TradeKing Review

One person found the following review helpful

mat_r voted 6/10

Trade at your own risk. I tried Tradeking for the first time today. I have used ScottTrade, OptionsHouse, Etrade, Ameritrade, Bank Of America, and OptionsXpress...I have never encountered issues like this before.

I am a high-volume options trader, my average trade size is roughly $10k, average execution time on this site was between 20s-30s. I missed out on nearly all my trades today. Every single order had to be a market buy, or a market sell because every single trade had to be 'reviewed' (as per a supervisor) and added all of that overhead. I called up and complained... asking how they could justify putting my trades through a review every single time (all of these trades should have ended up at +15% profit today instead I netted a LOSS of 30%)

When asked how I as going to be compensated for all of these issues, they said, we will not compensate you, Wen I asked how they were going to address the 'required review' of each trade they said that will not change.

You get what you pay for. They may be cheap, but the extra bucks you save are NOT worth it... you WILL lose WAY more money than you will save in fees.

peterm voted 6/10

Their commissions are one of the lowest but beware, you get what you pay for. From my experience, they have the worst customer service, limited hours available by phone and they demanded a ridiculous amount of documentation from me in order to open my account. I've never been asked so much documentation and information. Two months later after I opened my account with them, someone opened multiple credit cards and bank accounts under my name without my permission. I think I was the victim of identity theft by some dishonest employee at TradeKing. I took me weeks to repair the damage and contact all the banks and credit bureaus. Beware of this broker....

johnr voted 5/10

If you like to buy and hold for years, it really doesnt mater which brokerage you use.
I really enjoy trading.. TK has the worst after hour trading platform.
TK takes the longest to answer the phone. When ever the market goes into a frenzy, which is often these days, the great computer program fails to execute..
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE think twice about opening an account with these guys.
Scottrade is 100% more reliable. Plus you can call a local office and they answer the phone within 2 rings.. I will never look back at trade king again.. It was a costly mistake for me.
John R.

nate voted 9/10

TradeKing has a good platform UI with an easy on the eyes interface. There was significant lag during the market tank last week (mid august). When the market was churning, it took 30 minutes to get an order in and a minute or two just to get a quote. They must have made some changes, because the execution was better this crazy Thursday.

All in all, if you are looking for a speed execution and fast entry system, look elsewhere. If you want full featured with analysis and tools, with a low commission, TKing is great. I also must say that their year end tax reporting is awesome and saves tons of time, they do all of the work for you. I know this is not usually foremost when choosing a platform, but I was very happy.

Being a swing trader, the platform speed is not the most critical thing; And in light of the other features, I recommend TKing without reservation.

harryt voted 6/10

TradeKing prices are decent and fair. Their $4.95 unlimited order size is very competitive. I would not recommend this broker if you are interested in penny stocks, their fees are probably one of the highest out there for those.

One of the only complaints I have about this broker is that they are extremely slow in processing funds and requests. I understand this is a discount broker, but it took about a month just to set up an ACH profile. I would not mind waiting if they just sent a courtesy email as to how long the process would take. My account said setting it up takes 2-3 business days. I waited 2 weeks and then sent the required materials again, along with an email asking for an update. No answer.

Overall its a decent discount broker with competitive prices, however I believe the consensus view on "excellent customer service" is unsubstantiated.

mikeg voted 6/10

TradeKing customer service for trading and questions about their policies / procedures is awesome! I am very happy with it and the ease of use with the site, etc. Just one problem though - their website has a lot of problems. Pages don't display half the time, login isn't working this morning even after clearing cache, using compatibility view, etc.

If they can fix their website problems then it would be the best!

mighty voted 6/10

Ever since I opened account I never had to use there customer service. This year I went out of track and wanted to know the IRA contributions I made. The answer was go check your monthly statements for the whole year. I did that. Now then I wanted to contribute and add a ACH profile online. But I could not, as the webpage always errors out mentioning "invalid date".

I contacted customer service and this is what I was told "if you cannot do it online and then form and send it to us". Its frustrating to go thru somuch just for these simple tasks.

I understand the the economy part, but if you look at the service and trading tools, its not worth it. I'm closing my account.

michael voted 10/10

Tradeking are the best broker I have used. There tools are excellent and the community is awesome. Don't get put off by users who have left negative reviews based purely on one-off bad experiences.

thetrader voted 9/10

For the price you pay Tradeking offer an awful lot. Their site is easy to use and has a great selection of tools - plenty for any normal investor.

