TD Ameritrade Review: Pros And Cons

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Finding the right online broker to handle your investment activities can be challenging, especially since there’s a large variety of investment platforms from which to choose.

TD Ameritrade offers competitively priced financial services to both beginners and expert investors. The company has multiple account types and investment assets for every kind of investor.

TD Ameritrade also provides educational resources to aid investors in their research.

The company is one of the highest-rated online investment brokers out there.

Before we delve in the pros and cons of using TD Ameritrade, we must first give you some background information about the platform.

What Is TD Ameritrade? TD Ameritrade Review

TD Ameritrade is an online broker that offers multiple investment options to active traders. Some of these options include stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), futures, options, cryptocurrency, and fixed income. The platform also offers banking products like savings, checking, and money market accounts.

TD Ameritrade’s zero-commission trades make it an attractive investment platform for investors wanting to save money on trading fees and commissions.

Many investors consider TD Ameritrade to be the perfect broker for beginners and professional investors alike because of the variety of features and educational resources it offers.

Like E*TRADE and other major online brokerage platforms, TD Ameritrade has branches all over the country to provide instant customer service when necessary.

It’s important to note that TD Ameritrade was formed by merging Scottrade, First Omaha Securities, Ameritrade, and TD Waterhouse.

TD Ameritrade itself was acquired by Charles Schwab in November of 2019

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Who should Use TD Ameritrade?

TD Ameritrade is an excellent investment platform for both beginner investors and active traders who want a sophisticated by affordable investment platform.

TD Ameritrade is good for the following kind of investors:

Beginner investors.
Advanced traders.
Investor Advisors.
Forex traders
Fund investors

TD Ameritrade is also open to investors from 100 countries excluding Canada, the European Union, and Australia.

Products TD Ameritrade Offers – TD Ameritrade Review

TD Ameritrade offers a variety of financial products that includes investing, banking, and retirement products. Here are a listing of the products on offer:

Standard account
Retirement accounts
Education accounts
Specialty accounts
Managed portfolio
Margin Trading

Standard Account

This is a standard investment account, TD Ameritrade’s most common and most flexible account.

The standard account has various account types that include individual accounts, joint accounts, community property accounts, custodial accounts, etc.

The Standard Account is good for the following:

Cash trading
Cash and margin trading
Option and Cash trading
Margin and option trading

There are no minimum funding requirements. However, for electronic funding, the minimum funding amount is $50.

Retirement Accounts

Retirement planning is important and having the best planning tools at your disposal helps a lot. TD Ameritrade offers an array of retirement accounts that includes the following:

Traditional IRA
Roth IRA
Rollover IRA
SEP IRA
Solo 401K (for small businesses)
SIMPLE IRA
Pension or Profit plan

Depending on your retirement and investment goals, TD Ameritrade can be a one-stop-shop for your financial and retirement planning.

Education Accounts – TD Ameritrade Review

One of the best ways to help your kids financially is to protect them from student loans. You can do this by opening a 529 College Savings Plan account with TD Ameritrade.

The 529 College Savings plan offers a Core and a Socially Aware Age-Based investment option.

Depending you your risk tolerance, the child’s age, and how much the child needs for college, you can adjust your investment strategy to be conservative, moderate or aggressive.

The 529 college savings plan contains a broad array of mutual funds and ETFs. The plan also offers a wide selection of Individual Investment Options that represent different asset classes that include the following:

Domestic equity
Real estate
Money market
Fixed income
International bond
International equity

Getting started with a 529 College Savings Plan is easy and straightforward.

Specialty Investment Accounts

Specialty Investment Accounts are investment accounts for organizations like trusts, limited partnerships, small businesses, corporations, non-profit, and investment clubs. Sole proprietors can also open specialty investment accounts.

Managed Portfolios

These are are goal-oriented investment management services that TD Ameritrade Investment Management, LLC offers.

The portfolios are built on recommendations from the investment professionals at Morningstar Investment Management, LLC.

After answering a few questions, TD Ameritrade Investment Management will recommend a customized portfolio. They also provide ongoing monitoring, allocation, and rebalancing.

Trading Tools TD Ameritrade Offers

This virtual broker offers traders and investors unlimited access to multiple trading tools and platforms. Doing so gives investors the freedom to trade and manage their accounts from anywhere, using any device.

