TD Ameritrade is a solid choice for individual investors trading account. They recently reduced their transaction fees from $9.95 per trade to $6.95 per trade. I am biased as I use them and have no problem recommending them for a long term investor relationship. 2017-TD Ameritrade Named Best for Novices and Best for Long-term Investing TD Ameritrade was named the Best Online Broker for Novices for the 6th consecutive year and the Best for Long-term Investing for the 5th consecutive year in Barron’s 2017 Online Broker Survey. The company also received the highest individual firm point total in the “Usability” category. The company was also rated one of the top three in the following categories: “Trading Experience & Technology”, “Mobile”, “Range of Offerings”, “Portfolio Analysis & Reports”, and “Customer Service, Education and Security”. TD Ameritrade currently offers several platforms that can be used on their own or in combination. 1. The stand alone platform for desktops is Think or Swim 2. Trade Architect is a stand alone application that runs within a browser and is customizable 3. Web platform is a standard browser interface 4. TD Ameritrade mobile app runs in conjunction with web based 5. Think or Swim mobile runs in conjunction with Think or Swim Screen shot of customized chart in Think or Swim Screen shot of Trade Architect Screen Shot of Web Platform (Education section)
News of note to add to this is that TD Ameritrade has always had a nice basic training material for free on the website and then offered a premium education service known as Investools (A company they acquired around 2009 and got Think or Swim platform with that merger with Investools). Well, as of Oct 1st of this year, Investools is being fully merged with TD Ameritrade and their services are going to be free to all TD Ameritrade customers. I'm not sure exactly what format that will look like when the merger is complete but I'll add to this thread as I learn more.
It's also worth noting that you can paper trade in the ThinkOrSwim software which is good practice for newbies just getting into trading, and will get you familiar with running actual trading software.
TDA is great.. use it and love it Plus, i just found out today i can watch CNBC live from my phone all day at work!..... that trader TV thing on the mobile app......... its the little things in life My only complaint is that they dont offer automatic deposits... so i have to write them a check every pay day....... i know, minor inconvenience.... but for someone like me who cant even remember to take the trash out every Wednsday, the check thing is annoying
I deposit ACH, and it always gives me the option of frequency. My main compliant is trading is the app. If you try to purchase additional shares of a stock already in your portfolio it will give an error message, something to the effect of having oversold / overbought position. I then have to go the website to make the purchase. I reported it many months ago, no change.
Hmmm Id like one directly from my bank account... but if my employer can do this, i guess its all the same Ill check it out, thanks T
I like TD Ameritrade also, however, it's getting to the point where I'm going to stop using them. They charge me right now $1.25 per options contract traded, that's both ways (Unless it's less than 5 cents, which rarely happens). On the other hand, Tasty Works charges $1.00 per option contract and they charge nothing for closing the position no matter how much you close it for. This may not seem like much, but this adds up to quite a bit over time. Right now, I can't really use Tasty Works. The app they have for my phone is barely functional. But I do use their trading application on my PC when I'm home (Rare) and it's getting better and better. I think TD Ameritrades days are numbered unless they lower their fees.
You need to call them if this is so because their option contracts are 75 cents per contract. Also, they just lowered their fees to 6.95 for stock trades and are in the process of completing their purchase of Scott Trade. I think they have a handle on what they are doing and how to remain one of the best online brokers around. So "days are numbered"???
When did they drop their prices to .75 per options contract? I only just bargained my price down from 1.50 to 1.25 less than a month ago.
Nevermind, I see the problem. I don't pay the $6.95. I just pay the flat fee of 1.25 per contract. So If I buy or sell 1 contract, it's a total of $1.25, not $6.95 plus $1.25. Whereas tastyworks is a flat fee of $1.00 for opening options trades and zero for closing options trades.
Ameritrade's Trade Architect gets my vote for a sophisticated, web-based tool. I travel a lot with a lightweight Chromebook, and desktop apps won't work for me. I have found over the years I get really good executions on Ameritrade, especially in updating my price requests between bid-ask spreads on options contracts. Another decent web-based trader is on Ally.com, who bought out TradeKing.
I use a Chromebook myself as well (Acer C740). The load time to log into Trade Architect always bothered me. For me at least, it loads a useless demo version (which takes 15-20 seconds) and then after I log in, it takes 15-20 more seconds to load the actual web-based platform. It got to the point where I would only use my TD Ameritrade account to load text alerts to my phone if price encroached on key areas and even that became a bother. Nowadays I find myself using the ThinkOrSwim/TD Ameritrade mobile app more than the website. I have a backup desktop for running the ThinkOrSwim desktop app (so that I can screen stock), but I do all of my actual buying/selling with e*Trade and all of my charting via TradingView. IMO TD Ameritrade was an industry leader when it came to ThinkOrSwim 5-7 years ago but I feel like they are having trouble keeping up with the transition to seamless web-based apps, especially looking at some of the BitCoin web-based platforms. TD Ameritrade's desktop and mobile apps are still great overall though.
My Chromebook is about 3 years old but luckily was eligible for Google Play Store. I received the upgrade about 1-2 months ago but today it just clicked that I can use the ThinkOrSwim mobile app on my computer. I am digging the platform so far. If your Chromebook has this capability and you haven't tried it, give it a shot sometime soon!
You guys that use TD Ameritrade/Think or Swim probably know by now, but for those who don't, TD announced, effective yesterday I believe, zero commissions on stocks, ETFs, and options. Sure the Robin Hoods and such have been out there but TD is mainstream. This is probably the biggest thing since the advent of on-line trading and discount brokers. I just have to wonder what it is going to do to volatility. Generally volatility is what a trader wants but it might change the swing and position trading game and drive the buy-and-holders crazy.
Yeah, zero commissions on options too. IBKR Lite did not have that, when their initial announcement came out; but now they may have to catch up. I was wondering if retail traders are more likely to short? Are they more likely to trade 3x-leverage ETNs like UVXY and JNUG?
