If you’re looking to get into the investing world, or if you’re a seasoned veteran looking for another way to diversify your portfolio, you’ve probably heard of TradeKing.
TradeKing is one of the most popular online brokers on the market, and they can be a great option for beginners or pros.
Investing your money wisely is one of the most important things that you can do for your retirement accounts and your loved ones, but unless you’re a financial advisor, you may not have the time to research for hours, or you may not even understand all of the different components of investing your extra income.
History of TradeKing
The company was launched at the end of December 2005, and they had one goal when they began, and that was to provide low-cost commissions and quality service, and offer investors a play to go to every day to share ideas, and discuss the investment marketplace.
Several years later, in 2013, the company merged with Zecco and acquired MB Trading 2015. While they have changed over the past decade their commitment to the customer hasn’t.
They are becoming one of the most highly valued discount online brokerages available, but they aren’t the best option available. There are several different factors that you’ll need to account for when you’re looking to invest your hard earned money.
How TradeKing Works
One of the biggest advantages to TradeKing is how affordable the trades are, especially when compared to other services. There are very few sites that you’ll find that are cheaper per trade. When trading stocks and ETFs, you’ll only pay $4.95 per trade.
Thanks to the Internet, investing in stocks is completely different than it was just several years ago. With websites like TradeKing, it’s never been easier to invest your money with a few simple mouse clicks.
If you’re new to online investing, you could have several questions about the whole process, luckily, it’s much easier than most people think.
Getting started is incredibly easy. All you have to do is create a TradeKing account, which requires basic personal information and financial information.
At that point, you can create an account and start your investing portfolio. It most cases you can have your account created in less than an hour.
TradeKing allows you to pick between six different IRA investments, obviously including both the traditional IRA and the Roth IRA. If you are unsure of which type of account will fit your needs, you can look at different comparisons and have the benefits outlined for you.
The website doesn’t force you to do all of your investing with no assistance. They give you a variety of different tools for you to use to make the best decisions for your money.
They have charting tools, calculators, and a platform for traders to gain insight from other TradeKing users. When compared to other discount online brokerages, their tools are well above average and should be utilized if you want to make the most of your investments.
The Advantages of TradeKing
One significant pro that you should take note of is that TradeKing doesn’t have any account minimum that you have to hold to use their services.
You can have as little money in the account as you like, but there is a chance that you could be subject to their inactive fee (more on that in the disadvantages section).
One area that TradeKing shines is in their customer service department. TradeKing has worked to make the customers the priority of their business and make sure that they are getting the best overall experience possible.
The company gives you three different ways to contact one of their customer service professionals, either through phone, email, or live chat. All of the avenues have proved to be an efficient way of getting any assistance that you need.
From all of the reviews on TradeKing, you’ll see that their representatives are polite and knowledgeable about all of the different aspects of the website and about any technical questions that you may have.
Even if you aren’t the most technically savvy, you won’t have any problems navigating their site. TradeKing is one of easiest sites with a simple interface to use.
They label everything clearly and make it easy to switch between tools and screen to get the most out of your investing account. Unlike some other services, you aren’t going to be bogged down by all of the extra bells and whistles that serve no purpose other than to get in your way.
One of the most notable tools that you should be aware of is the TradeKing Advisor Program, which is one of the newer features that they have implemented on the website.
This is one of the nicest advantages to TradeKing that you aren’t going to find at many other brokerages, especially for an affordable price. With the advisor program, trained professionals based on your goals and risk preferences will manage your portfolio.
This is a great option for anyone that doesn’t want to be as hands-on with their investments but still wants to get reasonable growth from their money.
Starting their advisor program is simple. They will ask you a series of questions to see what your investment risk preference is, as well as what your goals are.
They have five different portfolio choice that ranges on the conservative to aggressive spectrum. Inside of those, they have seventeen different investment classes, domestic and foreign securities, real estate, equities, and much more.
The Disadvantages of TradeKing
There are some pitfalls to TradeKing that you should be aware of before you start using their services. The first is that there is an inactivity fee that you could run into.
