TradeMonster Commissions, Fees, and Minimum Deposit
TradeMonster completed a merger with another discount brokerage house, Optionshouse, which later
was acquired by ETRADE. ETRADE recently got acquired by Morgan Stanley. TradeMonster brand is now discontinued.
| Investments | Commissions |
|---|
| Stocks and ETFs | $0 |
| Stocks and ETFs broker assisted | $0 |
| Options | $0.50 per contract |
| Mutual funds | $20 |
| Futures | $1.50 per contract |
| Investments | stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, futures, ETFs |
| TradeMonster minimum deposit to open account | $0 for cash account, $2,000 for margin account |
We have been using TradeMonster brokerage’s advanced trading platform, TradeMonster Pro, over the past few months and
have been quite satisfied overall with our experience. In order to use the system, you must be what is considered an active trader
with TradeMonster. This constitutes making 30 or more trades in a given calendar quarter. Once you achieve this milestone, you will
receive a message in your account inbox indicating that you’ve qualified for the service and will now be able to launch the platform
via the active trading link on their website. From there, all you need to make sure is that you have the latest version of Java
installed on your computer and you are ready to begin. Once the platform is downloaded, the log in for TradeMonster Pro will appear as
an icon on your desktop for future use and easy accessibility.
At first glance, TradeMonster Pro looks rather intimidating. There are several boxes and numbers scattered throughout the screen and it can be quite difficult to make heads or tails of all the information being displayed. The system is designed for an active or more experienced trader, so bearing this in mind, it only makes sense that there will be some very elaborate and dynamic features available to the user. By spending a little bit of time with the platform, we were able to decipher the options available and what we found proved to be extremely useful.
There are four main tabs at the top of the page where you can do most of the primary navigation for the page: Tools, Quotes, Ticker, and Trade. Clicking the
Tools tab brings a box that acts as a quick hit for a number of different choices. From here you can select brokerage functions like trading or
moving money. You also have access to a number of features for research and charting, and one can even click on various links for options and futures tools.
This tab is specifically designed to be all encompassing and helps to simplify access to several areas of the system which, of course, is very convenient.
The Quotes tab allows the user to enter in a stock symbol to get real time streaming quote information. This includes bid/ask, price of the last trade,
and volume of the stock selected. Entering the stock symbol also integrates the information about the company into the additional features on the page.
For instance, the data will automatically feed into the Dow Jones newswire (which is in a separate workspace near the bottom of the screen) for instant access
to the company’s most recent press releases. The quote will also appear in a separate box as part of an interactive chart, where the user can customize this
based on a number of specific criteria for analysis. All of these features are very valuable to help access information quickly and apply this wealth of
resources to your due diligence.
The Ticker tab is set up so that when clicked, the user’s watch list will begin streaming across the screen in traditional ticker quote style. The standard display includes the price of the last trade for each particular stock, along with the change up or down for the day listed in dollars and cents. This is an easy and non-intrusive way to get continuous updates on a number of stocks as the portion of the screen required to show this information is very minimal. For more advanced users, this tab also offers the ability to customize appearance as well as integrate stock symbols with other portions of the platform such as level II quotes or option chains. The investor has many different choices at their disposal with just a couple clicks of the mouse. This ability makes the system much more user friendly and easier to navigate than we had first anticipated.
Clicking the Trade tab brings open the Order Entry Screen. This workspace is actually quite dynamic as an investor can buy or sell stocks, options,
futures, and even input conditional orders all from the same menu on the page. This is especially helpful when a trader needs to quickly go from one type
of investment vehicle to another. This accessibility can really be considered a benefit, as some brokerage firms have separate sections on their websites or
trading platforms designated for each type of investment and therefore this can’t be done in one place. The TradeMonster Pro trading platform offers its users this
perk and a few others, including live online access to CNBC, Excel Manager for the creation of interactive reports, and a strategy screener where investors can input specific criteria for real time stock ideas and alerts.
To realize the full value that this platform has to offer certainly takes some time and experience. For those investors who are actively
trading, TradeMonster Pro offers a number of highly customizable, in depth trading tools to help meet your investing needs. Based on our
experience, we would recommend this platform for any serious traders looking to have access to these types of dynamic tools and resources
all in one place. TradeMonster bonus for signing up, opening new account is a nice incentive too.
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ETF Fees at TradeMonster
With the ever increasing popularity of ETFs, it’s no surprise that brokers like TD Ameritrade and TradeMonster are
trying to make their trading platforms even more attractive with perks such as commission-free ETFs. Both
TD Ameritrade and TradeMonster compare well in this respect, with each offering all ETFs commission-free, but
you should still pay close attention to the details because there are sometimes hidden fees that apply to even
the free ETFs. This article will focus on researching and trading ETFs at TradeMonster.
How to Find ETFs on TradeMonster
TradeMonster has a user-friendly screening tool that can be used to sift through and filter the more than 2,000 ETFs they support on their platform. It allows you to slice and dice their ETF offerings by fund family, strategy, yield, and expense ratio among other fund characteristics. For example, in the below screenshot we are browsing for commission-free ETFs in Emerging Markets, and the screen gives us 14 ETFs to compare.
Comparing ETFs
TradeMonster also offers a helpful comparison tool to do a deeper side-by-side dive into a handful of ETFs that made the top of your list. Let’s say for example that in the above screenshot the two ETFs that really caught my eye were tickers SDEM and EMFM. In the screenshot below, you can see that entering these in the compare tool (you can enter up to five at once) lets you compare the two ETFs’ returns, yields, expense ratios and more. SDEM and EMFM have the same 3-year return, but we can see the expense ratio on EMFM is a bit more competitive.
How to Buy ETFs on TradeMonster
Once you’ve found the right ETF for your portfolio, let’s say we picked EMFM for our emerging exposure; you can place an order by going to “Trading” and then “Stocks/ETFs” in the menu below. Enter the ticker for the ETF you want to buy (EMFM), specify your action (Buy), enter the number of shares you want (we want 20), the order type (Limit), the maximum price you’re willing to pay per share ($20.45), and finally how long you want the order to stay active for (Good for Day). After previewing the order to make sure nothing was fat-fingered just hit submit.
ETF Commissions
At TradeMonster all ETF trades now have $0 commission.
TradeMonster Review Summary
In short, TradeMonster offers a well thought-out ETF trading platform and research/screening tool. It is comparable to Webull's in breadth
of ETF coverage and screening. ETF trading costs and fees are also very similar between the two brokers; however frequent ETF traders would find a better deal
at TradeMonster because of their discounted prices for high trade volume.
Arthur Chachuna is professional personal finance blogger, and the owner of Brokerage-Review.com.
He has been an avid investor for 23 years, and has background in both applied math and programming.
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