Low Cost Options Trading - Zecco vs. TradeKing
72The most-preferred low cost options trader - Zecco vs. TradeKing
Zecco or Zecco Trading, a subsidiary of Equinox Securities, is an online brokerage which specializes in free stock trades. A member of the NASD and SIPC, ZECCO (stands for Zero Cost Commission) provides Zero commission Internet trading for stocks and ETFs, for both market and limit orders, on the minimum account balance of $2,000.
At Zecco, customers can trade in stocks, options, bonds, and mutual funds. The company enables the customer to execute 10 trades per day, and a maximum of 40 trades per month free of cost. Following this, the customer has to pay a certain amount per stock trade. A new entrant in the field of online brokerage, Zecco offers low cost option trades. A flat fee of $3.50 is subsequently followed by a .60 cent per option contract charge. The minimum fee required to open an account in Zecco is $2,500. However, there is no maintenance or inactivity fees, and no fees for closing an account. Zecco also offers a free membership to their community section, which is laden with numerous features such as news, commentary, financial blogs, bulletin boards, and tools like quotes, charting, and option chains.
TradeKing, established in 2005 by Donato A. Montanaro of SureTrade, focuses on providing cost-effective trades in the discount brokerage market. TradeKing is a privately held NASD member brokerage firm in which each account has protection up to $25 million through SIPC and their clearing firm. The company offers the most comprehensively used investment vehicles such as stocks, bonds, options, mutual funds and ETFs. Although they offer different kinds of fixed income investment choices, most of them are not available for purchase through the online trading system.
One of the outstanding features of TradeKing is its low commissions and fees. The company makes use of a flat-fee and non-tiered commission schedule with stock trades at $4.95 per trade and option prices at $0.65 per contract. Besides, there are no minimums or hidden fees. Trade King charges an option trade fee of $4.95 along with .65 cents per option contract. A single contract is priced for $5.60, ten contracts for $11.45, and fifty for $36.45.
TradeKing provides a complete online trading system which enables effective order entry and tracking. Their strong charting tools assist in the automatic identification of different types of technical analysis trends and chart patterns. In addition, the company has a vast selection of educational material to help customers including articles, instructional videos and downloadable podcasts.
Nayanathara.S.
Hi-Tech Editorial Division
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Comments
For tradeking is says right on their site's homepage, "65 cents per option contract". I don't see the words "flat fee" either, but they do charge a flat fee for trades, as for the for the option contract, well I guess it's flat in terms of it doesn't vary from each option contract no matter how much they cost. But either way tradeking doesn't claim to be flat, so you should take it up with the author of this article and not TK.
Zecco has pulled a complete 180 on all investors. Now, you must have over $25,000 in one account to receive trades. To me, this is ridiculous. I mean, anyone that's looking for free trades probably has less than $25k to invest anyway.
I recommend going with Tradeking. You pay a flat $4.95 rate. No questions asked. $5 isn't much to pay for fast execution and good customer service. Zecco customer service is a joke. Come on! Nobody likes responding to emails when they are spending hundreds of dollars on stocks, bonds, etfs etc.
I thought Zecco would go bankrupt, so I guess the new limit is a last resort. Shame too because I initially liked their vision. But most stuff on Wall Street is BS anyways.
I like Tradeking. Check out my review here:
http://www.investortrip.com/tradeking-broker-revie
Happy Trading!
John Riley says:
13 months ago
Surely a broket who claims to offer flat fee commisions doesn't charge per contract, they charge a FLAT FEE ie a fixed price per TRADE regardless of the number of contracts. I believe OPTIONSHOUSE already does this.
If a broker is not offering this service, then it shouldn't be describibg itself as offering FLAT FEE charges. This seems at best confusing and at worst downright dishonest!