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CloseIs TradeStation the Most Comprehensive Broker Available?
Investing has changed dramatically over the last few years. Zero-commission stock trades, cryptocurrency trading, and no account minimums are some of the things young investors not only expect, but demand in today’s trading environment.
As an early pioneer of online trading services, TradeStation emerged in the early 1980s with a primary focus on high-net-worth active traders. But now, TradeStation is ready for the new wave of investors and has made several significant changes to reflect its commitment.
The brokerage provides a comprehensive yet flexible trading and investing experience. It has something for everyone with highly-competitive pricing. Additionally, TradeStation provides users with access to powerful trading and research tools that were previously only available to high-net-worth active traders.
TradeStation’s Recent Changes
Some of the recent changes include introducing commission-free trades and no minimum account funding requirements, teaming up with one of the most popular trading analysis software providers, TradingView, and enabling crypto trading on its platforms via TradeStation Crypto (TSCrypto).
While these are some highly positive steps for the average retail investor, many traditional brokers have taken similar steps.
So, we decided to examine how TradeStation is different from its competitors to see if it’s the most comprehensive traditional broker available today.
A Wide Range of Trading Products
TradeStation allows you to trade a wide range of assets on its mobile, desktop, and web platforms. The investment offering via TradeStation include:
- Stocks, including penny stocks
- ETFs
- IPOs
- Options
- Simple and multi-leg Options (up to four legs)
- Futures
- Futures Options (via FuturesPlus)
- Cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, USDC, BCH, LTC via TSCrypto).
- Mutual Funds
- Bonds (corporate, Treasury, CDs, municipal)
Users can also access international futures exchanges like Eurex and ICE Europe. Furthermore, TradeStation offers two integrated web platforms—Futures Plus and TradeStation Crypto for trading futures and crypto, respectively.
Professional Features
There’s no shortage of options for order types, with conditional orders, bracket orders, and trailing orders supported, among several others. TradeStation also uses a proprietary routing technology that ensures all the orders are executed on time and at the best price.
For those who want to go deeper into the rabbit hole, there is EasyLanguage—a programming language built by TradeStation that you can use to automate and backtest your trading strategies and ideas.
For retail investors and traders who are used to free trading platforms with basic features, there will be a number of advanced tooling available. And with both web trading and a mobile app—TradeStation has you covered, with an emphasis on usability through intuitive user interfaces.
Competitive Pricing
TradeStation has two pricing plans called TS SELECT and TS GO. Users can enjoy no-commission trading for stocks, ETFs, options, and futures on both. Both plans also allow users to use all TradeStation platforms (desktop, web, and mobile).
However, there are some differences between the two plans:
- TS SELECT has a minimum deposit requirement of $2,000, while TS GO has no minimum.
- The fees for stock options and futures vary for the two. For stock options, TS SELECT charges $0 commission + $0.60 per contract while TS GO charges $0 commission + $0.50 per contract. For Futures, the charges are $0 commission + $1.50 per contract per side for TS Select and $0 commission + $0.85 per contract per side for TS GO.
- TS GO users will incur a surcharge ($10 for equity and options, $1.40 per contract for futures) if they use the TradeStation Desktop platform. These charges will only apply to the desktop platform and not the web or mobile platform.
TradeStation Crypto (TSCrypto)
TSCrypto is TradeStation’s crypto trading platform. Compared to a cryptocurrency exchange like Coinbase, TSCrypto naturally has fewer supported cryptocurrencies. However, it is still impressive for a traditional online broker, and there can be some benefits for seasoned crypto investors.
One of the major benefits is that TradeStation is a traditional online broker with an excellent reputation built over decades. So if you’re looking for access to cryptocurrency through a brokerage with a serious reputation, TSCrypto is right up there.
Currently, it supports BTC, ETH, USDC, BCH, LTC, and a few spot markets for trading. However, you still have the trading tools TradeStation is known for, which can be very useful for spotting market trends and coming up with strategies.
On the other hand, if you’re a wall street wolf who’s looking to get into crypto, TradeStation can be a familiar place to get started. It also features tons of educational content on cryptocurrency to help you get up to speed.
Powerful Research And Trading Tools
Research and trading tools are one of the biggest reasons why many traders use TradeStation. Here’s a summary of the features users can expect:
- Screeners for stocks, ETFs, options, mutual funds, and fixed income trading. The stock and ETF screeners and the options screeners are particularly impressive.
- All platforms support sophisticated charting tools with real-time data streams. Furthermore, the charts are completely customizable. Chart types like bar, candlestick, Kase, line, line break, Renko, and more are available for many timeframes/data intervals. Similarly, a compelling assortment of technical indicators is available too.
- Professional active trader tools like Market Depth, ticker bars, and Time & Sales.
- Customizable new feeds on all platforms.
- Third-party tools and research are available through the TradingApp Store.
- TradeStation 10—a desktop trading platform designed to be used by professional and active traders with cutting-edge features.
Conclusion
As stock and options trading has becoming increasingly accessible—and increasingly popular—among younger generations, stock brokers have likewise become very competitive. Is TradeStation the most comprehensive traditional broker available today? Do you think that their crypto offering will help the broker outpace its competition? Let us know in the comments below.
Interested in learning more? Get Started with TradeStation:
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