Active traders especially those who often deal in options must tryTradeKing. TradeKing is a licensed broker aiming to empower self-directed traders. The best part about them is that their offering is same for everyone, beginners and experts alike. So, everyone trades at discounted pricing and accesses same tools and resources. You would definitely like their Trader Network that allows individuals to connect with each other and enhance their trading skills.
It’s definitely worth giving this discount broker a try, mainly because they have been successful in engaging clients with their extensive tools, educational resources, and above all a solid trade platform. Rest assured that your assets are safe, as TradeKing offers SIPC protection along with additional third-party insurances.
For detailed information, browse through our detailed reviews below.
What Type of Accounts you can open with TradeKing?
TradeKing offers a whole host accounts to choose from. You can easily find the one that suits your needs. Popular accounts that you can open with Tradeking are Individual, Joint and Custodial.
The list of all accounts that you can open with Tradeking is:
- Individual Account
- Joint Account
- Custodial Account
- Retirement Accounts: Traditional IRA | Roth IRA | Rollover IRA |
- LLC Account
- Trust Account
- Sole Proprietorship Account
- Investment Club Account
- Partnership Account
- Corporate Account
Tradeking offers the following selection of investment products:
- Stocks
- Options
- Mutual funds
- Bonds
- CDs
- Forex
- Treasuries
- ETFs
TradeKing: Fees & Commissions
- Options:TradeKing's pricing for trading options is less than what some of the other key players charge. One impressive thing to note is that the multi-leg trades are charged as a single-leg trade. Another good thing is that short trades on options valued at 5 cents or less, you pay absolutely nothing to close such positions.
- Stocks, Mutual Funds and ETFs:TradeKing guarantees that orders will be filled at Best Bid and Offer prices available at the National level. This is a unique feature that allows placing fast-pace market orders.You can trade stocks and ETFs at a flat pricing, irrespective of how much you trade or how big your account is.
- Certificate of Deposits: They offer CDs with different maturity dates.
- Bonds:You can transact in bonds at $4.95/bond and a minimum $4.95/transaction.
- Treasuries:Trades in Treasuries can be done at $24.95/transaction
TradeKing’s Tools and Platform Performance
Tradeking's research and trading tools are highly acclaimed among the investor community. Barron’s has rated them twice in the best web-based broker category.
Tradeking offers a Browser-Based trading platform, TradeKing LIVE. It is designed to meet active trading requirements and can work virtually on any mobile device, be an iPad or a tablet. You can keep a track of your investments in real-time through live streaming quotes and current news. The key advantages of TradeKing LIVE are as follows:-
- It’s ideal for Real-Time Trading as you can manage watch lists and order entry on the same screen.
- You can filter Option Chains to keep strikes from a desired range and access real time quotes along with implied volatility and even compare strikes from different expirations.
- It allows you to place Multi-Leg Orders and pre-populate orders from your options chains.
- The layout for TradeKing LIVE is customizable with easy Drag and drop feature.
Tools offered by Tradeking are:
- Maxit Tax Manager: It simplifies your tax reporting while providing you real-time analysis and even helps in identifying tax-smart investments. It tracks all your portfolio transaction and calculates accurate tax liability.
- Market Stats:Track market activity such as major advancers and decliners. You can view quick charts with 200 day moving averages.
- Latest News: You even get comparision to peer stocks, historical quotes along with a snap-shot of current trading activity along with options activity.
- Research Company Profile:You can get access to important data such as business description, market cap, stock price and volume, dividends, management profile, reported profits and valuations.
- Company’s Earnings Forecast: Using this you get to compare how that company has performed in comparison to forecasts in the past. You can even compare these forecasts to related sectors industry and indices.
- Track Insider Activity: You can see specific transactions and their impact on the stock price in a chart representation.
- Customizable Watchlist:TradeKing platform lets you customize every bit your watchlist and on top of that you get quick access to options chains, charts and news, all in one place.
- Quotes:TradeKing offers standard as well as streaming quotes. With these quotes you can track price info such as ask and bid, high and low, historical quotes and then other data such as options chains, peer performance comparison and much more.
- MarketGrader Research Reports: MarketGrader is a popular report that identifies undervalued stocks using fundamental analysis. This report evaluates over 5,500 companies and lists the ones that are expected to beat analysts’ expectations.
