TradeStation Review 2024: Is it the best stock platform?

Is TradeStation Regulated and Safe to Trade With?

TradeStation is highly regulated in the US. Regulation is a requirement that many traders look for in a broker, as it assures the broker follows local laws and is unlikely to disappear with your deposit.

TradeStation is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFT), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and National Futures Association (NFA). These are the main governing bodies in the US, meaning this broker is legitimate.

While it may be legitimate, it has a bit of a customer satisfaction problem. The TradeStation TrustPilot rating is 1.5, with many people giving one-star reviews citing a plethora of issues: glitchy trading experience, problems depositing and withdrawing, money going missing, trades in limbo, hidden fees, and rude customer support.

It’s a reminder that “regulated” doesn’t necessarily mean “nice”.

TradeStation Fees and Account Types

TradeStation fees can also get a little complex to calculate, as there are different fees depending on your account type.

Here is the basic fee structure below. This is pretty straightforward, and these prices are only available to U.S residents. There are $0 commissions on stocks and ETFs, $0.6 per options contract, $1.5 per futures contract, $0.5 per micro futures contract, and $1.50 per futures options contract. There are no data feed fees for real-market data on stocks, crypto, futures, or options.

Crypto fees vary based on the amount traded, and is based on last month’s trading volume. At each level of trade volume, there are different “maker” and “taker” fees. Maker means you place a limit order which is waiting to be filled. Taker means you are removing liquidity from the market by transacting with someone else’s order.

If you are trading less than $1000 on TradeStation, there is a $2 flat fee plus 0.35% (maker) to 0.6% (taker). At $50,000 in trading volume, fees drop to 0.12% (maker) and 0.25% (taker). You need to trade $10,000,000 or more to get to 0.025% (maker) and 0.11% (taker).

For reference, Binance charges a maximum of 0.1% for crypto trades, and fees drop for increased volume after that.

TradeStation does offer other account types, and the fees vary. You can opt to not useTradeStation as a broker, and just use their trading platform for $149.95 per month. There is also an International Plan for traders outside the US. The main difference is the $5 commission on stock and stocks options trades.

There is also a Tiered Account, which reduces the futures trading cost the more you trade. If you trade stocks, ETFs, or options in small position sizes, you can pay a small commission on each instead of the $5 flat fee on the international plan (because the US standard plan has $0 commissions).

But there is a catch. You need to pay the $149.95 per month platform fee with the tiered plan unless you complete at least one of the following:

• 10 round turn (open and close position) futures or futures options trades per month
• or, trade 50 options contracts
• or, trade at least 5,000 shares
• or, have an account balance over $100,000

TradeStation Product Offerings

TradeStation offers a wide range of instruments, focused mainly on the US market.

TradeStation provides access to trade US stocks, ETFs, and options. You can also trade cryptocurrencies, as well as US futures and some European futures. US mutual funds and bonds are also available for purchase.

TradeStation Deposit and Withdrawal Methods

TradeStation offers a minimal number of deposit and withdrawal methods, but these methods are adequate for most traders.

TradeStation offers the followed deposit and withdrawal methods:

• Wire deposit/withdrawal ($25 fee for withdrawal)
• ACH deposit/withdrawal
• Check deposit/withdrawal
• Transfer an existing outside account to TradeStation (cash and positions)
• Transfer your TradeStation account to another broker (cash and positions, fee of $125)

It does not offer credit card deposit and withdrawals or payments through payment processors (such as PayPal or others).

TradeStation Trading Platform and App

TradeStation is known as one of the first premiere trading platforms available, which is why it costs $149/month (without an account). But is it still one of the best?

The TradeStation platform offers functionality in a wide range of tools for trading stocks, options, and futures. One thing to keep in mind is that TradeStation is a trading platform meant for traders who want control over their trading. While you can certainly place the odd trade with this platform, it is meant for active traders. TradeStation is available via:

• desktop platform
• webtrading
• mobile app

The mobile app has a 4 out of 5 rating on the Google Play Store and a 4.6 out of 5 rating on the Apple Store. One perk of the TradeStation platform is the wealth of historical data. If you like to study strategies or do backtesting, TradeStation is tough to beat.

They offer intraday stock data going back 28 years, intraday futures data going back 36 years, and intraday index data going back 35 years. They also offer a demo account so you can try it before signing up.

Here are some of the other key features TradeStation offers:

• RadarScreen – offers a real-time scanner, ranking up 1000 symbols using more than 180 fully customizable scanning criteria.
• EasyLanguage – allows you to create your own indicators and trading strategies.
• Back-Testing – allows you to run a simulation to see how your automated strategies perform on historical data.
• Matrix – offers market depth, order entry, and order tracking in a single view.
• OptionsStrategy Pro – offers highly visual options chains highlighting opportunities.

A reminder: for new traders, TradeStation may be overkill and hard to understand. More experienced traders may enjoy the features.

TradeStation Education and Support

In terms of educational material, TradeStation offers a wide range of materials to grow your knowledge about trading and the TradeStation Platform. As for support, however, a lot of traders have grievances.

The TradeStation Learn section of the website provides many articles, videos, and webinars on how to trade various products, and how to get the most out of the TradeStation platform. TradeStation also provides up-to-date market analysis on various futures contracts and the stock market.

However, many traders have complained that TradeStation customer support is not friendly and is slow to get anything fixed. Of course, individual experiences vary. The main ways to contact support are via live chat, phone, or email.

To contact a live representative using live chat, click the live chat button on the website between 8 am and 5 pm EST. To contact TradeStation by phone, click the “Call Me” button along the top of the website. They will call you back between 8am and 5 pm EST.

If you need help from a specific department, or with a certain product, the support hours may differ. Here are the phone numbers to use to contact a specific department: 800.822.0512 or 954.652.7900

You can email TradeStation support at [email protected]

TradeStation International

TradeStation does offer services to international clients outside the US via a separate website. However, the trading conditions are different.

TradeStation International (www.tradestation-international.com) doesn’t offer its own brokerage service. Rather, brokerage services are provided by Interactive Brokers and the trading Platform is provided by TradeStation.

Below are the commission costs for trading with TradeStation International. Depending on how you trade, it may simply be cheaper to trade with Interactive Brokers directly.

Cryptocurrency trading is not available on international accounts. Aside from these differences, most of the international information is similar to the US TradeStation information summarized in the rest of this article.

Final Thoughts on TradeStation

Overall, TradeStation is a good trading platform with competitive commission costs for the US market. It is highly regulated and the company has been around since 1982 (originally operating as Omega Research Inc.).

The one area it lags in is customer support. While support is available, many users complain about the customer support being rude or ineffective.

Beyond that, TradeStation is a solid broker and platform to consider for trading the US markets as well as some European futures. If you are an international trader, you may also want to check out brokers such as Exante or E*TRADE .

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