TradeStation Review

Active traders have a lot of options, but one of the best is TradeStation because of its advanced trading platform, high-quality market data, and lightning-fast trade executions. It is able to keep its trading systems operational even during periods of high trading activity. Even while TradeStation has been widely regarded as the gold standard among serious traders for a very long time, the company has made major efforts to make its offers more appealing to casual investors as well as rookie and intermediate-level traders who wish to enhance their skills. Despite these efforts, the high account fees, educational content gaps, and lack life planning tools are still areas where our newly created, retail-focused ratings model needs to see improvement.

Introduction

TradeStation has historically catered mostly to high-net-worth, experienced, and active traders; however, this has recently begun to shift. TradeStation’s client base has been trending younger recently as a result of the company’s decision to eliminate its minimum financing requirements and platform fees, as well as the introduction of cryptocurrency, the launch of You Can Trade, and integration with Trading View. The company has experienced an increase in new clients who have migrated to TradeStation because of its stability as a result of the growing demand for stable and trustworthy platforms among traders of all levels.

Customers of TradeStation have access to different devices and platforms that allow them to trade and invest in a variety of markets, including equities, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), cryptocurrencies, options, futures, mutual funds, bonds, and initial public offerings (IPOs), among others. Active and technical traders who seek extensive charting, testing, order input, and automation tools will find TradeStation to be an appropriate trading platform because of its robustness and the fact that it can be fully customized Trade is a community and education service that teaches investors and traders with less experience about the financial markets as well as how to utilize the TradeStation platform. In the meantime, investors and traders with less experience can make use of these resources. In order to assist you in determining whether or not TradeStation is the solution that best meets your requirements for investment, we will do a more in-depth investigation of the comprehensive range of services that it provides.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Professional-grade trading platform featuring lightning-fast and dependable order execution

• Competitive pricing

• User-friendly interfaces for trading as well as sophisticated order types

• Methods for the dynamic classification of symbols and scanning instruments

• Dynamic and realistic virtual trading environment

• Development of robust strategies and automation of processes

Cons

• A steep slope for learning

• The sophisticated user interface may feel overwhelming at first.

• Zero no-transaction-fee mutual funds

• The possibility of waiting a lengthy time for technical support

The Positives Exposed

• TradeStation is a professional trading platform that features great charting, technical analysis, order entry, the ability to design trading strategies, and trade automation technologies. Trades are executed quickly and reliably on the platform.

• The delivery of quality trade execution is also enabled by a mix of superior order routing technology, regular and rigorous reviews of speed, execution quality, and price improvement.

• Trades in stocks and ETFs don’t cost a commission on TradeStation, and the platform also offers reasonable prices for options, futures, futures options, and cryptocurrency transactions. TradeStation formerly provided services under the names TS SELECT and TS GO. TS SELECT accounts were required to have a minimum deposit of $2,000, while TS GO accounts required no deposit at all. TradeStation has now eliminated the TS SELECT minimum and discontinued TS GO.

• The trading interfaces available on TradeStation are user-friendly, and the platform supports advanced order types. Trading can be done with a single click or by dragging and dropping items, and there are a number of straightforward user interfaces available, such as Chart Trading, Matrix, Quick Trade, Trade Bar, and keyboard trading. Set profit objectives, conditional orders, and trailing stops across all trading platforms.

• Tools for dynamic symbol sorting and scanning are available through TradeStation. In real time, RadarScreen sorts a list of up to 1,000 pre-defined symbols according to user-defined criteria depending on the symbols in the list. The scanner app analyses hundreds of symbols (for example, all equities) using more than 180 different fundamental and technical indicators, in addition to user-defined research.

• TradeStation provides a robust platform for simulating the financial markets. You are able to put your trading ideas and tactics to the test, refine your trading skills, and execute demo trades while using real-time streaming market data. All of this can be done without having to risk actual money.

• Robust strategy formulation and automation are both made possible by TradeStation. Trading strategies can be constructed, tested, optimised, and monitored in addition to being fully automated by using either pre-built strategy components or EasyLanguage, which is TradeStation’s in-house programming language.

Defining the Drawbacks

• There is a significant learning curve associated with TradeStation. Learning how to use all of the platform’s capabilities and maximizing the platform’s potential both take a lot of time and work.

• Because of its high level of sophistication, the TradeStation platform can, at first glance, appear to be intimidating, particularly for traders with less expertise. In spite of this, navigating and learning it is much simpler than you might initially anticipate.

