Overview of WeBull and TD Ameritrade
Whether you are a brand-new investor or you have been trading the markets for a while, the broker
that you choose has a huge impact on your trading/investing experience.
Two of the most popular
brokers right now are Webull and TD Ameritrade. If you are asking yourself, “Which broker is the
better of these two and what are the differences?”, then you are in the right place because we have
the answers.
Cost
| Broker Fees |
Stock/ETF
Commission |
Mutual Fund
Commission |
Options
Commission |
Maintenance
Fee |
Annual IRA
Fee |
|
WeBull
|
$0
|
na
|
$0 per contract
|
$0
|
$0
|
|
TD Ameritrade
|
$0
|
$49.99 ($0 to sell)
|
|
$0
|
$0
|
Services
| Broker Review |
Cost |
Investment Products |
Trading Tools |
Customer Service |
Research |
Overall Rating |
|
WeBull
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TD Ameritrade
|
|
|
|
|
|
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Promotions
WeBull:
12 FREE stocks valued $34-$30,600 give-away at Webull.
TD Ameritrade: $0 commissions + transfer fee reimbursement.
Investment Products & Services Offered
Both brokers offer stock trading, options trading, ETF trading, and IPO Investing. An important note about stock trading with Webull versus TD Ameritrade is that Webull doesn’t allow trading in pink sheets and TD Ameritrade does. In addition to pink sheet stocks, the other investment types that TD Ameritrade offers that Webull doesn’t are futures, FOREX, bonds, CDs, and mutual funds.
The one investment type that Webull offers that TD Ameritrade doesn’t is cryptocurrency. Webull allows crypto trading in over 40 different cryptocurrencies, but you should know that they don’t allow transferring of crypto in or out of your account.
Webull also allows fractional share trading and TD Ameritrade doesn’t. Both brokers offer a fully-paid stock lending program.
There is an important distinction between investing in IPOs with TD Ameritrade compared to Webull. TD Ameritrade, like most large traditional brokers, only allows investors who meet certain qualifications to invest in IPOs, and Webull allows all investors to invest in IPOs with a minimum of only $100. The IPO investment qualifications with TD Ameritrade are either an account value of $250,000 or placing at least 30 trades within the last three months.
Investors who desire a full suite of brokerage services will find themselves disappointed with Webull but very happy with TD Ameritrade. The other investment products and services that TD Ameritrade offers that Webull doesn’t are a dividend reinvestment program, a collateral lending program, financial planning and guidance services, access to Financial Consultants, and cash management services.
TD Ameritrade also has a network of over 100 branches across the U.S. that investors can visit to do business face-to-face and Webull doesn’t have any physical locations available for investors to do business with them in person.
Types of Accounts Offered
Both brokers offer cash trading and margin trading accounts. For short-selling and trading certain options strategies, both brokers do require at least $2,000 of equity in your margin account. The pattern day trading rule is applied the same at both brokers which means to have a true day trading account at either, you need to have a minimum of $25,000 of equity in your margin account.
Webull has an extremely limited number of account types only allowing you to open either an individual non-retirement brokerage account or an IRA. TD Ameritrade has over 20 different account types available including non-retirement brokerage accounts, IRAs, custodian accounts, trust accounts, small business retirement accounts, college savings accounts, business brokerage accounts, and even charitable giving accounts.
Commissions, Fees, & Pricing
Both brokers offer commission-free trading of stocks, options, and ETFs. However, there are some
huge differences in the trading commissions that Webull charges compared to TD Ameritrade.
The first huge difference between the two is that Webull doesn’t charge any commission per option contract and TD Ameritrade charges a commission of $.65 per option contract. The second huge difference is that Webull’s commission-free trading of stocks includes OTC stocks and TD Ameritrade charges $6.95 per trade on OTC stocks.
Webull’s margin rates are
significantly lower than TD Ameritrade’s
across all margin tiers. For example, TD Ameritrade charges a margin interest rate of 11% for borrowing under $10,000 and Webull only charges 6.99% for borrowing up to $25,000.
Neither broker charges any account opening fees or account maintenance fees. Both brokers charge a
$25 fee for wire transfer withdrawals but neither charges a fee for ACH deposits or withdrawals.
TD Ameritrade provides free real-time streaming quotes and level 2 quotes for all non-professional
users. Webull provides free-real time streaming quotes for exchange-listed stocks but charges $2.99
per month specifically for real-time quotes of OTC stocks. Webull also charges $1.99 per month for access to any level 2 quotes.
Trading Tools: Thinkorswim vs Webull
TD Ameritrade essentially has 5 different trading platforms that you can use which are its thinkorswim
desktop, thinkorswim web, thinkorswim mobile app, classic website, and classic mobile app.
Webull has 3 different trading platforms available which are its mobile app, website, and desktop. Webull offers paper trading on all of its platforms and TD Ameritrade offers paper trading on all of its thinkorswim platforms.
