Are you looking for a discount brokerage to help you begin buying, selling, and trading individual stocks and options? TradeKing may be the website that you are looking for. They offer an easy to use website, excellent resources for education, and one of the lowest commissions on the internet for stock and options trades.
TradeKing Has Very Low Commissions
TradeKing is an online stock and options broker that is known for having very low commissions. It highlights fair and simple pricing: just $4.95 for stock trades, and $4.95 + 65 cents per contract for options trades. If you trade more than 8 options contracts, the per contract price drops to 15 cents. And, if you do multi-leg option-only trades, there is still only one base charge.
Additionally, TradeKing is a safe stock trading platform that prides itself in having great encryption technology, and your investments are also insured against fraud by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). Another great aspect of TradeKing is that they do not require a minimum balance when you open an account which is perfect for the new investor looking to start or even for the seasoned investor who is tired of being nickeled and dimed by other brokers and who is looking to make a change to a new discount broker.
How TradeKing Is Like Other Brokers
TradeKing is very similar to other online discount stockbrokers. They have a very easy account setup process and very good customer service to walk you through anything needed. Once you have an account, it is also very easy to transfer money from your bank account to your new brokerage account at TradeKing. However, you should be aware that TradeKing does have a mandatory 5 day hold on all ACH transfers from bank accounts which can be annoying when you want to get started right away. But, do not let that stop you if you want to find a new place to buy and sell stocks. TradeKing also has a very useful trading screen. When you go to place a trade, you enter the ticker symbol and it will pull up all the relevant information for that stock or option contract. You can also preview your trades prior to executing which is helpful especially for options trading. However, if you find this option annoying, you can also disable it customizing your user interface on the discount broker’s website.
How TradeKing Is Better Than Other Brokers
When it comes to options trading, TradeKing is much better than your average broker. When you go to trade options, TradeKing will automatically calculate any advanced trades you may be interested in such as the Condor or Butterfly. Also, if you want to buy an underlying stock and write a call, you can do so from one screen very easily. TradeKing also does keeping track of everything better than other brokers.
They utilize Maxit Tax Manager, which will keep track of your gains and losses and track all other transactions. This is great for keeping an eye on your cost basis, as well as for identifying lots for tax treatment. It can also generate tax reports (such as the Schedule D) automatically to help you when it is tax time. Finally, TradeKing offers a lot in the way of research and education. They offer some stock reports, and an overview of all essential metrics to trade stocks. For education, they have more resources than I could mention!
Final Thoughts On TradeKing
TradeKing provides its investors with good service, excellent security, incredibly low trading commissions and fees, award-winning customer service, and great educational resources in order to make the best decisions for your investments. TradeKing can be a great website and portal for you to use for both a regular taxable trading account and a retirement account.
great review. stock trades below $5 – thats awesome. No minimum deposit is also great – allows everyone who just wants to try it out a quick look