• In contrast to a number of other brokers, TradeStation does not provide any no-transaction-fee mutual funds to its customers. However, because the broker caters to active traders rather than buy-and-hold clients, this is not typically a problem that arises while using their services.

• There is a possibility of a lengthy wait time while calling TradeStation’s technical assistance. When you call tech support, you could have to wait for a long period on hold, which can be extremely unpleasant if you have an issue during business hours.

Usability

The process of opening an account with TradeStation is simple and takes very little time. On the same day that you open and fund a trading account, you can immediately begin trading equities and options. Because the TradeStation website has been subjected to numerous revisions over the course of the past few years, it is now quite simple to locate information regarding pricing, goods, and platforms, in addition to educational opportunities.

Customers of TradeStation are able to trade on a number of different devices and platforms. No matter which platform you use, you will be able to view charts with real-time streaming data and news, add technical indicators, and create custom watchlists. This includes the flagship TradeStation 10 Desktop platform, a web-based platform with most of the functionality of the desktop version, and a full-featured mobile app for iOS and Android.2 On each of the platforms, you have access to the same instruments, and placing trade orders can be done in a number of different methods, including the utilization of conditional orders, profit goals, and stop-loss orders.

Trade Experience

The workflow of the TradeStation platform is straightforward and very adaptable, despite the fact that initially, TradeStation may appear to be intimidating. It is simple to transition from research to trading, and you are able to personalize your experience by configuring trade defaults, shortcut keys, and workspaces (workspaces let you organize and save the various analysis and trading apps you want to use).

The trading tools offered by TradeStation are referred to as apps. Because these applications are embedded into the platform, all it takes to launch them is a click. There are over a dozen pre-installed trading applications, some of which include “Chart Analysis,” “Hot List,” “RadarScreen,” “Matrix,” “Time & Sales,” “TradeManager,” and “OptionStation Pro,” amongst many others. You also get access to the TradeStation TradingApp Store, where you can select from hundreds of third-party tools and pay either a one-time cost or a subscription fee to use them.

Window linking is a useful functionality offered by TradeStation’s platform. Because of this, you will have the ability to connect one window to another window (or numerous windows) based on a shared symbol or interval. Consider the following scenario: you want to link the Matrix, the RadarScreen window, and the Chart Analysis window. When you click on any symbol in RadarScreen, the Chart Analysis and Matrix windows will immediately update to reflect that symbol. You have complete control over this behaviour. The connecting of windows makes research and order entry much more efficient.

You are able to place, alter, and cancel orders immediately from a chart or by using keyboard shortcuts on all TradeStation platforms. Real-time streaming data is also available on all TradeStation platforms. You also have the option to use the Matrix to monitor the market and place trades at the price level that you choose (including limit orders that can be placed with just one click). The Matrix is a single, fully adjustable window that includes a detailed market depth window, an advanced order-entry tool, and a precise order-tracking system. It has been dubbed the “Swiss Army knife of trading tools” due to its wide range of capabilities.

You are able to stage orders in TradeStation 10 Desktop for input at a later time, and you are able to enter multiple orders simultaneously across all platforms, including mobile. You can trade options by using the OptionStation Pro App, which may be done immediately from the main platform if you choose to do so. When you log in to the TradeStation website, the TSCrypto web platform will automatically launch for you; but, in order to trade cryptocurrencies, you will need a separate crypto account. If you want to purchase and sell cryptocurrencies, follow these steps.

Mobile Trade Experience

Both iOS and Android versions of the TradeStation mobile app are currently available. The software allows users to trade cryptocurrencies, as well as stocks, options, and futures.3 Each app comes equipped with real-time streaming data and free news courtesy of Benzinga.

When you initially log into the mobile app, you will be presented with a list of quotations on the initial screen (you can share multiple watchlists across platforms). You have the ability to personalize the home screen to show hot lists, orders, positions, balances, or alerts. Additionally, you have the option to select a light or dark theme for both the program as a whole and your individual charts. The use of Face ID as a login option is also a possibility.

You may examine charts, news, and place trades by selecting any symbol in the quotations list and clicking on it. To execute trades, you can either click the chart itself or tap the green “TRADE” icon at the top of the screen. To engage in options trading, you must first select the options icon located at the very bottom of the screen. In general, the app is polished and easy to use, and it provides sufficient functionality to enable users to buy, sell, and track positions while they are on the move.

