Built for One Kind of Trader, The Kind Who Shorts
There are thousands of brokers in the world. Almost all of them want you to buy stocks. Centerpoint Securities built its entire business around the traders who do the opposite.
Founded in 2012, Centerpoint Securities is a direct-access broker headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with a singular focus: giving active short sellers and day traders the tools, technology, and hard-to-borrow inventory they need to compete at a professional level. It doesn’t offer mutual funds. It doesn’t have a beginner onboarding flow. It doesn’t run ads promising free trades.
What it does offer is one of the deepest short locate inventories in the retail brokerage industry, direct-access execution through DAS Trader Pro, and a support team staffed by people who actually trade.
If you’re here because you’ve hit the ceiling on Webull or Robinhood, because the stocks you want to short aren’t available, because your fills are slow, because you can’t get a human on the phone, Centerpoint is exactly what you’re looking for.
Who Is Centerpoint Securities Built For?
Centerpoint is not a general-purpose broker. It’s built for a specific type of trader, and it excels precisely because it doesn’t try to be everything to everyone.
Centerpoint is built for:
Active short sellers. This is Centerpoint’s primary identity. Its locate engine, one of the most powerful in the industry, gives traders access to hard-to-borrow shares that most retail platforms simply cannot source. If shorting is central to your strategy, Centerpoint belongs on your shortlist.
Day traders who need direct access. Speed matters when you’re trading momentum stocks and low-float runners. Centerpoint’s direct-market-access infrastructure routes your orders straight to the exchange, no middleman, no payment for order flow, no degraded execution.
Traders stepping up from retail platforms. If you’ve been trading on Webull, TD Ameritrade, or E*TRADE and you’re running into locate unavailability, slow execution, or support that doesn’t understand your strategy, Centerpoint is the professional-grade alternative.
High-volume traders. Centerpoint’s commission structure rewards volume. The more you trade, the lower your per-share rate. For traders doing tens of thousands of shares per day, the economics work strongly in your favor.
Traders who need a real human. Centerpoint’s support team includes experienced traders, not call center scripts. When you need someone who understands what “the locate dropped mid-fill” means, you want Centerpoint’s desk.
Centerpoint is NOT for:
- Beginners, the $30,000 minimum deposit and professional toolset assume trading experience
- Passive investors, no ETF portfolios, robo-advisors, or buy-and-hold infrastructure
- Mobile-first traders, Centerpoint’s strength is desktop-based direct access platforms
- Anyone expecting commission-free trades, Centerpoint charges per-share commissions, and is transparent about why
The Specialty: Hard-to-Borrow Access That Changes the Game
Ask any experienced short seller what separates a great broker from a mediocre one, and the answer is almost always the same: locate availability.
When you short a stock, you’re borrowing shares to sell them, with the expectation of buying them back later at a lower price. To borrow those shares, your broker needs to locate them first. At most retail brokers, that inventory is thin. Popular shorts are “unavailable.” Hard-to-borrow names never show up.
At Centerpoint, the story is different.
The Locate Engine
Centerpoint’s locate infrastructure aggregates inventory from multiple prime brokerage and lending sources. This means when you search for shares to borrow, you’re searching a significantly larger pool than what any single-source broker can offer. For traders targeting low-float momentum stocks, recent IPOs, and heavily shorted names, the stocks producing the biggest intraday moves, this access is the entire ballgame.
You can search for locates directly from your trading platform, see real-time availability and borrow rates, and execute within seconds of finding shares. The process is streamlined and fast enough for the speed that day trading demands.
Transparent Locate Pricing
Borrow rates on hard-to-borrow stocks vary based on supply and demand for shares in the lending market. Centerpoint shows you the rate before you commit. No hidden markups, no post-fill surprises. If the rate is 50% annualized on a volatile small-cap, you’ll see that upfront and make the decision yourself.
This transparency matters. Some brokers advertise discounted locates that are actually marked up from the underlying rate. Centerpoint doesn’t work that way.
Real-Time Availability
Locate availability updates in real time. If shares free up in the lending pool during the session, because another trader covered their short, for example, that inventory becomes available to you. This is a meaningful advantage when you’re watching a stock in real time and waiting for locate availability to take a position.
The Platforms
Centerpoint supports multiple professional-grade trading platforms. Unlike retail brokers that offer a single proprietary app, Centerpoint gives you a choice based on your trading style and preferences.
DAS Trader Pro, The Standard Choice
Most Centerpoint traders use DAS Trader Pro. It’s the industry-standard direct-access platform for US equity day trading, battle-tested, fast, and extraordinarily configurable.
Key features:
- Sub-millisecond execution, DAS servers are co-located at NYSE and NASDAQ, putting your orders physically close to the exchange matching engines. This is institutional-grade infrastructure available to retail traders.
- Hotkey trading, full keyboard-driven order entry. Configure hotkeys for market orders, limit orders, position flipping, stop losses, and partial exits. For traders executing 50+ trades per day, hotkeys aren’t optional, they’re essential.
- Level 2 and Time & Sales, full market depth with MMID identification, tick-by-tick print data, and customizable filters. If you want to sharpen your ability to read this data, our Level 2 Market Data Guide breaks it down in full.
- Direct ECN routing, choose exactly where your order goes. ARCA, BATS, EDGX, NASDAQ, and others. Direct routing gives you control over execution quality and lets you capture ECN rebates when adding liquidity.
- Advanced charting, nearly 80 technical indicators, multi-chart layouts, drawing tools, and full-screen trading mode.
- Replay mode, replay your trading day with full tick-by-tick data. Review your executions, study the tape, and improve your process.
Cost: $125/month, waived when you trade 250,000+ shares in a calendar month.