Fortunately, it’s easy to avoid this fee. TradeKing will charge you $50 for their inactivity fee, which can be avoided if you complete at least one commissioned trade every year and have at least $2,500 in your account.
Another disadvantage to TradeKing is for anyone that is looking to invest in anything other than stocks. Unlike other online brokers, TradeKing doesn’t give you options for commission-free ETFs or any transaction-fee-free mutual funds.
While this isn’t a significant pitfall, these two options are great for anyone that is looking to make the most out of their money.
TradeKing Promotional Offers
On top of all the other benefits of using TradeKing, you can also take advantage of some of their promotional offers that they have for new users who are looking to sign up. Each of their offers change from time to time, but they always have incentives to entice new users to join the brokerage.
The majority of the offers revolve around getting free trade commissions when you open up a new account. You can get $100 in trade commissions if you deposit $1.
They have larger offers that have larger minimum deposits, but they all offer similar rewards. These are a great way to cut down on the fees that you pay when trading, which maximizes your return on your investments.
They also have offers that allow you to get transfer fees reimbursed depending on your account. You can get up to $150 in transfer fees reimbursed as long as you complete an account transfer of $2,5000 or more.
If you’re going to be creating an account anyways, you might as well take advantage of some of their offers to maximize your profits. To take advantage of the offers, all you have to do is enter the corresponding promo codes.
Is TradeKing Right for you?
While there are a lot of high-points about TradeKing, the discount brokerage isn’t for everyone. If you’re wondering if the service is right for you, there are several categories that you may fall into that make the website perfect for you.
Are you an active trader or a trader that is looking to cut their fees? Because TradeKing does have an inactivity fee, you’ll want to make sure that you at least complete one trade, but outside of that fee, TradeKing is excellent for traders that want to be involved and make dozens of trades every month. Their tools make it easy to be more hands-on and be active inside of your investment portfolio.
If you already have an investment account with another brokerage, but you’re tired of having your return on investment eaten alive by all of the fees and commissions, then TradeKing is one of the best choices for you.
TradeKing is also a great option for anyone that is looking to start investing, and they already have a basic idea of the investing world and all of the related terms. If you’re completely in the dark about investing, you may struggle to use TradeKing.
Even if you don’t have any idea about investing, there will be a learning curve with TradeKing, but you should be able to grasp the concepts rather quickly.
Luckily, with their advisor program, the website is great for investors that are looking to be involved in their portfolio, and for investors that would rather prop their feet up and watch their money grow. Either way, they have the tools to help you make educated decisions.
Everyone is different, which means that everyone has different preferences and needs when they are looking to invest. There is no “one size fits all” brokerage that will work for every investor. It’s important that you find the one that fits your needs the best.
Trade King Alternatives
With Trade King now a part of Ally, some alternative include:
Public – Public is one of the newest brokerage apps to come to market. Our Public App review gives all the details on their no-fee structure and fractional share investing.
Webull – Webull offers great tools for investing. In our Webull review we detail how the brokerage works and the investments you can make through their platform.
WealthSimple – WealthSimple is a robo-advisor that helps people manage their investing. Our Wealthsimple review will help you understand how they can make your investing as hands-off as possible.
Trade King Review Final Thoughts
Investing is an important part of everyone’s budget, but getting the process started can be a scary and frustrating process. Luckily, there are dozens of websites like TradeKing that can make the new adventure as simple as possible.
Because there is no account minimum and no start up fees, you can always give them a shot, and if you decide that you don’t like the brokerage, you can move on to the next one. Nothing lost, other than the time it took you to set up the account.
Because investing for your retirement and future is such an important task, it’s vital that you work with a quality brokerage. It’s not something that should be left to chance. TradeKing is one of the brokerages that you can trust with your money.
A lot of people think that they have to have several thousand dollars set aside or hire a financial advisor to start investing your money, but these ideas couldn’t be further from the truth.
With all of the new online discount brokerages available to you, there is no excuse for waiting to start your investment portfolio. One of the most important factors to realize is that it’s better to start as soon as possible.
The earlier that you start, the more impact your investments are going to have in your future.
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