Fidelity is worth considering in my opinion.
I have had a brokerage account with Fidelity for over 10 years and have always felt that they were first class in all regards except commissions. They give fills in liquid stocks that are confirmed almost as soon as you click to send the order. I have never been unable to short whatever I want, but I usually only trade high volume, extremely liquid stocks, so that may not always be the case with some lower volume or highly shorted issues. Any time I have had a problem with an execution or whatever, it has always been handled very quickly and professionally in a manner which satisfied me, and the truth is I have had no reason to call them for years. When the market gets wild and volume gets heavy, their web site hardly flinches. When others here at IHub are frantically trying to place or cancel an order or receive a confirmation, Fidelity just keeps rolling along like any other day. They have a free trading platform for active traders, called Fidelity Active Trader Pro, that gives me everything that I need to trade the way I do, including streaming quotes, realtime balances, and a lot of other bells and whistles. Of course, you have to qualify for the priveledge to use the platform. To qualify, you need $30000 in your account, and you have to make at least 120 trades on a rolling 12 month basis. Recently they have made great strides in becoming more competitive with other brokers in the area of costs. The gold level commission schedule which applies to active traders who meet the above criteria has come down to the point that it now stands at $8 for any number of shares with no additional costs for limit or stop orders. Sixteen dollars per round trip regardless of the number of shares. I had an account with Etrade a few years ago and I couldn't wait to get back to Fidelity. Under today's circumstances, and considering what and how I trade, I wouldn't consider anybody else.