Variety of Services and Products

You can trade stocks, ETFs, options, futures, and initial public offerings (IPOs) from the desktop, web, and mobile platforms of TradeStation (you can trade bonds and mutual funds with the assistance of a broker).4 Although it is easy to switch between these asset classes, you are required to select the appropriate account from a dropdown menu before placing trades. This could be your futures account or your equity account, for example. TradeStation offers a decent range of trading products. Traders also have the ability to trade on foreign futures markets such as Eurex, ICE Europe, and LIFFE. The foreign exchange market is absent from the list because TradeStation terminated support for it in 2016.

When it comes to trading crypto and futures options, TradeStation provides traders with two distinct web platforms to choose from: TradeStation Crypto and FuturesPlus, respectively. After logging into your TradeStation account via the website, you will have the option to launch either platform.

The following is a list of the trading products that TradeStation offers:

• Long and short positions on stocks (over 2400 on the easy-to-borrow list)

• OTCBB (penny stocks)

• Futures

• Futures options (via Futures Plus)

• Choices between a single and several limbs (up to four legs)

• Cryptocurrency (via TradeStation Crypto): Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD Coin, XRP, Bitcoin Cash, Aave, Compound, Chainlink, Polygon, Maker, Shiba Inu, and Litecoin5, plus eight spot markets: BTCUSD, ETHUSD, USDCUSD, XRPUSD, LTCUSD, BCHUSD, ETHBT, and LTCBTC. In addition, Shiba Inu, Aave, Compound, Chainlink,

• Investing in mutual funds is possible with the assistance of a broker.

• Bonds of all types, including corporate, municipal, Treasury, and certificate of deposit bonds, can be exchanged with the assistance of a broker.

Order Types

Conditional orders (such as one-cancels-other and order-sends-order), bracket orders, and trailing stops are all supported across all TradeStation platforms, and you are able to enter numerous orders at the same time. Additional advanced order rules, such as activation rules that permit orders to be issued to the market based on price or time, are available via the desktop version of TradeStation 10, which offers these options.

Through the gain/loss tax management function included in the client centre, you have the ability to make adjustments to the default tax lot relief method that is assigned to your account for each type of asset before you make a trade. The gain/loss tax management option enables you to make adjustments to the tax method after you have placed a trade but before the trade has been resolved. To make certain modifications, you will need to chat with a real broker.

Technology Used in Trading

The manner in which a broker processes your order is what determines whether or not you get the best possible price. The intelligent order routing system (also known as Intelligent) is the unique order execution technology that TradeStation use. When you place an order, it enables automatic routing to the market and automatically determines the route that is going to be most efficient for you.

According to figures obtained from a third party, TradeStation was able to provide an average price improvement of $4.61 per filled order during the first quarter of 2022. Furthermore, 95.91% of trades were completed at the same level or higher than the quote provided at the time of order entry. On average, 0.040 seconds were spent fulfilling customers’ orders.1

TradeStation made available, beginning in May of 2022, its Enhanced Options Application Programming Interface (API) to retail and institutional customers, in addition to third-party platforms that were interested in connecting to the API. The application programming interface (API) provides capabilities for trading options, such as spread trading and risk/reward analysis via a dependable and powerful API.6

Automated trading and historical testing of strategies

Customers of TradeStation are able to develop, test, and automate trading strategies for any trade concept they choose. It is for this particular functionality that TradeStation has earned its well-deserved reputation as a market leader. TradeStation is one of the few trading platforms that supports strategy development and automation, and it excels at doing both of these things.

Non-programmers have access to dozens of technical and fundamental indicators, allowing them to construct their own trading strategies utilising components that have already been developed. Programmers can utilise TradeStation’s own EasyLanguage programming language to construct custom indicators, studies, and strategies that can be applied to test and fully automate trading systems. These custom indications, studies, and strategies can be used to test and automate trading systems. Alternately, there are a number of EasyLanguage specialists and add-on developers who, for a price, may assist you in developing your ideas into code that is both testable and tradable.

On a database that is simple to access and has historical market data spanning decades, any trading concept or method may be put to the test. Strategy performance reports offer in-depth analysis, which may include measures such as maximum drawdown and average trade net profit, in addition to equity curves and trade lists, to demonstrate whether or not you are following the appropriate course of action. It is not difficult to test many hypotheses and modify your variables in order to get the optimal values for the relevant parameters.

The Walk Forward Optimizer will offer you with an easy-to-read pass/fail report that will assist you in determining whether or not a particular strategy is ready to be implemented in a real-world market. You always have the option to test out a strategy in a simulated environment, known as a paper trading account, so that you can get a feel for how it will perform in a real-world setting before you commit any real money to it.

