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Lightspeed Trading reviews, customer complaints, broker rating, trading platform pros and cons. Is Lightspeed Trading a good and safe company?

Lightspeed Trading Reviews

by Stardog,  10/13/2021

Pros:  None

Cons:  Many

Review:  Takes FFFFFOOOORRRRREEEVVVVEEERRRR to set up your account.
Executions no better than other platforms.
The web and mobile version are complete trash. Full of glitches and just flat out doesn’t work. Upgraded to Lightspeed platform which requires desktop to run. Took another week. Traded for a day and made $250. However they turned off my fading towards the end of the day and said my account wasn’t done being set up. Next day only the money I deposited and not my trading gains were in the account I’m sure if I had lost money it would have been the same! Platform is clumsy compared to literally everything else out there and not “Lightspeed” fast.
Biggest disappointment of my trading career.

by FC,  7/15/2020

Pros:  You can type in your price

Cons:  Executions are crap. You don't get in or out where you want $$$!!! :(

Review:  Took almost 2 weeks for the application approval. No one ever answers the phone. And when they finaly did after multiple attemps... One guy did answered the phone and sounded like he was eating a sandwich and a bag of potato chips. Another guy sounded like he was too busy typing out a book and wasn't paying attention to my questions.

The platform seems quick in the demo state for scalping. But once you live live,... forget it. You try to buy in at say $1.82 and you execute the buy with your programmed hotkey and the damn thing buys it at $1.89 and the stock goes red at $1.88. BAM!!! You just got screwed! It happens with every execution no matter what settings or routing you try. It happens every damn time. There is no way that guy Ross Cameron is getting lightning fills right where he wants. Hell, I even tried typing in the exact amount I wanted it to execute and BAM... nope it still bought it almost 10 cents higher!

I'm totally done with Lightspeed!

by Gabriel,  8/1/2018

Pros: 

Cons: 

Review:  Horrible customer service. There is no one to answer the phone at 4:00 am as they claim they open for trading. This happens almost daily.

by Cliff,  6/6/2018

Pros: 

Cons:  Platform issues and they won't answer the phone

Review:  When there are issues they appear to hide...My platform is down and no one answers the phone

by Alan Gay,  5/15/2018

Pros:  The people were initially very friendly and helpful but it took 4 days to fill out my paperwork and get approved.

Cons:  Opening the account was very hard

Review:  After I got approved I got a letter saying they had checked my background and "because I was not able to get a FINRA license I would not be able to trade" I had already funded the account etc. Apparently you must have to have a perfect background to be able to work with these people. I finally got them to tell me what info they had on me and it was not my information very bad experience. Also I had traded with them in the past for 8 years.

by Richard C,  6/1/2017

Pros:  Extremely Fast Executions, Very Cheap Per Share Pricing or Flat Fee if you choose, Everything I need in LSTrader Platform, Amazing Customer Service, Email Support Possible

Cons:  Minimum monthly commission on LSTrader, Market Data Fees, Higher Initial Funding Minimums

Review:  I have been using Lightspeed for years now and absolutely love them. If you are a frequent and serious trader, you should find the functionality in Lightspeed perfect for your needs. LSTrader Platform is highly recommended.
Executions are lightning fast. You can choose either per trade ($4.50 per trade) or per share (highest rate is currently around 0.0045 per share and that pricing can be lower depending on how many shares you trade each month). Minimum commission per order is $1. Market fees add in about another $0.0035 per share.
Another plus to Lightspeed is the ability to receive rebates on market fees if you add liquidity rather than take liquidity.
Another thing I love about Lightspeed is the Customer Service. I have emailed my service rep Rob with almost every question imaginable and he is always very fast to respond. Their support desk is as well. Many other brokers won't allow you to email support.
As far as platform, trading, back office, customer support, and web tutorials, Lightspeed Excels.
The only drawbacks that I have found with Lightspeed is that it takes higher funding requirements, so it's not a broker for casual mom and pop traders with only a few bucks to their name. You will need at least $10k-$15k to open an account.
Another drawback is that data fees usually run about $10-$20 extra per month but with the money your saving in commissions, it kind of makes up for itself.
With LSTrader, you will also need to accumulate at least $100 in commission each month or pay the difference as a fee (say all your trades for April comes out to $50 in commission total, you would be charged the other $50 as a fee. If instead for the month of April you paid $105 in commissions, than you're ok and wouldn't be charged any extra fee).
All in all, I would highly highly recommend Lightspeed for any serious trader. Especially if you are a frequent trader. It is way better than overrated HF brokers like Interactive brokers in my opinion.

