TradeKing

[Kim 7,943]

I'm starting this topic to discuss TradeKing. I will move all TradeKing related messages from the Brokers discussion here. the reason is that I'm trying to negotiate a special discounted rate for SO members.

So:

1. For TradeKing members - what is your overall experience?

2. What would you consider a good rate? How much are you paying now?

[xpresstalk 3]

Ok, here is my "2 cents" for what it's worth! I was strongly looking at TradeKing because I didn't want to commit the 10k to open a IB account. I do a lot of mobile trading so I inquired about their mobile platform which is not that good! But, I noticed that they were merging with Zecco. Zecco and TradeKing have a near identicial commission structure. So, my review here is more on Zecco, even though after the completion of the merger they will ALL operate as TradeKing and will take the best of both worlds. The Positive: Zecco has the best mobile trading app I have ever seen! You can enter a Iron Condor as a strategy in a fraction of the time it takes others to put together such a trade. I was used to OptionsXpress' flat fee pricing of $11.95 per strategy, up to 10 Contracts. So a 5 Contract Straddle for an example cost me $11.95. I thought the $4.95 was a great bargain compared to OX. I didn't pay much attention to the fact that their pricing is $4.95 per leg plus $0.65 per Contract. (Same as TradeKing). So that 5 contract example I just gave cost $15.10. And of course another $15.10 to get out. I completed the last calendar trade, plus a few other earnings trades then moved all my funds out of Zecco. I did give them a rather lengthy explination as to why I left. Not to mention they sent me a letter for a $225,000 margin call on one of the Google RICs we played. I won't go into detail as I did post about this when it happened. As for pricing, I would move over if pricing could be close to what we get at IB, might pay a little more, just for the service and mobile platform. If you need help or need me to send a specific complaint, I will, if you think a current customer will help improve our odds of getting a better commissino rate?

[MichaelJ8 0]

I use trade king. Its much better than options house, not sure if that means much, but options house execution of orders was absolutely terrible. So far at tradeking, my orders are filled relatively well. C omissions aren't bad either. For example, I am doing a glw spread and my average price per contract was 78 cents. So for high volume trades the commissions are good. Obviously not as good for less contract trades, it can be expensive, but once you hit about 8 + contracts (1.26 per contract) it starts be more reasonable.

I enjoy the site, its easy to navigate and trade king live gives decent streaming info. They have good tools, but I haven't explored most of them yet.

Customer service is good. They have live chat via IM and they respond pretty quickly.

The other day they had a glitch in their system, I'm going to let it slide, but It better not happen again.

mobile platform lacks, but is suppose to be getting a nice upgrade this year when the merger with zecco is finished.

So far, its been amazing compared to options house. It is not perfect though, but I am satisfied as for now. I have used other sites such as options house, ING, etrade, schawb. So far trade king has been the best out of these when considering fee's and tools, and overall service.

to express talk: you say a 5 contract trade cost you 15.10. this makes no sense, its 5*-0.65 + 4.95 = 8.2. this is 1.64 per contract. Not the best I know, but still almost half what you claim. Not sure how you got 15.10. EDIT: i see you say 4.95 per leg, not sure if this is what zecco does, but for trade king its 4.95 for the trade which includes all legs. So, on trade king your not paying 4.95 more than once.

Edited July 31, 2012 by MichaelJ8

[xpresstalk 3]

I use trade king. Its much better than options house, not sure if that means much, but options house execution of orders was absolutely terrible. So far at tradeking, my orders are filled relatively well. C omissions aren't bad either. For example, I am doing a glw spread and my average price per contract was 78 cents. So for high volume trades the commissions are good. Obviously not as good for less contract trades, it can be expensive, but once you hit about 8 + contracts (1.26 per contract) it starts be more reasonable.

I enjoy the site, its easy to navigate and trade king live gives decent streaming info. They have good tools, but I haven't explored most of them yet.

Customer service is good. They have live chat via IM and they respond pretty quickly.

