TradeKing seems like an amazing brokerage firm so I was excited before I even reviewed it. What I found didn’t disappoint, as TradeKing focuses on customer’s needs from the beginning of the company’s inception. Let me walk you through why I recommend this broker as your trading platform of choice in this review.
Essence of a Solid Discount Stock Broker
There are a few areas that I am particularly interested in when I look at a stock broker. They are:
- Solid Technologies – A website that doesn’t go down, responsive service etc. If I cannot exit my positions when the market is crashing because most people are logged on, then I will stay away even if the company offers me money every time I trade.
- User Interface – Functions and prompts should make sense and the the flow should make sense from one page to the next
- Inexpensive trades – Stocks, options, and ETFs are what I normally trade so I’m most interested in these.
- Fast Execution and Routing – The stock broker needs to try hard to obtain shares at the price I want.
- Research Tools – This is nice but it’s not crucial since I can get it everywhere else online.
- Extras – Low margin rates for the few times that I use it, or whether they offer anything else that the competition don’t etc
Now let’s see how TradeKing performs in these areas.
Solid Technology
Unlike some of its competition, a quick search online doesn’t reveal any outage issues for TradeKing (a very good sign). Also, jumping from page to page doesn’t seem to take forever to load, even when there’s a big announcement in the market (usually a time when online stock brokers start to become less responsive due to heavy load). This is obviously a never ending test as I continue to work with this broker but so far so good.
User Interface
I started trading stocks with Etrade Financial and I was spoiled with its user interface. I thought that every company’s interface would be comparable and made just as much sense but boy was I wrong. Luckily, offers a solid platform for my trading needs. For example: 
The share price of a stock would conveniently show up on the screen after I type in the symbol (you’d be surprised that many brokers don’t do this). 
On the same screen, I can get a snapshot of all the essential facts about the company as well as trade the stock, see all the options chains, insider activity and advanced chart with another click of the mouse.
Inexpensive Trades
TradeKing is hard to beat when it comes to stock trade pricing. At $4.95 per trade and $0.65 per option contract, it is easily one of the lowest in the industry and the price stays the same whether you trade once a year or more than once every day. The straightforward pricing extends further because you can trade through the phone (known as broker-assisted trades) for the same low price of $4.95. I imagine most people can make trades online by themselves but it is great to know that the option is there just in case, like times when your computer is down but need access to the market.
Fast Execution and Smart Routing
Any stock broker has an obligation to execute customer orders at the best price available and TradeKing takes this a step further to offer best execution. In their eyes, best execution includes speed of transaction, execution price, price improvement opportunities and liquidity. In fact, if the broker is unable to obtain the best price available, your trade is free.
Research Tools
I’m slowly falling in love with the stock screener that TradeKing provides. I like the fact that it has tons of filters and that I can actually save the criteria so I don’t have to hand pick them every single time I want to use it. 
The technicals of a stock is so important for short term trading and TradeKing offers free technical analysis with every account. Even though studying the charts thoroughly is highly recommended, I like the quick summary that tells you whether the analysis signal a bullish or bearish tone. Among other tools, also offers live webinars for us to attend, an options playbook (the most comprehensive guide on options I’ve read), and a forum for traders to talk about the market and different strategies.
An Update on the Webinars: Being an account owner of many stock brokers, I receive different invitations to webinars hosted by Etrade, TD Ameritrade, TradeKing, OptionsXpress among others. What I noticed was that TradeKing hosts many more webinars than others, and they make it available to everyone no matter how much assets you have (alternatively, Etrade and I believe TD Ameritrade seems to offer more services to people with more assets).
TradeKing Maxit Tax Manager
I used to hate doing taxes because the amount of trades, dividends and re-investments made the schedule D next to impossible to create. As a result, I used to pay about $80 a year for a service to have my trades automatically uploaded and organized. When I found out that TradeKing has a similar service built into their platform, I wanted to check it out.
Powered by Scivantage Maxit, the system will:
- Track the cost basis of all securities and transactions real time
- Adjust for mergers, splits and spin offs automatically
- Automatically handle wash sales
- Unrealized and realized gains and losses information are available at a touch of a button
- Generate a schedule D automatically
Best of all, it came with the account for free. No more importing and exporting and a savings of at least $80.
Customer Service and Awards
It’s comforting to know that TradeKing is known in the industry for its awesome customer support. In fact, the company has won many awards including the “Best Customer Service”, “Best for Option Traders” and “Best for Long-Term Investing” according to Barron’s and Smart Money.
