TD Ameritrade vs eOption: Commissions and Investments 2012
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- Stocks and ETFs: $9.99
- Stocks and ETFs broker assisted: $49.99
- Stocks and ETFs Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Telephone System: $34.99
- Options: $9.99 plus $0.75 per contract
- No-load mutual funds: $49.99
- Treasuries at auction: $25 flat fee
- All other bonds and CMOs, CDs: on a net yield basis
- Futures: $3.50 per contract (inclusive of exchange fees)
- Investment products: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options, ETFs, bonds, CDs, UITs, futures and forex
- Minimum to open TD Ameritrade account: $0 for cash account, $2,000 for margin account
- All TD Ameritrade fees
- Ameritrade login, TD Ameritrade promotional code
and Ameritrade referral code
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- Stocks and ETFs: $3
- Options: $3 ticket charge plus $0.10 per contract
- Option Exercise and Assignment: $9
- Foreign Stocks: $39 (must be placed with a broker)
- Extended Hours Trading: $25 for up to 5,000 shares, $0.003 per share for over 5,000 shares
- Mutual funds: $14.95
- Listed Bonds: first 25 bonds - $5 per bond, each additional bond - $3 per bond, minimum - $39
- Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, foreign stocks, ETFs
- Minimum to open eOption account: $0 for US; $5,000 for intenational accounts
- All eOption fees
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- No surcharges on penny stocks, large orders and after-hours trading
- Large and well known company with many local branches
- Two excellent trading platforms (ThinkOrSwim and Trade Architect)
- Practice trading without risking your own money using paperMoney
- See what other traders are doing on myTRADE trader community
- Free IRA accounts
- No maintenance and inactivity fees
- Free streaming quotes, including Level II
- Large selection of independent, third-party research (Standard & Poor's, Morningstar, Jaywalk and TheStreet)
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- Very low commissions
- Great margin rates
- Dividend reinvestment plan
- No IRA fees
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- $9.99 commission for stocks/ETFs and $49 commission for mutual funds are high
- The website is sometimes very slow or even down on the high volume days
- High margin rates
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- Very expensive extended hours trading commissions
- Limited trading tools and charts
- Limited research
- Slow and painful ACH setup process
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eOption vs TD Ameritrade: Comparison Summary
TD Ameritrade (Ameritrade Review) is one of the largest online brokerage
houses in the US.
eOption (eOption Review) is relatively new but offers excellent commissions:
$3 per stock/ETF trade versus $10 at the larger competitor.
At TD Ameritrade mutual funds are $50 per transaction and eOption charges $15 for the same trades.
eOption has no account maintenance, inactivity or trading volume fees. Live streaming quotes are, however, $15 a month if making
less than 10 trades per month. Only web-based platform is free, all other platforms come with additional fee.
Low commissions come at the cost - eOption functionality needs to be upgraded. Their website is a mess and trading tools are
beyond basic. Customer service is very spotty.
TD Ameritrade has no account maintenance and inactivity fees. It also does not charge IRA setup and annual IRA
fees, though it did not make it into our
Top IRA Brokerages list, where one could find
Optionshouse,
Zecco (Zecco Review) and
Scottrade (Scottrade Review).
In summary: eOption has way too many problems. TD Ameritrade is great for customers who rarely trade. For everyone else we suggest
reading online brokerage reviews and researching other discount brokerage firms before making final decision.
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