Now that TD Ameritrade owns ThinkOrSwim, I have thought about the consequences of the commissions going up for ThinkOrSwim traders when the hand over takes place. TD Ameritrade’s commission structure is very different from that of ThinkOrSwim’s. TD Ameritrade also has another broker, Izone, which is not as publicized as ThinkOrSwim. So how does Izone compete with ThinkOrSwim?
Do you trade futures or currencies?
If you trade futures or currencies, you will have to go with ThinkOrSwim. Izone does not offer trading these types of investments.
Stocks, Options, and Mutual Funds
Now, the debating begins. If you trade stocks, Izone charges $5 per self-direct trade and ThinkOrSwim has two pricing options. First, you can pay $0.015 per share with a minimum of $5 or pay $9.95 per trade for orders up to 5,000 shares.
Option trading with Izone will cost you $5 plus $0.75 per contract. ThinkOrSwim charges $0.95 – $1.50 per contract, depending on number of option trades per month and the amount of assets you have in ThinkOrSwim accounts. If you trade just a few option trades per month with only a few contracts, ThinkOrSwim might be a better choice but for larger trades, you might want to look at Izone.
ThinkOrSwim offers three mutual fund trades per month at no cost after that it costs $15 per trade. Mutual funds at Izone are dependent on the type of fund purchased. Izone charges nothing for NTF (No Transaction-Fee) and Load funds but charges $17.99 for No Load Funds.
Customer Support
ThinkOrSwim is excellent! Call them and you will get questions answered or problems fixed. Izone, however, does not offer tech support over the phone, only through e-mail. TD Ameritrade made Izone for the independent trader that needs very little help.
Trading Platforms
ThinkOrSwim and Izone have two different trading platforms geared towards different traders. ThinkOrSwim’s platform gears toward option traders; Izone is more for stock traders. Izone offers the same trading platform (Command Center 2.0, StrategyDesk, Pattern Matcher, etc) that you would receive if you were a regular TD Ameritrade client. Both have great platforms depending on what you are looking for.
Different Needs, Different Brokers
In the end, these brokers are very different from each other and offer services geared towards different traders. Stock and options traders will find both brokers useful but if you want to trade more than stocks, options, and mutual funds; you only have one choice…ThinkOrSwim.
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