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tradeMONSTER Review
Free IRAs, no fees, powerful trading tools and tons of learning materials for beginners
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tradeMONSTER Review 2011-2012: Commissions, Fees and Investments Offered
- Stocks and ETFs: $7.50
- Stocks and ETFs broker assisted: $22.50
- Options: $0.50 per contract (minimum $12.50 for single leg orders and $15 minimim per spread for multi-leg orders)
- Futures: $1.50 per contract
- Options on Futures: $1.50 per contract (excluding exchange fees, NFA fees, overnight and platform fees as applicable)
- Mutual Funds: $15 to buy, $0 to sell
- Bonds: $15 (Municipal, Corporate, Agency, Treasury)
- Investments: stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, ETFs
- Minimum to open tradeMONSTER account: $2,000
- All tradeMONSTER fees
New account setup was very quick: it took us about 12 minutes to go through the process. Some of the forms could be better designed,
but no major problems. Thanks to electronic signature (we actually drew the signature with a mouse), there are no forms
to print and mail.
tradeMONSTER's ACH money transfer setup requires verification of 2 small deposits to customer's bank account, which takes up to 3 business days to
complete (took 1 day for us). Some online brokers now offer instant bank account setup and money transfer - we would love to see that at tradeMONSTER.
New virtual trading account (paper trading account) is immediately funded with $100,000 of virtual money and customers could start
practicing trading and playing with trading tools right away.
tradeMONSTER Website (tradeMONSTER.com)/Trading Tools Review
tradeMONSTER offers a powerful and flexible webbrowser-based
trading platform, where just about everything is customizable. There are also great tools for charting, trending, and
drawing your own patterns on the charts.
tradeMONSTER Pros
- Best margin rates
- Selling mutual funds is free
- No inactivity, account maintenance or hidden fees
- No-fee IRAs
- Free trading simulator (virtual trading)
- Lots of learning materials for beginner investors, including webinars
- Very good customer service
tradeMONSTER Cons
- Additional 1.5 cents per share surcharge on extended hours trades
- Additional $0.0005 per share on the entire order for any stocks priced less than $1
- Trading tools could be a bit hard to master for beginners
tradeMONSTER Review Summary
tradeMONSTER offers excellent, browser-based trading tools, especially for options traders. The firm provides very good pricing for
mutual funds investors -- $15 to buy a mutual fund and free to sell, and for options traders who trade a lot of contracts per order -- $0.50 per
contract with minimum $12.50 for single leg orders. There are very few fees and surcharges, and the only important
ones are 1.5 per share surcharge on extended hours trades and another one on stocks under $1.
In 2011 Barron’s magazine rated tradeMONSTER 4.5 stars (out of 5) on their Trading Experience, Usability, Research and Educational Resources,
Portfolio Analysis/Reporting Tools and Customer Service. The only area were company got somewhat lower score was the Range of
Investment Products offered.
One of tradeMONSTER's best features is the ability to practice trading stocks or options with paper (virtual) money,
using all of the tools available. Another interesting feature is Exit Plan, where users create exit strategies for their trades
by focusing on profit targets and by monitoring their stop-loss and exit points.
Since there are no IRA and inactivity fees (except for $20 IRA closing fee), tradeMONSTER is a pretty good brokerage firm
for an individual retirement account.
tradeMONSTER is a good company, but, mainly due to surcharges, it did not make it into our list of
Best Brokerages in 2012.
We recommend the firm for people investing in mutual funds and for options traders.
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tradeMONSTER
Reviewed by Brokerage Review on
.
Rating: 4
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