While other electronic trading platforms only allow trading via the web or mobile apps, TD Ameritrade has three modes of trading: web platforms, mobile apps, and desktop software.

Web Trading Platform

TD Ameritrade offers a useful online trading system that is sufficient to satisfy the needs of both passive and active investors.

Once logged in, you can view your account, research investments, and trade via the website. It is effective in handling complex investment activities.

Mobile Trading

Since the advent of portable devices like iPad and smartphones, internet companies have optimized their services to accommodate mobile users. This gradual shift inevitably created mobile trade, which lets users monitor their assets while on the go.

TD Ameritrade offers mobile trading to investors who wish to stay connected to the platform even when disconnected from a computer. It is efficient, reliable, and portable.

The TD Ameritrade mobile is available on both IOS and Android platforms.

Although the TD Ameritrade mobile app is effective in helping investors keep an eye on their account, it is not as powerful as the desktop or web versions.

TD Ameritrade Thinkorswim Desktop Software

Thinkorswim is an award-winning trading software that provides the ideal tools and features to handle complex analysis and trades

Thinkorswim is one of the most complex trading platform on the market. It is used by top corporate traders.

With its customizable interface, it comes with a vast selection of charts, graphs, and analytic resources. The platform is ideal for the serious trader.

Investor’s Educational Resources

Investing isn’t as easy as merely purchasing an asset and waiting for it to appreciate. Though that’s the overarching theory, the details are slightly more complicated. That’s why most serious investment platforms provide a wealth of educational resources.

Investing– the right way– requires diligence, skill, and patience. Have the right educational resource can help you develop the skill needed to be an effective investor.

TD Ameritrade’s vast library of educational resources on investing includes training videos, investment articles, and e-books, as well as quizzes, and seminars.

TD Ameritrade will also provide personal tutor to evaluate or validate your trading idea. The platform does with with the help of a chatbot called “Ted.”

Ted provides investors with actionable tips directly culled from TD Ameritrade’s vast library.

Virtual Trading Simulator

Unlike futures and forex trading websites, many online brokers fail to incorporate trading simulations into their platform. Fortunately, TD Ameritrade has a mock trading simulator called “PaperMoney” on its desktop-based platform.

It provides investors with $100,000 cash to practice trading financial assets like stock and ETFs with zero financial risks. The simulation helps investors improve their trading skills and then transition to real money.

Portfolio Planner Tool

TD Ameritrade comes with a portfolio planner, a useful tool for retirement planning.

The tool helps investors develop a targeted asset allocated plan.

The platform also gives investors the option to choose between two investment models: the customized model or the pre-built model.

It also doubles as a monitoring and rebalancing tool.

Exceptional Customer Service – TD Ameritrade Review

TD Ameritrade offers excellent customer service via email, phone, or in-person visit at one of its 360 local branches.

If you’re unable to access your computer or the TD Ameritrade mobile app, you can still place a trade via third-party platforms such as Facebook Messenger, Twitter Direct Messages, or Apple Business Chat.

TD Ameritrade also uses in-vehicle voice assistance such as Google Voice or Siri to provide voice-enabled investing. This feature allows investors to stay up to date on their investments while on the go.

TD Ameritrade Prices

In October 2019, TD Ameritrade announced commission-free trading of exchange-listed U.S. stocks. The platform charges $6.95 for stocks not listed on the U.S. stock exchange and $0.65 per options contract.

TD Ameritrade also charges the following fees:

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Phone System	$5.00
Broker-assisted stock trade	25.00
No-load Mutual fund	49.99
Options contrat fees	0.65
Futures & Options on Futures (per contract fee)	2.25

Pros And Cons Of TD Ameritrade

Pros:

Commission-free trades: TD Ameritrade allows investors to buy and sell ETF, stock, option trades, and more without any unnecessary charges.
Hassle-free interface: TD Ameritrade has a perfectly organized platform that makes it easy for beginners to navigate the site and become familiar with the tools.
Investor’s Educational Resources: The platform’s vast library of educational materials is very useful for all investors.

Cons:

High Broker-assisted trade fee: although TD Ameritrade is an exceptional online broker, however, its $25 broker-assisted trade fee is expensive