Scottrade is ok for you just starting out...agreed that sometimes they were
down..always seemed when things were needing attention asap..move it when you
get to 25..

Scottrade or Fidelity are fine. Never a problem with either of them.

I'm with Steve, and also agree with Kartatr. I want reliability and
responsiveness during periods of extreme volatility. I have accounts with Schwab
(since 1985), Fidelity, and Banc of America securities (only because those are
free trades and that is my day-trading account). I only recommend the first two:
they very rarely crash, or slow down, and you can reach human beings without too
much problem. Plus the research offered by Schwab and Fidelity is outstanding.

call Chuck @ schwab

You can go to ScottsTrade for cheap commish, but be warned you get what you pay
for and in busy important days, they seem to crash all the times. I hear it
here all the time of them being down. I have E*Trade and you do pay a little
more, but you have a plethera of tools and resources. Plus they don't go down
on busy or important days. I have E*Trade Pro and pay 9.99 commish. I'm
confident everymorning or anytime I want to login to E*Trade I have no issues.
Piece of mind means alot in this game. Certainty is key.

I highly recommend Scottrade, $7 a trade, branches all over the place if that's
important to you, good customer service from my experience, and good web page
that's easy to figure out, very user friendly, and works quite well for placing
orders.