I don't understand why some people are so surprised when it takes a bit longer to get through on the phone or to deal with a customer service assistant. They are a discount broker, they clearly cannot provide the same level of service at the prices they charge.

If you are somebody that needs their hand holding throughout the whole process then maybe its worth paying the premium on your trades and going with a more expensive broker. For me, I am happy with Tradeking.

samp voted 10/10

I have no idea what the guy above is on about to be honest. Tradeking is an exceptional broker and I don't know what I would do without the community there. It's fantastic, the whole layout of the site is simple and easy to use and its great value. I don't usually find my self needing to call up to be honest so perhaps that's why I've never had a bad experience but other that that I cannot recommend Tradeking highly enough.

michael voted 10/10

I've been using tradeking for a while now and i'm pretty happy with them. The interface is quite straightforward and simple which isn't always as common as you might imagine.

jimsmythe voted 10/10

I am really happy after switching to TradeKing back in 2008. Especially now that they have iPhone app and lowered their option pricing.

michaels voted 6/10

Tradekings attitude is pretty much "Here's our website, best of luck with it". There will come a point when every trader needs to speak to someone to resolve a question or issue, this is where Tradeking simply fall down.

I had an issue with my account and spent hours reading through FAQs and help sections before calling, I then waited for ages only to be told very unhelpfully that it was due to a bug with there website and I would just have to wait until it was resolved.

Incredibly unhelpful considering I was unable to trade in the meanwhile. As a result I simply decided to close my account and move to Scottrade.

nicks voted 10/10

My experience has been the complete opposite Michael S. I've called 3 times for broker assisted trades. Every time it was very quick, and they were extremely helpful. I've also used the live chat support with the same results. Every experience I've had with TradeKing has been positive, and I love the educational tools, research tools (powered by recognia), and streaming live quotes.....

I'm not going anywhere, and tell anyone who's interested that TradeKing is great value.

diane voted 6/10

I just learned that Trade King charged me a "Inactivity Fee" of $50. Ok - what does inactivity mean? I didn't make any trades. Which means they didn't have to do anything. And yet they saw fit to charge me the totally outrageous fee of $50. I am very unhappy with them and if I should happen to get one of those little postcards in the mail asking me if I want to be part of a settlement, I will be happy to fill it out and return it.

scott voted 5/10

Too many glitches. Do not open up your account with Tradeking.
I've lost over $5000 due to their slowness and glitches.
All they said was I understand, but you should've called earlier.
I'm withdrawing all of my money out of this account.
Never will trade again with this garbage.

monica voted 5/10

I've been happy with TradeKing EXCEPT for the fact that I can't seem to get my tax forms from them. I've had to wait and wait (their firm got an extension to the middle of March 2012); and now that my forms are supposed to be available, their web server can't handle the traffic and all I get is an error message when I try to download my forms. I emailed their customer service and their answer was "sorry, there's a lot of traffic, keep trying until you go crazy."
:(

mark_p voted 5/10

I've had my tradeking account for a few months. During that time, tradeking frequently made errors in booking my account activity, resulting in my inability to sell positions because tradeking didn't show me as owning them (days after I purchased them). In addition, they miscoded my account (after four phone calls on my part, they admitted they had made a coding error), causing one of my trades to be rejected at a cost to me of $3,000. When I called them after the trade was rejected (and after being on hold for 10 minutes, at which point the loss kept growing), they said there was nothing they could do, which I know to be untrue, as I am a licensed representative. I have had at least four phone conversations with varying levels of CSR's and more senior managers, during which tradeking refuses to even accept responsibility for their errors, let alone make me whole for the losses their errors caused me. They claimed that the customer agreement required me to perform a certain action that is in fact not addressed in their customer agreement, and refused to connect me with the compliance department at my request. I am afraid I cannot recommend tradeking for active investors, and agree with other posters that you get what you pay for. Given their shoddy performance, I can't afford tradeking's cheap fees.

jonny voted 5/10

I also got burned by the $50.00 inactivity fee. TradeKing says they supposedly notified everyone once by email in November but I never saw it. The first I knew about this is when they deducted the $50.00 last month. A fee change notification like this should have gone through the mail with more notice. At the very least a second friendly email reminder should have gone out a week or two before they actually withdrew the fee. I would transfer out but that's another $50.00 fee on top the inactivity fee. I'm probably going to have to close my account now and restart somewhere else. Shame on you TradeKing !!!

kknate voted 5/10

After having been with Tradeking for 2 and a half years, of which I used tradeking a lot in the first year and a half. I finally pulled the cord on it today. I've been using other trading sites in the last 2 months, to decide which one to move to.... and Surprise,Surprise- I found that almost all of them were miles ahead of tradeking.

