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TD Ameritrade Review
TD Ameritrade Promotional Code: click picture to the left to get 60 days trading for free + up to $500
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TD Ameritrade Review 2012: Commissions, Fees and Investments
- 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
With TD Ameritrade customers get flat rate $9.99 commission on every internet equity trade, regardless of account
balance or how many shares.
TD Ameritrade's account registration process is well-designed and very fast: usually takes 10-12 minutes to complete application.
When it's done users are free to immediately login and explore the website.
Customers could link to their bank account and fund brokerage account right away - no micro-deposits verification required.
TD Ameritrade Trading Tools Review
TD Ameritrade offers very powerful and comprehensive trading tools. And lots of them - more than enough for an average
investor! The company is also benefiting a lot from the acquisition of Thinkorswim: its powerful trading platform and technical tools.
Users could now trade all investment products from a single account. Great mobile applications are available for smartphone users.
TDAmeritrade.com website is well designed and customers could easily find all the resources. One really neat feature is an
ability to enter trades throughout the website through the order-entering box that is located on the bottom of every page.
TD Ameritrade Pros
- No surcharges on penny stocks, large orders and after-hours trading
- Large and well known company with many local branches
- Very good trading platform
- Free IRA accounts
- No maintenance and inactivity fees
- Free streaming quotes
- Large selection of independent, third-party research (S&P, Morningstar Associates, and ResearchTeamTM)
TD Ameritrade Cons
- $9.99 commission for stocks/ETFs and $49 commission for mutual funds are high
- Occasional poor order execution
- The website is sometimes very slow or even down on the high volume days
TD Ameritrade Review
TD Ameritrade is one of the best-known and largest discount online stock brokers in the country and the firm has been in business for
over 35 years. But it's definitely not the cheapest: $9.99 per stock trade
was a good price in 2000, but it is considered high in 2012. $49 to buy or sell mutual fund is extremely expensive!
Unlike most other brokerage firms, TD Ameritrade does not have surcharges on large orders, penny stocks and
extended-hours trading. There are no maintenance and inactivity charges for all accounts.
TD Ameritrade's IRA accounts don't have setup and annual fees. This is a good news for retirement account holders and it makes
the firm an excellent option for an IRA account.
TD Ameritrade is not the best choice for beginner investors, since it lacks investor community like
that at Scottrade or
TradeKing, where
customers could ask questions, learn from more experienced traders and interact with each other.
TD Ameritrade now offers access to webcasts or podcasts for their customers. Also, because they are web broadcasts users can listen to
them while, for example, on the train home. There are times when one just doesn't have the patience to read at the end of the day and
the webcasts are a perfect fit.
TDAmeritrade.com website becomes slow or goes down on high volume days. Sometimes orders take forever to execute.
It often happens on most critical days when markets make big moves. This is the time when customers really need
to be able to access their accounts and have their orders executed promptly. Also, at after-hours trading
we often experience very long order execution delays or orders don't fill at all.
TD Ameritrade bought one of the best online brokers - ThinkorSwim and it benefits a lot from this acquisition. Because of ThinkorSwim's
excellent trading technology, TD Ameritrade now has one of the best trading platforms in the industry.
Barron’s magazine rated TD Ameritrade #1 for options traders and 4 ½ out of 5 stars for Long-term Investing. Kiplinger's Personal Finance
magazine ranked it #1 and gave it an overall score of 5 stars, in the Kiplinger's Online Broker Ratings, 02/2012.
TD Ameritrade offers one of the best promotional offers for new customers among brokerage firms. It is worth giving a shot.
TD Ameritrade
Reviewed by Brokerage Review on
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Rating: 4
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