The other day they had a glitch in their system, I'm going to let it slide, but It better not happen again.

mobile platform lacks, but is suppose to be getting a nice upgrade this year when the merger with zecco is finished.

So far, its been amazing compared to options house. It is not perfect though, but I am satisfied as for now. I have used other sites such as options house, ING, etrade, schawb. So far trade king has been the best out of these when considering fee's and tools, and overall service.

to express talk: you say a 5 contract trade cost you 15.10. this makes no sense, its 5*-0.65 + 4.95 = 8.2. this is 1.64 per contract. Not the best I know, but still almost half what you claim. Not sure how you got 15.10. EDIT: i see you say 4.95 per leg, not sure if this is what zecco does, but for trade king its 4.95 for the trade which includes all legs. So, on trade king your not paying 4.95 more than once.

Oh course this was with Zecco and the way I read the commission structure is their identical. I should clarify: For a 5 Contract Straddle. They were charging me $4.95 per leg of the trade. So $4.95 x 2 = $9.90. Then .65 x 4 = $2.60, but that is for one leg. So, $2.60 x 2 = $5.20. So, $5.20 + $9.90 = $15.10. I traded with them for about a month and these were always the charges. I told them repeatedly that $4.95 should just be the entry for the strategy and not the leg. They pretty much ignored me. I played with how I entered trades as well. Still the same results. Usually I would use their "pre-filled" strategy section! Always the same result. So, is TradeKing different than this?

You will be pleased with the mobile platform! I have now opened a IB account and seems that their mobile platform will only allow 1 leg at a time trades. If I could take Zecco's mobile app with IB pricing and OptionXpress's customer service, life would be great!

[MichaelJ8 0]

yes, tradeking is 4.95 per trade. This post is about tradeking, not zecco. From what I understand, tradekings pricing will not change after the merge.

Edited July 31, 2012 by MichaelJ8

[Guest listolyman]

Oh course this was with Zecco and the way I read the commission structure is their identical. I should clarify: For a 5 Contract Straddle. They were charging me $4.95 per leg of the trade. So $4.95 x 2 = $9.90. Then .65 x 4 = $2.60, but that is for one leg. So, $2.60 x 2 = $5.20. So, $5.20 + $9.90 = $15.10. I traded with them for about a month and these were always the charges. I told them repeatedly that $4.95 should just be the entry for the strategy and not the leg. They pretty much ignored me. I played with how I entered trades as well. Still the same results. Usually I would use their "pre-filled" strategy section! Always the same result. So, is TradeKing different than this?

You will be pleased with the mobile platform! I have now opened a IB account and seems that their mobile platform will only allow 1 leg at a time trades. If I could take Zecco's mobile app with IB pricing and OptionXpress's customer service, life would be great!

Expresstalk, The mobile platform will execute multiple legs. here are the steps

1- Enter the stock ticker in the "Quote, charts, tradings" section

2- click on the stock in the list and more info will be displayed below

3- Click on the "more" bar on the right hand side

4- Click on "options" on the next screen

5- Click on " combo builder" in the upper right corner of the next screen

6- then select the legs (2 or 4) and then click done.

7- The structure will remain in the "quote, charts, tradings section for buying, selling or closing the trade.

Note: these are iphone 4 instructions. ymmv on a different platform.

[xpresstalk 3]

Expresstalk, The mobile platform will execute multiple legs. here are the steps

1- Enter the stock ticker in the "Quote, charts, tradings" section

2- click on the stock in the list and more info will be displayed below

3- Click on the "more" bar on the right hand side

4- Click on "options" on the next screen

5- Click on " combo builder" in the upper right corner of the next screen

6- then select the legs (2 or 4) and then click done.

7- The structure will remain in the "quote, charts, tradings section for buying, selling or closing the trade.

Note: these are iphone 4 instructions. ymmv on a different platform.

Thanks for this! I tried with no luck. Called support and they said only Apple products can trade multi-legged spreads. They said might be on the next update.

Edited August 1, 2012 by xpresstalk