After you have settled on a strategy and are satisfied with it, you can turn on automated trading and let TradeStation handle the trade entries, exits, and management. Naturally, this does not give you permission to step away from your trading computer at any point during the day. Even if your trades are fully automated, it is still a good idea to keep an eye on them at all times because unexpected things can occur at any time (such as problems with the internet or power outages).

Costs

In addition to providing commission-free trading on stocks, ETFs, options, and futures, TradeStation also provides free market data and does not charge customers for using their platform on a monthly basis. Keep in mind that additional exchange fees7 for clearing and trading are associated with the majority of non-equity deals. These fees are determined by the financial exchanges (such as CBOT, CME, NYMEX/COMEX, CFE, etc.), and they differ depending on the market and the level of exchange membership you have. On the pricing page8 of TradeStation, you’ll discover comprehensive information on fees, but here’s a quick rundown:

• Trades in equities, exchange-traded funds, and stocks traded on the OTCBB (penny stock market) are exempt from commission fees for up to 10,000 shares per transaction. After that, the fee is $0.005 for each additional share. An additional $0.005 will be charged for each share for direct-routed equities orders.

• There is no commission charged on stock options, in addition to $0.60 per contract.

• Futures are commission-free plus $1.50 per contract, per side.

• Futures micro e-minis are commission-free plus $0.50 per contract, per side.

• Futures options are commission-free plus $1.50 per contract, per side.

• The trading of cryptocurrencies may result in fees, the amount of which is dependent on the balance of your account. The use of the TS Crypto platform, as well as any transactions involving USDC, deposits, and withdrawals, market data, and there is no obligation for a minimum amount of financing.

• The interest rates on margin accounts range from 3.5% to 9.50%, depending on the size of the balance9. For illustration purposes, the rate on a balance of $10,000 is 9.5%, but the rate on a balance of $100,000 is 8.75%.

• An annual inactivity fee of $50 will be assessed to your account if you do not keep an average equity level of $2,000 at the end of each month or if you place less than five trades in a given year.10

• There is a fee of $125 associated with transferring an account. When you transfer an existing IRA, you are subject to a $35 custodial cost in addition to a $50 IRA termination fee.

The cost of sending money via wire is $25 within the United States and $35 outside of the country. The sending of a paper check or the reception of a wire transfer are both free of charge.

• The price of each page of a paper statement or trade confirmation is one dollar.

• There are no fees associated with having a broker assist you with a transaction.

How this Broker Will Make Money for You While Also Making Money Off of You

The majority of online brokers have had to adapt their business models in response to pressure from the industry to make commission-free trading available. If these fees were not charged, the method through which a broker generates money off of you could be less clear. And in addition to that, there are a few covert ways in which they make money for you.

• Interest on cash: Similar to the majority of other brokers, TradeStation makes interest income from the difference between what you are paid on your idle cash and what they earn on your cash holdings. This difference is referred to as the “interest on cash.” You will not receive any portion of this interest from TradeStation.

• Payment for order flow: Many brokers are able to generate income by receiving fees from market makers in exchange for routing equity and options orders to them. This business activity is referred to as “payment for order flow” (PFOF). TradeStation is paid an average of $0.00244 per share for stocks and $0.54 per options contract. This is approximately in line with the average across the industry for brokers that accept PFOF.

TradeStation’s Intelligent order router searches for liquidity and price improvement while executing orders in a fair period of time. This results in price improvements for customers. The average price improvement for TradeStation equity orders is $0.007 per share, while the price improvement for options orders is $6.49 per contract. This represents a significant benefit for traders who engage in options trading.

• Stock loan programmes: These programmes generate revenue for brokers when stocks held in customers’ accounts are loaned to other traders or hedge funds, typically for short sales. Generally speaking, short sales are the most common use for stock loans. Clients of TradeStation who have an equities account, a total net worth of at least $25,000, and a minimum of one year of trading experience are eligible to participate in the Fully Paid Stock Lending programme. The demand in the market for loans, as well as the value of the security, both influence the interest rate that you receive.11

• Portfolio margining: Portfolio margining calculates real-time margin for stock and options trades based on risk rather than using fixed percentages. This is in contrast to traditional margining, which uses percentages. At this time, TradeStation does not provide portfolio margining as an option.

