TradeStation Review
Overview
Headquartered in Plantation, Florida, TradeStation offers—through the company’s two subsidiaries TradeStation Securities and TradeStation Crypto—advanced electronic platforms to trade stocks, futures, options and cryptocurrencies.
In addition to brokerage services designed for traders, the company has an extensive knowledge base, offers access to retirement planning options like individual retirement arrangement (IRAs), and also provides investment opportunities in bonds, exchange traded funds, and initial public offerings through an IPO trading platform.
Fees
Like many other players in the online brokerage community, TradeStation Securities offers commission-free trading on stocks, ETFs, options and futures.
Increase Income with Our Stock Loan Program
Let your existing positions work harder for you. If we’re able to lend out your securities, you’ll receive a portion of the interest earned – and you can still close your positions at any time.
Open an AccountPros
- Commission-free trading on stocks, ETFs, options and futures
- No minimum deposit to open a TradeStation Securities account
- Allows users to backtest and automate strategies
- Extensive educational material for novice traders and invested
Cons
- Commission-free stock and ETF trades max out at 10,000 shares
- Limited investment research for individual stocks, mutual funds, bonds, or ETFs
- Long wait times for customer service
- Platform can be technical for novices
Stock options carry a fee of 60 cents per contract, which is among the lowest in the industry. Futures traders pay $1.50 per contract, per side while micro futures are priced at 50 cents per contract, per side. Futures options fees cost $1.50 per contract, per side. (see the pricing page of TradeStation.com for more information on pricing).
The commission-free stock and ETF trades in TradeStation Securities accounts max out at 10,000 shares per trade. High volume traders will pay a per share commission beyond that. Specifically, for each order that exceeds 10,000 shares, $0.005 per share is charged on the excess over 10,000.
Best For
Stretch Your Trading Dollar with Low Margin Rates
Our competitive margin rates – as low as 3.5% for equities accounts – put the full buying power of your account to work for you. And you can trade some of our most popular futures contracts overnight at intraday margin rates as low as 10%.
Open an AccountTradeStation is an excellent choice for day traders and quantitative types because of the firm’s expertise in developing trading software that allows users to backtest and automate strategies; TradeStation 10 is suitable for serious traders who can (and want to) allocate the time needed to design, test, and execute their own trading styles, systems, or approaches.
While less experienced traders and investors seeking to learn about trading can certainly benefit from the company’s extensive educational materials, the online broker falls short on investment research for individual stocks, mutual funds, bonds, or ETFs.
The real power of TradeStation lies in leveraging the capabilities of the TradeStation 10 desktop platform, which includes nearly 300 indicators and the ability to create custom watch lists and charts in a wide array of different colors. Traders can also set alerts on price levels or important events like earnings announcements.
If you’re not familiar with backtesting, the term refers to the process of looking at the price history of an investment to determine if any combination of chart patterns or indicators can help forecast future price moves, which can then be used to generate profits in the markets. TradeStation has a large database of historical data (40 years’ worth of stock prices) to help traders better understand how stock, options, and futures strategies fared in the past.
Once a backtest is complete, strategies can be implemented in a simulated trading account. Just like a flight simulator trains a pilot without risking people’s lives, a “sim” account is a handy way for traders to see the real-time results of their trading systems without risking real dollars. Portfolio Maestro is the analysis feature within TradeStation that helps to optimize trading strategies by highlighting what approaches are working and what strategies need adjusting.
After a profitable trading approach is identified and defined, the system can then be automated using TradeStation 10 desktop platform, so that trading signals from the backtested system automatically generate buying and selling in the TradeStation account.
In sum, the ability to backtest, live test (in a simulated trading environment), and automate strategies within one platform makes TradeStation 10 among the best solutions for serious-minded traders who want to create robust trading systems using hard data and advanced technology.
Unique Distribution
The TradeStation platform was built by traders, for traders. TradeStation 10 still includes EasyLanguage, which provides a way to backtest and run trading strategies without any coding or programming expertise; it allows traders to write programs and automate trading ideas. Any trader with a strategy concept or idea can build the system using EasyLanguage or hire third-party developers to do the work for them.
Futures traders will find TradeStation’s commissions among the lowest in the industry and the FuturesPlus platform is one of the best tools for trading futures and futures options. Available on desktop, web, or mobile, FuturesPlus includes options analytics like the greeks and implied volatility, real-time quotes, and the ability to execute both simple and complex options strategies.
Lastly, TradeStation’s mobile app is among the best in the business and includes advanced features for traders who want access to markets from tablets or smartphones. Charts include a variety of indicators that can be viewed across multiple timeframes. You can also create watch lists, check account balances, and trade futures or options from the TradeStation mobile app.