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Compare TD Ameritrade versus OptionsHouse: which brokerage house to choose?
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- Stocks and ETFs: $9.99
- Options: $9.99 plus $0.75 per contract
- No-load mutual funds: $49.99
- Investment products: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options, ETFs
- Minimum to open account: $1,000 equity is required to open an IRA, and $2,000 to open any non-IRA account
- All TD Ameritrade fees
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- No surcharges for penny stocks, large orders and after-hours trading
- Large and well known company with many branches
- No maintenance and inactivity fees
- Large selection of third-party research
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- Lowest stock commissions in the industry
- Efficient trading tools
- No account minimums. Minimum initial funding size is $1,000 for a cash account and $2,000 for a margin account
- No fee IRA accounts
- No volume requirements and inactivity fees
- Free check-writing privileges
- No surcharges for large orders, penny stocks and extended hours trading
- Very low margin rates
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- $9.99 commission for stocks/ETFs is high, $49 commission for mutual funds is extremely high
- Poor order execution
- The website is sometimes very slow or even down on the most crucial days
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- Might not be the best for beginner investors
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TD Ameritrade or OptionsHouse: Comparison Summary
TD Ameritrade
is one of the most recognizable brokerage firms in the country. And this is the only advantage it has
over Optionshouse.
OptionsHouse offers
rock-bottom trading commissions:
$2.95 for stocks and ETFs against Ameritrade's $9.95.
OptionsHouse has a more stable website. Ameritrade's website often becomes slow and unusable on "big market
move" days when volume picks up.
Both companies have no IRA setup and annual fees, and OptionsHouse is one of the
Best IRA Brokerages.
The firms also don't have surcharges for large orders, penny stocks and extended hours trading orders.
Because of the much lower commissions (which will provide huge savings over the years) and more reliable website,
OptionsHouse is by far better choice of a brokerage house than TD Ameritrade.
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