Serious options traders are spoiled for choice these days. In the past, thinkorswim was the best options trading platform by a mile. These days, the tastyworks platform provides stiff competition.
Like thinkorswim, tastyworks was founded by traders for traders. At tastyworks futures, options on futures, and stocks can be traded as easily as options.
And while thinkorswim still has the edge when it comes to screeners and tools, tastyworks fees, commissions, and support are about as good as it gets.
What To Expect After The TastyWorks Login
What separates tastyworks from just about every other trading platform other than perhaps Robinhood is the social component.
When you enter your information in the tastyworks login area, you are brought to the trading platform which features a dashboard to view the trades other traders have placed.
You can follow other traders easily. So, if you find a trader has been consistently profitable and matches your trading style, it’s easy to virtually look over their shoulder.
During our tastyworks review, we were impressed to find TastyTrade, a financial news network streaming content all day and accessible free with just a few clicks.
The tastyworks platform is designed for active traders who want to improve their trading skills, and opportunities are abundant to follow successful traders and learn how to trade options from experts on-demand.
Tastyworks Commissions
What sets tastyworks apart from most brokers is its low commissions.
Stocks Commissions
To purchase stocks will cost you a flat rate of $5 to open positions while no commission is applied when closing stock trades.
An $0.0008 per share clearing fee is applied to all stock trades too.
Options Commissions
The cost to open options on stocks is $1 per contract. No commission is charged to close positions, except for a mandatory clearing fee of $0.10 per contract.
Equity option commissions are capped at $10 per leg.
Futures Commissions
Futures cost $1.25 per contract to open and to close.
Options On Futures Commissions
All futures options trades incur a clearing fee of $0.30 per contract but no commission is charged by tastyworks to close trades.
To open futures options trades, a fee of $2.50 per contract is charged.
Tastyworks Portfolio
When you login to most brokerage accounts, you don’t have a lot of control over the dashboard set up. At tastyworks, you can customize as much as you wish.
Each time you enter your information successfully in the tastyworks login area, you may customize the dashboard exactly how you want, whether that’s with daily gains, total gains, mark prices, or perhaps a dozen more categories.
More than that, you will be able to click over instantly to view the stock Grid, which provides a snapshot view of which stocks are in the green and which stocks are trading lower.
When you click on any of the stocks, the relevant options chain will pop up so you can start trading right away.
Tastyworks Fees
Some brokers nickel and dime you with hidden costs but tastyworks fees are very reasonable by comparison.
ACH deposits and withdrawals are free and no annual IRA maintenance fees are applied as they are at some other options brokers.
If you sign up for a tastyworks demo, you can look through the list of fees to make sure they’re in line with your expectations but we think you will be quite satisfied.
For options traders, exercise and assignment costs just $5, which is the same cost applied to receiving paper statements. Stick with electronic delivery is our recommendation!
It’s only if you are sending foreign wires or domestic wires that fees start to add up but where possible you can avoid them by choosing the ACH option.
For traders who want to buy stocks on margin or simply use margin for trading purposes, the best rate will be when using margin of over $1,000,000, at which point a 2% reduction is applied.
The tastyworks margin rates base rate applies to margin between $50,000 → $99,999. Above the higher end of the spectrum, discounts apply while below $50,000, the rates are up to 1% higher than the base rate.
YouTube Education
Want to improve your trading results? Most other brokers won’t have the in-depth education that tastytradde (tastyworks’ parent company) provides.
On the tastytrade YouTube channel, the quality of the options trading education and futures learning courses are without compare.
Every week, hot topics are discussed and new trading strategies are featured so whether you are new to stock market trading or an old timer who has been around the block for years, the opportunities to improve are almost endless.
Tastyworks Minimum Deposit
To get started at tastyworks, you don’t have to deposit a dime. No minimum funding requirement is in place to open an account and demo tastyworks.
However, an account equity of $2,000 is required if you want full margin privileges, which you probably will if you plan to sell options
Margin is required usually to either borrow stock or when selling options. For example, if you wish to buy more shares than you could afford based on the cash levels in your account or if you want to place bull put spreads, bear call spreads, or other credit spreads.
Serious Traders Should Review TastyWorks
If you have been looking for alternatives to other options trading brokers, tastyworks is hard to beat.
The tastyworks fees and commissions are about as competitive as any in the industry and the social component of the trading platform is second to none.
But what really sets tastyworks apart is the live video feed during trading hours, featuring actual traders talking about real trades, hot topics, and strategies.
Any stock, options, or futures traders serious about improving their results will find this feature to be almost priceless and, when combined with the ability to follow successful traders, we expect even the most experienced options traders will be thrilled with the platform.
Like thinkorswim, tastyworks could be a bit more intuitive for beginner traders but once you go through a demo it’s fairly straightforward to use, place trades, and track portfolio positions.
tastyworks, Inc. (“tastyworks”) has entered into a Market Agreement with Financhill (“Marketing Agent”) whereby tastyworks pays compensation to Marketing Agent to recommend tastyworks’ brokerage services. The existence of this Marketing Agreement should not be deemed as an endorsement or recommendation of Marketing Agent by tastyworks and/or any of its affiliated companies. Neither tastyworks nor any of its affiliated companies is responsible for the privacy practices of Marketing Agent or this website. tastyworks does not warrant the accuracy or content of the products or services offered by Marketing Agent or this website
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