Sterling Trader Pro
A direct-access alternative to DAS with particularly strong options trading support, full options chain access, spread order entry, and complex multi-leg strategies. Sterling runs on comparable infrastructure to DAS with a different interface that some traders prefer after extended use.
Cobra TraderPro / RealTick
Additional platform options are available for traders who want lower platform overhead or a different interface. Ask Centerpoint’s team for current options and pricing based on your trading volume.
Commission Structure
Centerpoint charges per-share commissions. This is not an accident and not a weakness, it’s a deliberate choice that reflects how the broker makes money.
Commission-free brokers are compensated through payment for order flow (PFOF): they sell your orders to market makers who fill them at slightly worse prices. You don’t see the cost, but it’s there, embedded in wider spreads and inferior fills. Over thousands of trades, PFOF-driven execution costs real money.
Centerpoint doesn’t sell your order flow. Your orders go to the exchange you choose. You pay a visible commission, and you get institutional execution in return.
Commission Tiers
Centerpoint prices commissions on a tiered, per-share basis with rates that decrease as your monthly volume increases. Standard rates start around $0.004 per share, with higher-volume traders accessing rates closer to $0.002–$0.003 per share. A minimum commission of $1.00 per trade applies.
Centerpoint encourages prospective traders to contact them directly to discuss volume-based pricing, for active traders, rates are negotiable.
Additional Costs
- DAS Trader Pro: $125/month (waived at 250,000 shares/month)
- Market data: ~$25–$30/month depending on feeds
- Margin rate: Competitive with other direct-access brokers, confirm current rate with Centerpoint directly, as rates adjust with benchmark rates
- Locate fees: Variable based on borrow demand for the specific stock, shown upfront before committing
- ACAT transfer out: Standard industry fee
- Inactivity fee: Applies on low-activity months, confirm current terms with the broker
For active traders generating real volume, the commission structure is more than offset by execution quality and locate access. For low-frequency traders, the cost may not pencil out.
Account Types
Centerpoint supports the full range of account structures relevant to active traders:
- Individual, standard personal brokerage account
- Joint, for partnerships or spouses trading together
- Corporate / LLC, for trading entities and proprietary shops
- Trust, for trust-held trading assets
- IRA, traditional and Roth, for traders who want tax-advantaged account access alongside their active accounts
Minimum deposit: $30,000 for standard accounts. This positions accounts above the $25,000 Pattern Day Trader (PDT) threshold required by FINRA, giving traders full PDT flexibility from day one without worrying about the account falling below the limit on a rough week.
Regulation and Security
Centerpoint Securities is a registered FINRA member broker-dealer and a member of SIPC. Customer accounts are protected up to $500,000 (including $250,000 for cash claims) through SIPC insurance.
The firm has maintained a clean regulatory record since its founding and has grown steadily by focusing on a narrow, professional niche rather than chasing retail market share. That focus has earned it a loyal base of traders who trade large and trade often.
Centerpoint vs. The Competition
Centerpoint vs. Cobra Trading
This is the most common comparison active short sellers make, and there’s no clean winner, both are elite in the same niche. Both offer DAS Trader Pro, both have strong locate access, and both charge per-share commissions without PFOF.
The differences come down to: locate inventory depth (both are excellent, traders debate which has the edge on specific names), commission negotiation (both are flexible for high-volume traders), platform options, and personal relationship with the support desk. Many serious traders open accounts at both and use them in parallel to maximize locate availability.
Read our full Cobra Trading Review for a detailed side-by-side.
Centerpoint vs. Interactive Brokers
Interactive Brokers wins on breadth, global markets, futures, forex, options, bonds, funds. Centerpoint wins on depth, US equities, short selling, and direct-access execution built specifically for day traders. If you trade internationally or across asset classes, IBKR is likely the better fit. If you’re a US equity day trader who shorts, Centerpoint is purpose-built for your workflow.
Centerpoint vs. Webull
Different markets entirely. Webull is free, mobile-first, and designed for casual retail investors and beginners. Centerpoint is professional-grade, desktop-focused, and built for traders who treat this as a business. The $30,000 minimum deposit alone separates the audiences. If you’re on Webull and finding locates unavailable for the stocks you want to short, Centerpoint is the upgrade path. Read our Webull Review for full context.
Centerpoint vs. Robinhood
There is no meaningful comparison. Robinhood is built to make investing accessible to consumers. Centerpoint is built to give professional traders an institutional edge. They serve completely different audiences, and a trader who needs Centerpoint already knows Robinhood isn’t the answer. See our Robinhood Review if you’re earlier in the journey.
The Support Difference
Professional trading infrastructure means nothing if the desk goes dark when you need them.
Centerpoint’s support team is available during extended market hours by phone and direct contact, and critically, the people answering know what you’re talking about. When you call about a locate that dropped, a partial fill that didn’t execute the way you expected, or a margin question on an overnight short position, you’re talking to someone with trading experience, not a customer service script.
For traders managing large positions in fast-moving stocks, this isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a baseline requirement. Centerpoint delivers on it consistently, which is why its retention among active traders is high.
The Bottom Line
Centerpoint Securities is one of the best short selling brokers in the retail industry. Its locate engine, direct-access execution, platform options, and experienced support team are purpose-built for active day traders who short stocks for a living, or who take it seriously enough that it might as well be.
It’s not for everyone. The $30,000 minimum, per-share commissions, and desktop-first infrastructure are barriers that will filter out casual and beginning traders. That’s deliberate. Centerpoint isn’t trying to be your first broker. It’s trying to be your best one.
If you’ve outgrown what your current broker can offer, in execution speed, locate availability, or support quality, Centerpoint Securities is one of the first places you should look.
All investing involves risk. This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.