by Ken T,  4/20/2015

Pros: 

Cons: 

Review:  Incoming ACAT transfers are very slow at Lightspeed. It took them 2 weeks to complete a transfer in my IRA account. I know there was no issue with the transferring brokerage because a transfer of another account from the same originating brokerage to a 3rd brokerage was completed in just 2 days. This was the slowest account transfer I had ever experienced. Lightspeed claimed that it was due to the type of positions I had in my account. Their claim didn't make sense because the account only had stocks and call options in it.

After the transfer was completed, I found that their platform was inadequate for my needs. I was aware they did not have a mobile app, but I was hopeful that I would be able to use their Lightspeed Web Trader on my work computer and possibly on my Android phone. It turned out that the Web Trader requires Microsoft Silverlight to run. No where on the Lightspeed web site is this restriction mentioned. It turned out that the Web Trader would not run on my computer because my computer had IE 8 installed and Silverlight does not work with IE 8. So this along with the fact the Silverlight does not run on Android was a deal breaker to me.

In the end, Lightspeed was not a good match for me. I had to transfer my account out to another brokerage. Not only was this a waste of time, but it ended up costing me an extra $95 for my trouble.


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Lightspeed Trading Software

Lightspeed offers a few trading platforms for beginners and professionals:

  • Lightspeed Trader is a standalone trading platform with features like advanced multi threaded, multi-core processing 64-bit technology, higher order throughput. It’s a single platform for online stock, options and futures trading, as well as customizable layouts and charts. The price tag is $130 per month.
  • Lightspeed Web Trader offers a browser-based trading and account management, with features like real-time streaming quotes, access to advanced market data (charting, analytics), watch lists, charting and news. System requires the latest version of browser installed (IE, Firefox, Mozilla, Safari), and screen resolution of at least 1024 x 768. Web Trader users get free market data and research package. It's free to use.
  • RealTick Pro is fully featured trading software for the professional traders and includes advanced order entry and trading ith real-time global data; customizable user interface; hotkeys and hot buttons; MarketMinder quote display, streaming news. It costs $275 per month.

Lightspeed Review

Lightspeed Trading offers some of the best commissions in the industry. It offers extremely low trading rates of just $0.0045 per share, and any order of up to 220 shares will cost $1 or less (orders with up to 500 shares are $2.25 or less). Options commission is $0.60 per contract with no order charges. The company has high minimum initial funding requirement: $5,000, $10,000 and $25,000 for Web Trader plan, RealTick plan and Trader plan respectively.

Lightspeed Trading is primarily used by very active traders who know what they are doing. The firm provides direct access to ECN’s and exchanges which is a must for day traders. Lightspeed's trading platform has a steep learning curve (especially for beginner investors), and don't expect to get much handholding. Customer service is hit and miss and is a major issue with this company.

Lightspeed's Web Trader (website-based) platform design is not intuitive. Performance is very slow. But what disappoints even more, is that the platform is full of bugs, and it often makes trading a frustrating experience. The absence of extended hours trading at Web Trader is a big disadvantage too. The company's other platform, Lightspeed Trader, is much more stable and usually performs well. It could get slow on high-volume days though.

The company introduced Minimum Commission Fee for accounts with balance less than $15,000 - $25 per month. Of course, it makes Lighspeed way too expensive for investors with small accounts.

The brokerage firm offers free practice account for newbies to give them an opportunity to learn trading platform and some market principles without any monetary risks. Moreover, company’s educational center is quite good. Lightspeed provides video learning library that consists of Trader Truth series, Training videos and Trader Talk series. Customers can learn the basics of the financial instruments including stocks, futures and options. Also, the company conducts numerous webinars for beginners and experienced traders.

Lightspeed Trading is primarily suited for very active traders who need cheap executions. Beginners, retirement account and buy-and-hold investors should stay away from this broker.

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