A nice little feature I really like about the broker is the live chat feature. Instead of picking up the phone, I can launch live chat in a small window and just type my question. This instant messenger type system is efficient, natural for me and I can often get my questions answered within minutes. Thank you TradeKing, because I no longer need to press “0″ as fast as I can in an attempt to get to a representative after I call the 1-800 number.
Extras
TradeKing’s margin rates are consistently among the lowest in the industry. Also, they are currently offering to reimburse up to $150 in transfer fee for you to switch over to them. With all that the stock broker has to offer, switching to them is highly recommended. However, deciding on the stock broker you stick with is an important choice, so remember to open an account and make sure you are comfortable with everything the broker does and doesn’t offer before making the switch.
Get a Free $50 from TradeKing – Expired Offer
From now until the end of October, 2009 November 2009 (discussion proved to work, because we were able to get TradeKing to extend this promotion for another month), TradeKing is going to give you $50 for signing up for an account with them. This time, there’s no need for me to send you the invite too! All you need to do is fund the account with $2,500 and then make the first trade to qualify.
TradeKing’s National Friendship Day – Also Expired
This offer has expired, but I’m leaving it on here to give you a glimpse of what type of promotions TradeKing has run previously.
For the entire month of August, TradeKing is giving away $50 to anyone who signs up for an account as long as it’s referred from an existing account holder. For those interested, just shoot me an email at david [at] moneyning.com and I can send an invitation over to you. Alternatively, you can also leave a comment below so I can get back to you. Note that in order to get the $50, you need to open a non-IRA account by the end of the month, fund the account with at least $1,000 within 30 days of opening the account, and make a minimum of one trade within 180 days of account opening to get the $50 so make sure you don’t delay and act right away. The incentive for my troubles? When you get the $50, I will also get $50 on my account so it’s really a win-win-win for TradeKing, you and I.
- – Official Site
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{ 47 comments… read them below or add one }
I started my trading career with TradeKing and I’m very familiar with its education center. In fact, I learned most of what I know with trading there so I cannot help with give them the thumbs up. I agree with you that the options playbook is very comprehensive for people that want to learn.
The broker is clearly a winner and I’m very happy with them.
TradeKing and Etrade is always the best brokers whenever I hear about brokerage firms but I went with TK because Etrade would charge me $12.99 per trade based on my assets and TK will charge me $4.95.
So far, I gotta hand it to them though since they are obviously making money without charging me excessively.
I used them all. Scottstrade, Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, etc etc. TradeKing rocks because execution is fast and cheap, not to mention that the user interface just makes sense.
There’s actually a very good tax manager so I no longer have to pay extra to prepare my schedule D. Before I switched, I had to pay something like $100 to $200 a year for an automatic import since I trade quite a bit every year.
I highly recommend the stock broker.
I love the tax manager! I can’t believe other brokers make you pay for it by using a third party service. Every year when I get all the gains/losses report for free, it brings a smile to my face.
All the brokers seem to be the same to me, but I do like its community since I can tap into what winning trades people are making to give me some trading ideas.
This is definitely one of the better brokerage firms out there. I’ve been with them since the beginning and there were never any problems.
Whenever I’m unsure about what I’m seeing or want a question answered, I just go into online chat and I’m talking to someone within minutes. Much easier than even getting on the phone.
The first stock broker I signed up for is TradeKing so it’s not like I’m very qualified to say but so far I’ve had no problems. I would highly recommend them to everyone that cares to hear about my opinion!
Did you hear that TradeKing was named fourth in the latest Smart Money 2009 broker survey? While it’s not the first, the other three are all at least twice as expensive when it comes to stock trades.
I’d say that TradeKing is kicking (you know what) if you ask me. They are really the future of stock trading.
The customer service is just amazing. I love TradeKing.
Year after year, they win awards for customer service. At $4.95 a trade and all the good words about the company, how can you not like them? Sure, they don’t have a banking side like the higher end discount brokers but who cares? Don’t we all have enough bank accounts and debit cards already anyway?
I love their options playbook and the simple interface that they have. I agree that not having the banking side is not really a concern and the stock broker is top notched.
I don’t know how much time I spent on the educational videos and slides but they are very good as well.
