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TradeStation Review 2012
Professional, well-designed trading platform, cheap futures trading, but expensive to trade stocks and ETFs
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TradeStation Review: Commissions, Fees and Investment Products (2012)
- 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
TradeStation Website (TradeStation.com)/Trading Tools Review
TradeStation's direct-access trading platform is one of the best we've seen! It offers all the bells and whistles you might
expect to see in professional trading software. You have an ability to trade equities, futures,
options, and forex from one trading platform. They even offer automated trading but users have to be very careful with
this tool. TradeStation's technical analysis and back-testing software has been recognized as the most popular
among futures traders for many years. The order entry and execution part of the software makes TradeStation a
superior product. All tools are fully customizable.
TradeStation Securities Pros
- Great trading platform
- Trading modeling functionality
- Lots of investment products to trade
- Active online community
TradeStation Securities Cons
- 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
TradeStation Review Summary
TradeStation offers two commission plans: pay-per-share and flat-rate. Flat-rate commissions are slightly
higher than average in the industry: $8 per stock and ETF trade on average. Pay-per-share commission plan
is also higher than at the best competitors, and it comes with additional cost: customers have to trade at least 5,000 shares or
50 options contracts a month to avoid very steep $99.95 monthly fee for using TradeStation
Platform. In addition, there are multiple
monthly market data fees to consider, which non-professional traders would usually not want to pay.
TradeStation is known for one of the best trading platforms of all online brokers. The firm is targeting very
active investors (and daytraders) and it is most popular among futures traders because of low futures commissions.
TradeStation charges $35 annual IRA fee and therefore it's not the best choice for an individual retirement account.
There are many highly rated brokerage firms offering
fee-free IRA Accounts.
Tradestation's powerful trading platform has a steep learning curve and will be too complicated for beginner
investors.
We recommend TradeStation only for futures traders. For stocks, options, mutual funds and exchange traded
funds (ETFs) we encourage investors researching Top Online Brokerages which offer
lower commissions and no trading
platform fees.
TradeStation
Reviewed by Brokerage Review on
.
Rating: 4
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