Tradestation vs Thinkorswim
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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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- Stocks and ETFs flat-rate plan: $9.95 per trade on market or limit orders, 5,000 shares maximum
- Stocks and ETFs per-share plan: $0.015 per share, $5 minimum
- OTCBB (Pink Sheets): $9.99 for any stock trade regardless of size or order type for stocks $2 or less
- Options: the lesser of $2.95 per contract OR $1.50 per contract plus $9.95 (only one $9.95 charge for unlimited spread legs)
- Mutual funds: first three mutual fund trades in calendar month are free; $15 per trade after that
- Bonds: up to 6 months maturity - $1 per bond
- Over 6 months up to 1 year maturity: $1.50 per bond
- Over 1 year maturity: $2 per bond
- Listed Bonds: $1.5 per bond additional
- Treasuries: minimum order is $25,000 ($25 minimum commission)
- All other bonds: minimum order is for 10 bonds ($25 minimum commission)
- Futures: $3.50 per contract (inclusive of exchange fees)
- Options on Futures: $3 per contract (inclusive of exchange fees)
- Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, T-Bills, futures, forex, ETFs
- Minimum to open Thinkorswim account: $3,500
- All Thinkorswim fees
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- Great trading platform
- Trading modeling functionality
- Lots of investment products to trade
- Active online community
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- Powerful trading platform, good risk management tools
- Lots of investment products to choose from
- No IRA fees
- Great customer service
- Virtual trading
- No surcharge for placing trade through broker
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- Somewhat high stock and ETF commissions
- $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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- High stock commissions
- In flat-fee plan there is additional charge of $0.005 per share on every share above 5,000
- All order types other than limit, marketable limit, and market orders will be charged per share rates
- Might be too complicated for beginner investors
- Browser trading is very slow
- High margin rates
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Tradestation vs Thinkorswim: Comparison Summary
Thinkorswim (Thinkorswim Review) and
Tradestation (Tradestation Review) offer both per-share and flat rate
plans and Tradestation is by far cheaper brokerage at either one of these commissions structures. The two
firms have a $0.005 per share surcharge on every share over 5,000 (per order) when using their flat rate plans.
Tradestation developped impressive, customizable trading platform and it offers its clients access to
helpful trading community.
Thinkorswim is known for excellent customer service, and versatile and powerful trading platform.
The firm also provides a wide array of investment classes for clients to choose from.
Thinkorswim is simply too expensive when comparing to Tradestation and we can't recommend it to anyone.
Tradestation is definitely a better brokerage, but due to somewhat high per-share commission structure,
trading orders of over 700 shares is expensive with them. We encourage investors taking a look at
Recommended Brokerage Firms list
before making final decision.
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