First of all, Tradeking's order execution time is Pathetic, and they have a lot of hoops that you have to jump through to get simple tasks completed. Customer Service , is nothing short of a joke. The guy that I just got off the phone with , told me that the 50$ inactivity charge in December, was because I hadnt traded actively for a year. I asked him why this was not mentioned to me.. and he replied that they changed their policies with the so-called "inactivity charges" in November, and billed me in Dec. He also told me that they sent EMAILS out to their clients informing about the policy change.

I told them that I was terminating my account. And asked him to transfer me to the billing department. The guy blatantly told me that he was 'busy' at the moment, and I could call billing myself.

I see a lot of honest reviews of Tradeking on this page ( some by affected ex-clients of tradeking , like me), and in between I see PRs for tradeking shouting up 5 stars and saying that tradeking is the best. I only see one customer mention on this page that 'scottrade' is better.And yet another tradeking PR siezes the oppurturnity to state 'funny how everyone says scottrade is better'. Is 'one person' the same as 'everyone'. I think these PRs for tradeking should stay out of review websites, and let people write honest reviews...

v-cruz voted 10/10

I was referred to TradeKing from a friend about 2 months ago. Switched from etrade and I almost didn't do it because of reviews like some listed here. I really think some of them are from other companies just out to bash their competitors. I had no problem with TradeKing since making the switch. My only complaint would be that they hold onto your personal check a couple days longer than I thought they would to make sure it cleared. I had access to the site and built my watchlist but just couldn't trade for a few days. No big deal because I still had my etrade account open. I trade a few times a week, mostly stocks but sometimes simple options. They gave me free access to their new streaming platform. I'm saving money on trades versus my old broker and I've had no problems with their site and their people on the phone are great. I would definitely recommend them.

One person diddn't find this review helpful

steve voted 6/10

Poor technology and inaccurate accounting made Trade King a loser for me.

bobk voted 6/10

Constant problems in their site. Inaccurate account information (Holdings, Activities, Summary) which would be corrected in 24/48 hrs. The last straw was when they showed a trade in my account and they refused to correct their mistake, which cost me money. Others have the same incorrect trades charged to their accounts. For your ref: http://community.tradeking.com/forum/categories/general/topics/8015-stock-costs-and-calculations-are-very-wrong-on-the-holdings-page/forum_posts

Avoid this brokerage.

One person diddn't find this review helpful

jeremy voted 6/10

Seems to go down a lot. Some pages don't always work. Other than that its pretty good for the price. Really good customer service.

harvey voted 5/10

It's funny that every bad review says go to Scottrade in here I think ill give Tradeking a try. I think the bad reviewers just work for Scottrade to get them more we will see ill let you all know how trade king really does

kevin voted 6/10

I have used Tradeking for the last year (2011). My experience was awful. The website went down three times (on the most volitile days--meaning I missed out on huge trades I wanted to make and couldn't get out of trades that were not going in my direction--I had to sit there and watch the positions turn, with no ability to get out). Whenever there is a large volume day, the Tradeking site does not work and will not allow you to trade.

However, I stuck with it, since withdrawing funds and changing brokers is such a pain and takes time. Then, I finally had an erroneous fed call show up in my account (which was eventually fixed at my insistence). So, after that I finally left.

In summary, my last year with Tradeking gave me: 1) three days of inability to trade due to the site being down (on three of the most volitile days of the year); 2) a phantom fed call in my account for no reason.

I am simply posting because I have no other recourse to vent my frustrations with Tradeking. Take the above for what it's worth.


Equity Price:	$4.95
Broker Assisted Trade:	$4.95
Options Fee:	$4.95
Options Contract:	$0.65
Mutual Fund:	$9.95
Mininum Deposit:	None


Virtual Account:
Online Trading:
Android App:
iPhone App:
Rating:	6.8

TradeKing Review

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