Hi there is a promotion going on with tradeking called the national friendship day and I am wondering anyone with a tradeking account can refer me by sending me an email. Because I want to cover my brokerage fee when I transfer my account to tradeking. At the same time you also get $50. I have the $1000 minimum and I will make a trade as soon as i get my assets transferred over.
I wanna open an tradeking account. Can anyone refer me and receive $50?
Michael and Lily: Offer sent. Have fun with a free $50.
I am a beginner and heard alot of positive reviews about Trade King. I would like to be educated on buying stocks through a broker like Trade King.
I appreciate your time and attention,
Elvis bille
Are you also looking for the free $50? If so, reply or send me an email and I will send you the invitation. Remember though to act fast since it expires in a few weeks.
Thanks for the $50. I look forward to receiving the free money from TradeKing.com and starting to trade with this stock broker.
I have been paying for high trading fees for far too long. It’s about time I take advantage of low commission rates.
Can you shoot me over the $50 TK invitation…I’m going to give TK a try after researching the others and being impressed by the positive reviews OF YK
I’m glad I still made the August 27 deadline. Please send me the invitation to get the free money.
Please send me a referral of Trade King.
Thanks,
JL
Please send me a referral of Trade King.
Thank you.
GL
Thanks everyone for participating. It’s almost the end of the day so the program is ending soon. Too bad they don’t keep it open forever but I’m sure they will have another promotion soon! I hope everyone who got the email was able to get the free money and good luck in your trading!
I know it’s getting late but if you could send me a referral that would be great!
Please send a referral, I think I can make it intoday
MoneyNing, looks like they still have the promotion open. Can you help me earn you some more money?
Actually, the same screen is replaced with the refer-a-friend email, which gives me $50 but not you unfortunately. It might serve you better if you just apply an account at TradeKing.com since I still recommend the broker without the free money.
I am new to stock trading and want to start with Penny. Is TK and good place to do this?
To be honest, I advice you to use TK for other stocks than penny stocks, especially if you are starting out. Penny stocks in general are very volatile and you can lose your shirt in a hurry.
Be careful.
I am curious about opening a TradeKing account but I already have a Td Ameritrade one. I was wondering if anyone knew how I would go about transfering my stocks and money from the td to the tradeking?? Is it possible to keep the stocks I have at the price that I bought them or do I have to sell everything and then take the money out to open the new account? Do you know what the fees associated with closing the Td Ameritrade accounts are? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Once you open a tradeking account (remember to use the appropriate link to get the free $50), you can fill out a form within the tradeking platform to have them request TD Ameritrade to transfer the assets over. You do not have to sell your shares. You may want to talk to a TK rep to see what the cost basis will be recorded at the beginning, but as long as you have that info with you handy, I’m sure the reps can help you adjust it back to what it should be.
The fees are entirely at the TD Ameritrade side (some charge transfer fees, while others charge account closure fees), but TK will reimburse you for the transfer fees up to $150 so it’s essentially free.
Hi, Thank you very much for the quick response. I’m happy to know that it isn’t too painful of a process and that I can keep my existing shares. You seem to know trading better than me so I’ll run by you the reason I’m thinking of switching over to TK. Mainly I have had an Ameritrad account for 7 years and only traded once or twice a year. Recently one of the stocks I bought tripled and now I have a little more money to play around with so I was looking to start trading a little more. (Maybe about 5 trades a week) However, I still don’t have that much money to be enduring the 10$ commision fee that TD Amer. takes with every trade, so I was looking at TK because of it’s low 4.95. Does this seem like a reasonalbe thing to be doing? Or should I just stick with the Td Ameritrade account? If you don’t mind answering I would really appreciate any adivice you have to give!
Just be careful. You can lose a whole lot of money trading regardless of which stock broker you use.
I like TradeKing better than TD Ameritrade period. I would say this even if TK is $10 a trade and Ameritrade is $5 (this is how much I like them more). Obviously, the more frequently you trade, the more the commission differences add up so yes, you are doing something reasonable. However, you may want to open a TK account, and then play around with the interface and make sure you are comfortable with everything before moving all your assets over. This way, there’s still a chance to “undo” without much trouble.
Thanks again for the quick response and good advice. It definitely makes sense to make an account and get to learn everything before I transfer all my assets. Thanks also for the warning with trading. I know that a lot of people lose a lot of money that they can’t afford to lose, but I definitely only use money that I can live without. I’m happy you’re so willing to take the time to help people out like me and am feeling more confident about TK after hearing from someone who likes it. If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of trading do you mostly do with TK? (Active trading, Buy and Hold, etc.)
