Tradestation vs TD Ameritrade
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TD Ameritrade vs Tradestation: Trading Fees 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
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- Stocks and ETFs Flat-Rate Plan: 1 to 9 trades/month - $9.99/trade; 10 to 29 trades/month - $7.99/trade; 30 or more trades/month - $6.99/trade
- Stocks and ETFs Per-Share Plan: first 500 shares $0.01 per share, $0.006 per share thereafter, $1 minimum per trade
- Options: $1 per contract with no ticket charge and no minimum
- Futures: 25¢ - $1.20 per side, per contract + exchange, regulatory & overnight fees
- Mutual funds: $14.95
- Bonds: $14.95 plus $5 per bond
- T-Bills: equities - $50, futures - $10
- OTCBB: $9.99 (100,000 share position maximum)
- Pink Sheet Stocks: $9.99 (100,000 share position maximum)
- Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, futures, T-Bills, OTCBB, Pink Sheet Stocks, Forex, ETFs
- Minimum to open Tradestation account: $5,000 for non-daytraders and $30,000 for daytraders
- All Tradestation 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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- Great trading platform
- Trading modeling functionality
- Lots of investment products to trade
- Active online community
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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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- High stock and ETF commissions
- Direct routing up to 5000 shares is no additional charge, $.005 per share thereafter
- $99.95 fee to use TradeStation Platform if not traded at least 5,000 shares in previous month
- Lots of fees for market data
- $35 annual IRA fee
- Steep learning curve: trading platform is too complicated for beginner investors
- Minimum amount to open account is $5,000 for non-daytraders and $30,000 for daytraders
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TD Ameritrade vs Tradestation: Comparison Summary
Tradestation (Tradestation Review) is priced almost the same as
TD Ameritrade (Ameritrade Review):
$9.99 per stock and ETF trade, for the first 9 trades in a month. But mutual funds are very steep $49 per transaction at TD Ameritrade
and just $14.95 at Tradestation.
Tradestation provides one of the best trading platforms on the market with excellent trade execution (however, it comes with a $100
per month price tag). TD Ameritrade's Thinkorswim trading platform rivals that of the Tradestation in the
versatility, speed and richness of features. And it's free.
Tradestation charges $35 annual IRA fee. TD Ameritrade does not have IRA fees and would work great for a brokerage retirement account.
We recommend TD Ameritrade for IRA accounts, beginners and "buy-and-hold" investors. Tradestation is way too expensive for everyone but
professional traders. For everyone else there are highly rated online brokers in our
Best Brokerages article, with lower commissions and no trading platform fees.
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