Short Term Trading Weekend Lounge: 18 -20 May, page-81

IB is hands down the best, in terms of range of securities you can trade and range of markets. The platform can be difficult getting used to but you can also get fancy and plug another frontend in to it to trade from.

Schwab is the alternative and has a much more user friendly interface and a wide range of US equities and options. Very similar to an ANZ style GUI. The downfall is it doesn't have the breadth of markets, outside the USA. So, for example, TSXV and all your tiddler Canadian miners, MM etc won't be available to trade. Larger Canadian miners will often be dual-listed and therefore available on Schwab.

Phillip Capital also provide access to a number of offshore markets but once you stray from USA, you need to ring through orders, which isn't ideal.

IG are constantly expanding their offerings and told me they're working on expanding their access to markets like the Toronto, via their new share trading platform that's been going a while now.