It seems like there are negative comments towards TK’s workings on another review I read, but after looking at your posts on this site it makes TK seem perfectly fine. Maybe everyone was trying to do a different type of trading and TK wasn’t good for it??
Say I found a stock for around 10$ a share and bought about 200 shares worth and wanted to hold for 3-4 days or more, but maybe even 1 day if it went up a profitable percentage. Would TK allow me to sell that stock the next day without any problems and still only charge the 9.90.. 4.95 for both buy and sell (is that right)? Also are you allowed with TK to set “automatic-stops” on your orders? Something where if that stock started dropping from 10$ I could set it to automatically sell if it fell down to 8$ even if it kept dropping to 6$? I hope that makes sense!
I have done this with the Ameritrade account and it works great, it’s just rough being that they take 20$ for every turn-around, (especially where I’m not playing with much money). I get regular tips on companies to look at that more than not go up within a few weeks and wanted to play around with it a little more. Recently I’ve been able to make about 100$ after a few days or a week with how I’ve been buying and selling, (not counting the 20$ hit from commisions) I just don’t want to run into a headache of problems for the chance of lower commision rates, but would love it if out of that 100$ gain I could see 90$ in profit vs. 80$ which has got me looking at TK.
As long as you don’t go into penny stocks territory, TK is fine.
You can buy and sell stocks on the same day as long as you have enough cash to settle the trade (remember it takes 3 business days for each stock to settle). This is the same with every broker. If you have a margin account, there’s more wiggle room.
You can also put in trailing stops and stop limit orders like you do with TD Ameritrade.
Your first time jitters is more reason to use a little bit of money to try tradeking before you transfer everything over. Once you are really comfortable, then move your assets over.
Thank you very much. I truly appreciate the help and your time. I like to take some risk but not quite into the penny stock territory yet… I think that I will open a TK account and only put a little in at first like you said. It makes sense. You’re the man. Hope all is well and happy/profitable trading!
You are welcome and good luck with TradeKing. The $50 promotions they are running should help get you started and also to start trying out their system.
Be careful with the stock recommendations because following stock tips is another easy way to lose big.
I like your comprehensive review of Tradeking, but have 2 questions.
1)Are the account balances in real time?
2) Any problem with withdrawls? Thanks.
1) Yes, the account balance is in real time.
2) I’ve had no problems with withdrawing money, but I have never taken my whole account balance out (and don’t plan to) either so I can’t say I’ve fully tested every possibility of how anyone can withdraw money.
Another point about withdrawals. You cannot withdraw money tied up in a trade that’s still under settlement obviously, which people often forget. This is the same with every broker though so there shouldn’t be a problem.
Also, I’d say that if any broker gives problems about withdraw money, they will have no more business as almost every customer needs to withdraw.
TradeKing was the first discount broker I used, and I traded with them for over 2 years, but I abandoned ship this year and went to a much faster, less expensive broker. You might find it odd that I’m calling TradeKing’s commissions expensive, but compared to the broker I switched to, they are.
If you’re new to trading, a buy-and-hold investor, or a very casual trader who opens and closes positions only a few times a month, then TradeKing is not so bad. They do have a decent collection of trading tools (mostly for options traders) as well as some helpful research and analysis sections on their site. But majority of these tools and information is accessible elsewhere on the web for free anyway. There’s also a discussion forum on their site, but majority of the discussion on their boards was never too useful in my opinion. The status of your orders and daily trading activity is listed on their main page, along with your positions. It’s fairly basic and simple…pretty good for retail and novice investors who casually trade.
On the other hand, for those of you who trade frequently and are active traders throughout each week like me, TradeKing’s platform is terrible in my opinion. Every vital trading screen is laid out on separate web pages. You really have to open up multiple web pages from TradeKing’s site at the same time if you’re planning on trying to make quick moves. To make a trade, you have to wait for a web page to load, fill out the fields, and then submit the trade. You can keep clicking on a refresh button on the bottom of the order page to see a realtime bid and ask of the security you’re trading, but that’s about it. Then once the trade is placed, you have to wait for another page to load to see confirmation. Then you have to either go to an orders screen, or back to the main page to check on the status of your order. It’s all on separate pages and becomes very annoying at times…instead of all being in one spot. But the fun doesn’t stop there. In the event that you want to cancel or edit a trade, there’s no quick 1-2-3 method for doing so from any particular page either. You have to go to your order, and then wait for another web page to load and then make your changes. Their web-based charts are mediocre as well…you’re better off using Google’s charts in my opinion.
