Many people are looking for the cheapest way to make online trades.  It is important that you look at more than just price when selecting a company to use for online trading.  There are a few things you should be sure to look at before signing up with any company. 

Before beginning to trade with any company be sure you are aware of all the fees and charges you could face in addition to any flat per trade fee which is quoted.  Many companies quote a cheap per trade fee and then pile on all kinds of fees such as ECN fees, software fees, and others.  Make sure you are fully aware of all the fees associated with an account before you sign up.  Be sure to compare fees between the various companies so you can get an idea of the lowest total cost you can expect to pay.  

See if the company you are considering using offers any type of training or educational support for their clients.  Different companies will have different types of training available.  There are some day trading companies which allow you to listen in on their traders calls live.  Others allow you to connect with professional traders in a chat room.  Many others will provide DVDs or online training videos. 

Some firms will offer you a risk monitoring feature.  While not all firms will offer this it is a helpful feature to have on your account.  This allows you to creaste a pre-set limit on your trading such as the total number of open positions, maximum open loss, or maximum number of open shares.  This will hitting these numbers will trigger a notification to help you reduce your risk.  This can help to keep you disciplined even during those times when you are tempted to get a little out of control. 

While you defiantly don’t want to pay too much for your trades you also want to get the best overall package for your money.  Make sure that in addition to cheap fees you also get the level of service that you need.