Facilities for Account Management and Research

TradeStation does not offer comprehensive fundamental research due to the fact that it is geared toward active traders. Despite this, TradeStation provides access to a number of potent research tools, particularly those geared toward traders with a stronger technical background.

Screeners for Stocks and ETFs

Traders have access to a variety of tools that can assist them with pattern recognition and market scanning through TradeStation. Traders can see which symbols are making unusual market moves by consulting hot lists. These moves can include opening gaps, strong volatility, and approaching or breaking 52-week highs (or lows). In real time, RadarScreen sorts a list of up to 1,000 pre-defined symbols according to user-defined criteria depending on the symbols in the list. The Scanner App analyses thousands of symbols (for example, all stocks) using more than 180 different fundamental and technical indicators, in addition to user-defined studies. Both RadarScreen and the Scanner App are among the most powerful stock and ETF screeners that are currently made available by any online brokerage in the world.

Alternatives Analyzers

You may construct, evaluate, and keep track of virtually any options strategy you can think of with the help of the toolset provided by OptionStation Pro. It offers a graphical representation of option chains, which enables you to examine the likelihood that your trading strategy will result in a break-even situation across a range of expiration dates. You can also locate opportunities to exercise your options by using hot lists.

A Screener for Mutual Funds

TradeStation possesses an in-house scanner that is capable of searching the entirety of the mutual fund industry. Although it is capable of performing its intended function, the scanner does not have a particularly high level of sophistication in comparison to the other scanners offered by TradeStation.

A Screener for Fixed Incomes

There is a fundamental fixed income screener available on TradeStation; but, in order to execute a trade, you will need to speak with a broker first.

Instruments, Including Calculators

TradeStation does not provide the standard calculators, such as retirement planners and college cost estimators that many brokers make available to their clients. You will instead find tools that have been developed specifically for active traders. These tools include ticker bars (for hot lists, quotations, and news), a “Time & Sales” window, “Market Depth”, and “News,” as well as a “Research” window that displays corporate research and fundamental data.

Trading Idea Generator (Also Known As)

A built-in library of common studies is included in TradeStation to assist with the generation of new ideas. You are able to construct your own individualized study so that you can experiment with different strategies and concepts.

News

On all of its platforms, TradeStation offers a news app that users may personalise and that receives real-time news updates from Benzinga. You can stream stories that are important to you by using symbol link placements and watchlists, or you can filter by topic. TradeStation’s in-house market commentary is known as TradeStation Market Insights. It may be accessed on the desktop platform as well as the website, and it is kept up to current during the course of the trading day.

Charting

On every one of its platforms, TradeStation provides advanced charting options and capabilities. TradeStation 10 has extraordinary charting capabilities that are derived from tick data. The charting software comes equipped with built-in automated technical analysis, which displays developing technical patterns on the charts as they appear. The web charting has been significantly improved, and it now incorporates all streaming real-time data as well as the capability to add overlays and a variety of different indicators. Web charting features now more closely resemble those of TradeStation 10, including the addition of a new toolbar that provides access to the modification of timeframes, drawing tools, sessions, and styles. Web charting additionally includes the capability to drag the background, as well as on-chart tools that allow users to zoom in and out, scroll left and right, switch to the most recent bar, and reset the chart range. Trading can be done straight from a chart, and this includes the ability to preview a closing bracket order on a chart. The order ticket allows for the dragging and dropping of closing price objectives onto the chart in order to make modifications. This is one of the greatest charting programmes available from any broker, and it is especially renowned for how effectively it integrates with TradeStation’s order management system. TradeStation’s order management system is one of the best in the industry.

Management of Cash Flow

Cash balances held by customers do not accrue interest for the customer. You can earn an additional 0.03% by putting your idle cash into a money market fund. The maximum interest rate that can be earned on eligible bitcoin assets is 5%.

Plan for the Reinvestment of Fractional Dividends (DRIP)

When customers buy dividend-paying stocks, TradeStation does not give them the option to reinvest the dividends, and the brokerage firm does not sell fractional shares.

Research Facilities for SRI and ESG

The tools necessary for socially responsible investing (SRI) are not provided by TradeStation.

Portfolio Analysis

Free to use and independent of the TradeStation platform, Portfolio Maestro is an advanced trading tool (you can access it with one click via the apps window). It enables you to conduct a backtest and conduct an analysis of the performance of a collection of strategies that were applied to a basket of symbols in a portfolio, and it also enables you to balance the allocation of the assets in your portfolio. Your money management and ranking criteria, as well as the trades that are generated by the rules in your strategies, are taken into consideration when determining your performance. You can view the performance of the entire portfolio as well as the performance of each individual symbol. There are numerous reporting and analysis features that assist you in optimising your portfolio.