While it’s true that we live in the broadband era where loading pages takes mere seconds, but when you’re caught in the heat of the moment, the ability to edit and/or cancel your trades on TradeKing’s web based platform is far slower compared to other web based platforms from other brokers. And this has cost me money before…more than once. I know it’s unfair to compare a web based platform to a streaming java based platform, but there are other brokers out there who also use web based platforms too, and they are far more efficient than what you get with TradeKing.
Speaking of streaming platforms, TradeKing does actually offer one for real time quotes, but you have to make 25 or more trades or more per month or they don’t allow you to access it. That’s pretty disappointing when real time quotes are basically free these days. But the thing that is truly disappointing about their streaming platform is that TradeKing doesn’t let you make trades straight off of the platform since it’s provided by a third party. This means that while you can use the streaming platform for getting real time information, when you click buy or sell from the streaming platform, you are sent back TradeKing’s web site for making the actual trades. Again, for a lot of traders, this isn’t a big deal. But after 2 years of trading on TradeKing, it did become a big deal for me. I wasted a lot of time waiting for cancels and edits to go through while trying to catch the best price on positions I was trying to enter and exit, and missed them several times. In fact, the final trade I made with TradeKing that caused me to give up on the broker, was one where I was trying to get myself into an options position right before the stock exploded at open, but since there was no way to quickly edit the quantity of contracts and price, I ended up getting into the trade at a significantly higher price than I could have, and only ended up making 30% on that trade instead of double my money. That was the last straw for me. I don’t know…maybe it’s just because of the way my trading style evolved during this recession, but I completely gave up on not having a quick 1-2-3 trading platform.
One last thing. I believe the reason why most people switch or use TradeKing is because of their low price commissions. This was initially the reason why I chose them. The $4.95 they charge for each stock trade is not bad, and neither is .65 cent per contract for options trading. That may sound pretty inexpensive, but the broker I moved to charges $2.95 for stock trades and a FLAT RATE of $9.95 for options trades, regardless of the number of contracts you buy or sell, which is a lot better than TradeKing’s .65 per contract rate, especially when you trade a large quantity of option contracts like I do.
If you’re really looking for the lowest commissions, Optionshouse beats TradeKing hands down, and their web based platform is much faster and more responsive. Trademonster is also a cheaper broker for options contracts, as they only charge .50 per contract, and their web platform streams every piece of information on the screen in real time as well.
Yes, I can see why tradeking wouldn’t be for everyone. I just opened an account based on positive reviews, but after funding it I got this email:
“Customers are considered as engaging in Pattern Day Trading if they execute four (4) or more stock or options day trades within a five day period in a margin account. That is buying and selling (opening and closing) a position in the same business day.
TRADEKING DOES NOT PROMOTE DAY TRADING. If a customer engages in day trading, the following rules apply.”
Then it goes on to say that if you get this dreaded designation, you can’t trade without $25,000 in your account.
Now, I don’t know that I would actually make that many day trades, but it’s possible, and I had no idea that limitation existed. My guess is that a frequent trader might want to check out another service.
Actually, I believe the four or more stock trades rule is universal because other stock brokers enforce this as well. TradeKing is the only one that actually sends you an email ahead of time warning you though so I would actually give them credit in this case.
The Tradeking free $50 promo was good. Now it’s time to look into the stock broker. I expect great things!
Hi Guys,
Could anyone please send me an invitation to get some free money?
This comment has been edited.
I believe the current promo gives $100 to the person who refers clients, but not the person who signs up. As such, I have not really talked about the current promotion and have edited the above comment because the offer is obviously not what the original poster wanted.
I’m not especially happy with Tradeking after using them for a year. Almost all of my trades involve options. I seem to get much better execution on options trades from Schwab, and Tradeking’s quotes are always delayed, so I can’t set really accurate limit prices on orders. A lot of times I’ll lob in a low-ball and let it sit on the floor for a while, then adjust from there. Very time-consuming. One thing I will say for TK, they don’t try to be the options police. Schwab won’t approve my wife to trade spreads even after a year of options trading, and there’s no margin involved. I guess the 22-yo kid who approves that knows best
.