- Probability Calculator from TradeKing
- Profit & Loss Calculator
- Options and Strategy Scanners
- Stock, ETF + Mutual Fund Screeners
- Back Testing Screener
How good is TradeKing’s Customer Service and Support?
They surely are one of the top-notch players who maintain high quality customer service standards. They were ranked No. 1 by SmartMoney for their customer support.
Education & Training for Traders
Tradking offers a social platform for traders called "Trader Network" that lets you see the real trades that others are sharing. There, they have a leader-board, where you can track top traders as and when they make their trades. They also offer education for the traders in the "Education" section of the website. There you can find data segmented among security types, trader experience, market outlook, live events & webinars. They have one of the best knowledge center among the discount brokers.
Miscellaneous information about TradeKing:
Founded back in 2005, TradeKing has gained popularity among active traders for their fair pricing.
Ways to Fund your TradeKing Account
- Wire transfers - This way you should be able to trade in a few hours or less.
- Transfer your account from one another broker to TradeKing - For this you need to fill-up an account transfer form and submit it along with your latest brokerage statement.
- Check Payment
- Electronic transfer by setting up an ACH transfer - This you can directly do from the TradeKing website.
Extra Hours Trading with TradeKing: TradeKing allows Extra-Hours Trading. You can place pre-market orders from 8:00am ET till 9:00am ET. Post-market trading starts at 4:00pm ET for one hour.
TradeKing’s Auto Trade Feature:This is an optional feature and requires your authentication to be enabled. You don’t have to pay anything extra for the activation. Auto Trade allows you to automatically trigger trades based on recommendations based on your pre-set parameters or simply trade strategies from your favorite newsletter.
12 November 2012
I heard about the recent Zecco and TradeKing merger. I think it will lead to a better trading experience and improved services. I am really looking forward to experience the positives of both TradeKing and Zecco
21 November 2012
Agreed. Tradeking customers get access to Forex tools from Zecco. Both brokerages combined, I feel they will be able to compete with the market leaders such as TD Ameritrade, ETrade
01 October 2012
50 bucks offer going on. Just signed up
08 July 2012
I have been using tradeking for past several years and its a decent broker. I mean tools aren’t as advanced as ameritrade however tradeking gives you nice tools.
06 September 2010
I have been using Tradeking for over an year now. The thing that attracted me towards it, was its transparent pricing policy, which I find the lowest in the market. Really, no confusing pricing tiers for trading, and the lowest commission rate of just $4.95 per trade irrespective of number of shares, as compared to more than $10 per trade from other brokers, no matter what they publicize. In other words, no fine prints.
Another thing that I liked about tradeking was the customer service. Thankfully, I haven’t had any major issues to resolve, but whatever the concerns I’ve had I was always able to resolve using their online chat tool. Never have had to call them for my problems.
Although I’m an amateur, but I can say for sure that even the active traders will like their trading interface, together with the range of tools and services they provide on year webpage.
I’ll definitely suggest people to try it once.!!!
03 June 2010
like tradeking’s site because it allows me to see what other people are doing
20 May 2009
TradeKing’s customer service is also highly regarded. They have a phone line that’s open on weekdays during regular work hours (ET), but also have a Live Chat (open on the same hours as phone) and Email feature prominently displayed on their site.
20 May 2009
One of their biggest selling points is their price. They emphasize the fact that they don’t have any hidden fees and they offer a flat low fee for all types of equity trades. Their flat rate is $4.95 per trade for market, limit or broker-assisted (or call in/phone) trades and it’s the same price across the board. I like how simple that is! Most brokerages will charge you a much higher price for broker-assisted trades, with Scottrade hitting you up with $27 a trade or TD Ameritrade charging you $44.99. Now for TradeKing option trades, you’ll pay only $4.95 per trade and $0.65 per contract.
20 May 2009
"Tradeking has a unique Options search tool that allows you to review advanced as well as basic options strategies for a huge array of options trading techniques.
From straddles to strangles to covered calls as well as basic puts and calls, the Options Strategy Scanner will review the best options for your next options trade using the criteria you choose. Pretty Cool!"
11 April 2009
great site, highly informational, keep it up