Zecco and TradeKing are top discount brokers for those interested in cheap stock trades. But which online stock brokerage account would you open?
Zecco or TradeKing?
Because Zecco and TradeKing are considered a couple of the cheapest online discount brokers around, I thought to summarize what it is that makes them so popular. Also, knowing their pros and cons may help you make the decision as to which broker to open an account with.
TradeKing: Cheap Stock Trades With Awesome Customer Service
What’s great about TradeKing? In a nutshell, they offer very low trading fees at $4.95 a stock trade along with great customer service and no hidden fees. They are also one of the most recognized online brokers, having won top awards from media publications like Smart Money and Barron’s in recent years.
They are a young company, but already making waves in the online brokerage community. They were voted by SmartMoney as the #1 Discount Broker for 2006 and 2007, and #1 in Customer Service in 2008. Barron’s 2008 Online Broker Survey ranked them 2nd out of 15 other online brokers for Usability and Cost. They received Barron’s highest ranking of 4 stars in their latest annual survey.
TradeKing: Features of Their Online Stock Brokerage Account
Here’s a quick run through of their features:
- They charge an extremely low flat fee for trades which everyone receives regardless of account size or the frequency of trades made. Their pricing structure is very simple: just $4.95 per trade plus 65 cents per option contract.
- They offer a standard investment menu of stocks, mutual funds, ETFs (exchanged traded funds) and options. Fixed income investments such as U.S. Treasury issues, CDs and bonds are also available, but this may require you to contact a representative.
- They have a wide range of trading and investment tools available to all customers, such as calculators, charts, alerts, real-time quotes, customized charting, free investment research, stock and fund screeners, streaming news and a learning center.
- They offer a comprehensive array of educational materials presented through podcasts, mp3s, videos and written articles. They also have highly informative downloadable audio seminars. Their educational resources cover basic to advanced investment material.
- They’ve got great support. You can make online transactions or contact a live individual to help you with your transactions. Note, however, that they may not offer the level of support that full service brokers do, but that would be expected given their business model.
- Their site is highly intuitive and user-friendly; there are video demos and virtual tours to help you with navigating their site and to help you quickly get up to speed with their environment.
- They’ve got an active and helpful user community, which they’ve pioneered in the online stock brokerage space.
- They’ll refund your transfer charges up to $150, if you switch to their brokerage.
- They have a refer-a-friend set up where they offer you $50 for each friend you send their way.
- And best of all? They’ve won several awards for top-notch customer service!
Zecco: Free Stock Trades With Caveats
For a while, Zecco had one great advantage over a lot of other online stock brokerages — the offer of free stock trades if you can handle a small requirement. Just open your online stock brokerage account with them for $2,500 and you would be entitled to 10 free stock trades per month.
Unfortunately, some changes are in the works with Zecco. They have made it harder for customers to qualify for those monthly 10 free stock trades. You now need to maintain a $25,000 balance or make 25 transactions per month to be eligible for the free trades.
Zecco Online Stock Brokerage Account Features
- They offer free stock trades if you have a fairly large account ($25,000) or if you trade frequently. Otherwise, you’ll pay $4.50 per stock trade plus 50 cents per option contract, but no annual account fees.
- They offer real time quotes for free and streaming quotes for an additional charge.
- They’ve got a variety of tools though some are offered for a fee. There’s a no cost two month trial period where you can use their premium Performance and Tax Planning tools as a new customer. But they also have free stock screeners, calculators, alerts and options tools at your disposal.
- They’ve got educational and training materials as well, which you can find in their Zecco EDU section.
- They offer a wide selection of investment products, but won’t be supporting online bond trading till later in the year.
- They also have an active user community called ZeccoShare.
The Verdict? Price Is Not Everything
If you’re an active trader or are willing to carry a large balance with Zecco, then the free stock trades may be their strongest selling point. However, I hear many customers admit that this may be the only advantage Zecco has over TradeKing at this point in time. But will it be the case for long?
TradeKing is awesome in many respects — the customer service, tools and community they provide are well regarded by the financial community. For more passive investors, their low cost commissions are at par with Zecco’s regular fees. So if you’re less of a trader and more of a long term investor, then TradeKing may be a strong choice for you.
However, Zecco promises to upgrade their trading platform to improve reliability, and introduce improved trading features, better account management and faster response times later on this year. Will the new and improved Zecco have the edge by then? I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how these changes pan out!
- Stock trades: Free stock trades from Zecco, Cheap stock trades from TradeKing, Stock news and Investment info at INO TV Free, No cost Trend Analysis for stocks
- Earn top returns: FNBO Direct [1.90%], HSBC Direct [1.65%], WTDirect [1.76%], E*Trade Bank [0.95%], ING Direct [.25% to 1.65%]
- Cash bonus: Discover More [$50], American Express [$25], Lending Club [$25]
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{ 5 comments }
Currently I’m not making active trades, but someday I hope to again. If I was in the market for a new broker I’d probably go with Zecco. I know the brand better and in my experience the online community is more familiar with it is well, which makes it easier to discuss tactics.
I haven’t used TradeKing or Zecco, but if I were to open an account, I would have to go with TradeKing. At least until Zecco becomes more reliable and offers better investing tools. My number one priority for a discount brokerage is cost. Now that Zecco is no longer offering free trades, I have to rely on my number two priority, which is investing tools. I will have to re-evaluate once I have enough money to start a play account.
I absolutely love Zecco and use it for all of my trades over the past year and a half. Just if the market would turn around now…
Zecco is young and shows it. How do you take a USP then axe it because you are on the verge on blowing all your capital and going bankrupt? Tradeking is straight forward with its promises, and has made any changes except positive ones since they launched. They’ve always had a $150 cashback bonus, but many investors were unaware because the information is hidden in their website. Unless you already have hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest, I would go with Tradeking to save time, money, and your retirement dream
I have a Zecco account and have had no problems with it. It’s worked pretty well for me and I’ve saved a lot of bucks on my trades over the last few months. If I had been using some other broker, it would have cost me a fortune for sure. Tradeking doesn’t have the free trades freebie and if they did, I may open an account with them. I’m going for the savings here.
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