cheapest isn't always the best. you should sign up with free accounts for the ones you're considering and 'test drive' them to see if you like the layout. i didn't like datek's layout at all, so it didn't justify me saving $10 per trade. i don't day trade (anymore) so $10 more per trade is no big deal to me. datek has improved a bit however, since i last used it. so you may want to give it a try, otherwise i like etrade a lot. also consider if you want a company that has good research, a lot of these $4.99/trade companies have no research at all. they're just trading firms. the best seems to be schwabb (brother has this, but pays some ridiculous rate for trading). etrade has pretty good research as well. just a few things to consider.
