ChoiceTrade Review 2011-2012: Commissions, Fees and Investment Products Offered
- Stocks and ETFs (not direct access): $5 per trade
- Stocks and ETFs (direct access): $0.005 per share, $1 minimum per trade
- Stocks and ETFs (broker-assisted): $30 per trade
- Options: $5 plus $0.15 per contract
- Mutual funds: $25 per trade
- Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, Forex, ETFs
- Minimum to open Choicetrade account: $0 for cash account, 2,000 for margin account
- All Choicetrade fees
It takes 10 minutes to complete new account registration at ChoiceTrade -- the forms are short and very
well designed. The firm found an ingenious way to get a customer signature -- they provide a little box where one
can draw their signature with a mouse!
The application was approved in 15 minutes (during work hours, possibly longer on weekends and evenings),
after which the company emailed us user name and password (both are changeable in account Settings).
At this point we were ready to use all the features and fund the account. We opened account with $0.
ChoiceTrade Website (ChoiceTrade.com)/Trading Tools Review
ChoiceTrade provides two choices for trading: website-based and stand-alone, professional,
advanced trading platforms developed for day-traders. Both options are well-designed and provide just about everything an average
investor needs as well as lots of advanced features most investors will never use. Web-based trading does not require plug-ins
and could run on any device, including smart-phones and tablet devices like iPad.
ChoiceTrade created an Investor Community where users connect with like-minded traders and investors, share
portfolios, and participate in ChoiceTrade-sponsored events. The Investor Community allows customers to create
a personal profile, meet and communicate with other members, form investment clubs, read and create blogs, and more.
Users get access to mailbox, chat and instant messaging features.
ChoiceTrade Pros
- Direct access trading with lowest per share commissions
- Very low flat-rate commissions
- Powerful trading platforms
- No account minimum, maintenance or inactivity fees
- Free paper trading
- Investor community
ChoiceTrade Cons
- While web-based trading platform with delayed quotes is free, more advanced platforms and streaming quotes are not: web-based Choicestreamer is $14.95/month,
ChoiceTrader Direct pro is $49/month, Choicetrader Select with eSignal is $126/month
- Extended hours stock trades have $0.005 per share surcharge
- 1% surcharge of the total dollar value of the order in addition to the normal commission of $5 per trade to all stock orders of more than 500,000 shares
- High mutual fund commissions
ChoiceTrade Review Summary
ChoiceTrade is one of the cheapest brokerage firms
in the industry: direct access commissions are only $0.005 per share with
$1 minimum per trade and flat-rate commission plan is $5 for stock and ETF trades. Options price is $5 plus $0.55 per contract.
Unlike many other online brokerage companies, there are no surcharges on penny stocks. There is, however, additional $0.005 per share
surcharge on extended hours stock/ETF trades and 1% surcharge on trades with over 500,000 shares. The company does not charge
account maintenance and inactivity fees.
We don't recommend opening account with ChoiceTrade for mutual funds investors - the company has a steep, $25 fee per mutual fund
transaction. There are better priced online brokerages for mutual funds, such as
OptionsXpress (OptionsXpress review) and
Optionshouse (Optionshouse review) - both charge $10 per transaction.
Since there are no IRA setup and annual IRA fees, ChoiceTrade is a decent option for a retirement account.
ChoiceTrade is not very friendly to beginner investors, even though it offers helpful online trader community - most of its customers
are experienced traders. For anyone new to investing, we recommend
to check out our Best Brokerages For Beginners list.
Investors could open an account with ChoiceTrade with no money down, and try their virtual trading and other services with no
obligation (non-IRA accounts have no account closing fee). Since account could be opened with $0, ChoiceTrade is one of the best online
brokerage firms for low/free initial investment.
ChoiceTrade is a brokerage for experienced traders and this is who we recommend it for. For anyone who is not in that category, we
encourage researching companies in our Best Brokerages list.
ChoiceTrade
Reviewed by Brokerage Review on
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Rating: 3.5
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