The trading experience on all of the platforms at both brokers is very good overall for beginners, experts, and everyone in between. Both have fairly intuitive and easy-to-use order entry screens and trading processes for all securities. There are a lot of little nuances regarding setting up trades and executing trades on both broker’s platforms that will take you time to learn but can make your trading more efficient and effective.
Both brokers have some of the best charts and charting features in the industry. Webull’s charts offer over 50 technical indicators, over 15 drawing tools, and 8 different chart types. TD Ameritrade’s charts offer over 300 technical indicators, over 10 drawing tools, and dozens of available customization settings. You can use the charts on both brokers not only for analysis purposes but also to place trades through the charts themselves.
Both brokers allow all of the standard order types including market, limit, trailing, and stop orders. Webull offers more flexibility in extended-hours trading allowing trading of stocks in the entire pre-market session between 4 am-9:30 am est and post-market session 4 pm-8 pm est compared to TD Ameritrade allowing trading in the same post-market session hours but only 7 am-9:28 am est for the pre-market session.
Research Tools
Both brokers have incredibly useful and powerful research tools across all of their different platforms. Webull has a greater number of research tools for researching stocks and finding stocks to trade. Some of their unique research tools are a Financial Brief tool that presents key fundamentals of a company in an easy-to-read infographic, a Market Watch tool that shows stocks with important news that day, and many different pre-built stock screeners such as stocks with large surprises in reported earnings compared to earnings estimates.
TD Ameritrade has more in-depth types of tools for researching all types of securities. Some of their unique research tools are a Markets Overview page that provides a very comprehensive overview of everything going on in the different markets that day, an options probability analysis chart, and a Fundamentals tool that provides a detailed report of the fundamentals and profile of a company.
Education Resources
Both brokers have fantastic educational content and learning resources. However, TD Ameritrade
simply has a ton more education available than Webull. Webull has a learning center on its app and
website with both containing courses more geared towards beginners such as option basics, crypto
fundamentals, and tutorials on how to use its app.
TD Ameritrade has a massive learning center on
its website with courses and content around dozens of trading/investing topics for beginners to the most advanced traders.
Customer Service
The comparison between TD Ameritrade’s customer service and Webull’s customer service isn’t even close. TD Ameritrade’s customer service is available literally 24/7 via chat or on the phone. Their customer service representatives are wonderful to work with as they respond quickly and are always helpful.
Webull’s customer service is only available via phone Monday-Friday 9 am-4:15 pm est, but you can email them or send them a message through the app at any time and they will respond typically within a day or two. Their representatives are generally helpful and nice to deal with, if you don’t mind the long wait for a response.
Mobile App Comparison
Webull’s mobile app and
TD Ameritrade’s mobile app are like two completely different worlds. TD Ameritrade’s mobile app has a nice user interface, and you can tell that it was built for functionality and designed for serious traders. Webull’s mobile app has a beautiful interface, and you can tell that it was built to be feature-packed and designed with millennials in mind.
Webull allows trading of stocks, crypto, ETFs, and options on its app. TD Ameritrade allows trading of stocks, options, mutual funds, and ETFs on its app. Both apps provide an intuitive trading experience, but Webull’s app is better for beginner traders because they provide descriptions and explanations of the terminology in each step of the trading process.
Website Comparison
Both brokers have nice websites that offer lots of functionality and features to go along with a good user interface. Similar to their mobile app user interface differences, but not as extreme, their websites have a very different user interface design with Webull’s interface having a millennial-type feel and TD Ameritrade’s interface having a functional type of feel. You can trade, perform research, access your accounts and watchlists, and view learning material on both websites.
Types of Customers
For traders of FOREX, futures, mutual funds, fixed income, and pink sheet stocks, the only option of
the two brokers is TD Ameritrade. For traders of crypto, Webull is the only option of the two.
Overall, Webull is the better option for beginners and low-balance investors because of the easy-to-use interface, lower minimum qualifications for IPOs, and fractional share trading.
TD Ameritrade is the better choice for day traders because of its powerful trading tools and
thinkorswim platform. TD Ameritrade is also the better choice for long-term investors and
high-net-worth individuals because they are much more of a full-service type of broker than Webull.
Both brokers have advantages and disadvantages for options traders such as Webull having $0 options commissions versus TD Ameritrade having better options trading tools therefore, either broker is a great choice for options traders.
Promotions
WeBull:
12 FREE stocks valued $34-$30,600 give-away at Webull.
TD Ameritrade: $0 commissions + transfer fee reimbursement.
WeBull vs TD Ameritrade Summary
When comparing both brokers head-to-head across the different categories, each prevails in certain
categories. However, there are huge differences between the two that makes it difficult to say which
is better overall. Both brokers are exceptional in their own right, and the choice ultimately comes
down to what you desire from your broker.
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Paul Johnson is a Licensed Stockbroker with 7+ years of experience in the financial services industry. Paul enjoys teaching about investing and writing about financial topics. He is a husband and father of twin boys.
Updated on 6/30/2022.
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