tradeMONSTER Review

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Based out of Chicago, tradeMONSTER company is affiliated with optionMONSTER Holdings Inc., their sister company. Currently, Wade Cooperman is the CEO and Guy Adami is the Vice-Chairman. Though the company began in 2006, it was on Oct. 15, 2008 that the first online business trade was conducted.

Trading Platform/Virtual Trading

tradeMONSTER provides excellent web based trading for all their customers. They do not have a desktop option for trading at this time. They offer some limited mobile app trading ability. Those who have a smartphone, like the Blackberry, iphone, or Android based phone, can use their application. Currently, their app is not available on the ipad and there is no mobile site to log into to conduct trades. A value to most new traders is the virtual trading platform. It’s free and the account starts with $100,000 balance. Obviously this is simulated; no gains or losses are actually cash.

Trade Types/Fees:

Trades are only $7.50 each. They primarily focus on options trading and their fees for this type of trade are rather reasonable. Their Options Exercise Fee is $7.50, as well as their Options Assignment Fee. The Options Fees per Contracts are as follows:

•1 – 10,000 contracts per month will be $.50 per contract
*There is a $12.50 minimum and $15.00 for spreads.

•10,001 – 50,000 contracts per month will be $.40 per contract
There is a $3.50 minimum and $8.00 for spreads.

•50,001 – 100,000 contracts per month will be $.20 per contract
There is a $3.50 minimum and $8.00 for spreads.

•100,000 + contracts per month will be $.20 per contract
There is a $3.50 minimum and $8.00 for spreads.

While noted for options trading, they also offer the ability to trade in fixed income products, mutual funds, futures, EFT’s and bonds. They also offer:

Level 1: Long & Short Calls & Puts
Level 2: Collar & Vertical Spreads
Level 3: Time & Diagonal Spreads, Strangles, Straddles
Level 4: Butterfly, Condors, Back-Ratio & Complex Strategies

Various Other Fees/Minimum Deposit Required

The broker assisted fee is low at only $15.00. With others as high as $75.00, this is a real savings. There is no minimum fee to open an account. They are extremely fee friendly, as they offer no minimum balance fee, no annual maintenance fee, no inactive account fee and no IRA fee. They certainly have a great structure for those who are wanting to get into trading and don’t have a lot to invest.

Trade on Margin/ Trade IRA

TradeMONSTER does allow trading on margin, but the trader must have at least $2,000 in their account. There is no Maintenance Margin Requirement. The Base Rate / Margin Rate & Structures are between 1.25% – 3.50%. They do allow trading on an IRA with no minimum amount required and no annual fees. They do charge an early withdrawal and excessive amount fee.

Research & Tools/Educational Material

They offer a great selection of tools and educational materials for the traders. They have, portfolio management tools, calculators, setup trade alerts, level 1 quotes, automated trading, charts & graphs, criteria based scanners/screeners and custom watch lists. They will also be adding level 2 quotes to their tools soon. As far as educational materials goes, they have video training sessions, live and recorded webinars and a web based community that is extremely helpful.

Customer Service

The customer service department for TradeMONSTER is open from 8:30 am till 6:00 pm ET. They have live chat available during these hours as well. Email can be utilized anytime day or night, as well as secure message. The customer service department is pretty helpful and they do train their staff to be able to help the traders with anything they might need.

Who Should Trade With This Company/Current Specials

It is clear by the fee structure and history of the company that they are set up for options trading. While they do offer other platforms it is not something that is their area of specialty. TradeMONSTER is clearly geared towards the options trader, after all the owners are options traders themselves. They currently do not offer International trading and are not recommended for day trading, the active trader or long term trading. Those who are interested in signing up can trade for free for 30 days and get an additional $250 when they open an account.

Awards/Conclusion

While they are still a rather new company in the online broker game, they still managed to pick up 4.5 starts from Barron’s. They were also rated the ‘Top web-only Broker’ and the third in ‘Best for Options Traders’. With only six years under their belt as online brokers, it is clear that TradeMONSTER needs to develop some more areas of their trading platforms. The option trading is exceptional and those who just trade options or are interested in getting involved in this type of trading should definitely consider this broker. What TradeMONSTER lacks in some areas it makes up in others. The fee structure offers some of the best prices in the industry and is worth checking out.
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