenshot is from the web site of my second online broker — Saxobank. I use this online broker especially for currency trades (Forex) and commodity trades. They have a link to access of the web-based stock trade software right on the top of their home page.

I used these links and they worked. I was able to access my online trading brokerage accounts via web-based online trade software. I was able to check the stock market situation and how my portfolio was performing.