Education

To assist you in becoming familiar with TradeStation’s trading platforms, the company’s website features a variety of educational content, such as articles, videos, and a glossary. In addition, TradeStation provides courses, fast tips, frequently asked questions (FAQs), and live events. An active community forum is a place where people can go to ask questions, search for answers, learn programming tips and tricks, and troubleshoot problems.

YouCanTrade, TradeStation’s affiliated company, provides an extensive assortment of educational presentations and courses for traders. These can be accessed through TradeStation. Through YouCanTrade, you can ask questions and interact with the coaches, receive trade alerts, join free webinars, take courses, and watch live trading in its trading rooms. These offerings can be invaluable to new and intermediate traders trying to improve their trading prowess.

An extremely valuable tool for traders of all levels is TradeStation’s trading simulator, which has all the functionality of TradeStation 10, including real-time streaming data, without the real money and real positions of a live account. The simulated environment lets you practise using different trading approaches, markets, and platform tools, and using it will help you figure out your preferred method of order entry.

Assistance to Customers

• Phone support (800-822-0512) 8 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET

• Live chat with a human agent Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET

• Chatbot (TSbot) on the website

• The Trade Desk is open during market hours (which vary by asset) to place trades and make balance, position, and margin enquiries

Security and Reliability

• Two-factor authentication is offered with the Auth0 Guardian app, Google Authenticator app, and SMS text messaging.12

• Biometric (facial or fingerprint) login for mobile devices.

• TradeStation carries excess Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) insurance provided by Lloyd’s of London with an aggregate limit of $300 million to pay amounts in addition to those returned in the event of a SIPC liquidation. This insurance protects investors against losses that exceed the amount returned by SIPC. The maximum amount that can be spent by a single customer is $24.5 million, and each account has a cash limit of $900,000.

• TradeStation is widely regarded as a highly trustworthy and stable platform that experiences very little downtime. Over the course of the previous year, it had a documented uptime of 99.999% and continued to function flawlessly even during times of extreme volatility.

The Identity Theft Research Center found that there were no serious data breaches that occurred at any TradeStation site.

Transparency

TradeStation is a publicly traded company that is authorized and supervised by the Securities and Exchange Commission. It is a participant in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) (SEC). Simply selecting “Pricing” from the primary menu at the very top of any webpage will allow you to quickly access a wealth of information regarding pricing structures, commissions, service fees, margin rates, market data, and exchange fees, among other things.

Account Types That Are Available

TradeStation provides all of the account kinds that are typically utilized, including the following:

• Taxable for individuals and couples filing jointly

• Custodial

• Accounts for retirement saved in the traditional manner (IRA)

• Individual Retirement Accounts with a Roth Contribution Option

Simplified employee pension IRAs (also known as SEP IRAs).

• Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) that Offer Savings Incentive Matches to Employees (SIMPLE)13

In addition, TradeStation offers a comprehensive selection of entity accounts, which are essentially trading accounts for businesses. These entity accounts cover a wide variety of business structures, including sole proprietorships, partnerships, limited liability companies, trusts, and corporations. However, despite the fact that the majority of individual investors would probably be considering an individual account for trading, TradeStation does, in fact, offer the full range of alternatives as well as many more.

Final Verdict

TradeStation was once the domain of active and institutional traders who were more than prepared to pay the platform’s hefty fees in exchange for the sophisticated features it offered. TradeStation is now more appealing to (and appropriate for) a wider variety of traders and investors as a result of the removal of platform fees as well as the introduction of commission-free trading, cryptocurrencies, and you can trade. These developments took place in recent years.

That being said, TradeStation remains best suited for active, technical traders who can take advantage of all that TradeStation offers. The offering is quite comprehensive for this particular group and includes state-of-the-art charting as well as other technical tools, trade execution, strategy development, backtesting, and trade automation. This focus on trading plainly means that TradeStation is not the best tool for fundamental investors seeking for buy-and-hold positions.

TradeStation is making efforts to be friendlier to traders and investors with less experience, but there is always space for growth in this regard. For instance, products geared at the casual crowd—such as the mutual fund and fixed income screeners—are primitive compared to the strong RadarScreen and scanner apps. The challenge for TradeStation will be to service this rising population of less-savvy traders and investors while keeping its competitive edge among active and institutional traders.