TD Ameritrade trading fees are low. The firm provides free EFT and stock trading. The bond, options, and option fees are low as well. TD Ameritrade Futures & Forex Llc is nonetheless one among the last five active forex brokers of the US market, along with FXCM, Forex.com (Gain Capital), Oanda and Interactive Brokers.
TD Ameritrade is an American brokerage providing investment and trading services in stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, options, fixed income, futures and currencies, also as margin loan and cash management services.
The forex brokerage arm – TD Ameritrade Futures & Forex Llc – offers trading around 100 major and exotic currency pairs, which is sort of an outsized portfolio. Another forex broker that features a relatively large forex portfolio is FxPro, with around 70 major and exotic pairs.
Pros and Cons of TD Ameritrade
Pros
- Free stocks and ETFs
- Low non-trading fees
- Low trading fees
- Free Bond trading
- Low Forex fees
Cons
- High withdrawal fees
- Credit/Debit card not available
- Only one account base currency
- High futures fees
- High fund fees
Minimum deposit
TD Ameritrade Futures & Forex Llc offers just one sort of live trading account: a typical account, which may be individual or joint. In theory, there are two options for minimum deposit requirements: $ 50 for a typical account and $ 2,000 for “margin privileges”. In practice, however, the minimum deposit required to trade the forex market is $ 2,000, in accordance with Ameritrade’s conditions for margin trading.
Its US counterparts like FXCM and Forex.com, for instance, require a typical account of $ 5,000 for US clients and $ 50, respectively.
Spreads / Fees
TD Ameritrade offers trading on currency pairs: standard commission free and on commission.
Pairs without commission are traded in increments of 10,000 units (mini lots). Commission-based pairs trade 1000 units (micro lots) and since they’re not marked by the interbank provider, they’ll have tighter or wider spreads as their quotes aren’t regulated by the dealing desk. The commission is calculated supported the currency of the counter, but are going to be around $ 1.00 minimum and around $ 0.10 per microlot.
Maximum leverage
The leverage effect on forex trading within the USA is restricted to 1:50. TD Ameritrade complies with regulatory requirements and offers a maximum leverage of 1:50 on major currency pairs. That of the exotic pairs is even lower: 1:20.
Trading platforms
TD Ameritrade features a proprietary trading platform called Thinkorswim. it’s an all-in-one and users can trade forex also as futures, stock options, etc. from one account. it’s a strong and versatile platform that gives advanced analytics tools, educational materials and tutorials, real-time data, personalization strategies, live chat, statistics, and more.
thinkorswim provides access to over 400 technical studies starting from support and resistance to candlestick and profile. there’s also a choice of 20 designs, including eight Fibonacci tools. The platform allows users to create their own trading algorithms with thinkScript.
The downside is that thinkorswim is extremely advanced and somewhat complicated for inexperienced traders.
The platform also allows synchronization between all devices and has apps for smartphones and tablets.
However, TD Ameritrade doesn’t offer other trading platforms, just like the popular MetaTraders for instance. By comparison, additionally to its competitor within the US market, FXCM offers the MetaTrader 4, additionally to its own trading station.
Non-trading Fees
Deposit Fees
TD Ameritrade accepts account funding through its own Automated financial institution (ACC) services – electronic funding. Other ways to seek out an account are by wire transfer and check. We couldn’t find any information on whether the broker accepts other funding methods like PayPal, for instance, but the solution is presumably “no”. It is important to note that there is no minimum fee to open a new account. However, there is a $2,000 minimum deposit required to be considered for margin privileges.
| Deposit fee | Deposit method | Minimum deposit | Maximum deposit | Completion Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $0 | Electronic Bank Deposit (ACH) | $50 | $250,000 | 5 mins |
| $0 | Physical Stock Certificates | No limit | No limit | 1 business day |
| $0 | Account Transfer from Another Firm | No limit | No limit | About a week |
| $0 | Check | No limit | No limit | 1 – 3 business days |
| $0 | Wire Transfer | No limit | No limit | 1 business day |
Withdrawal Fees
The withdrawal fees are high to wire withdrawals. The safe option here is to use bank transfer method which has no withdrawal fee. The negative side again, is that you can only use the USD base currency account.
| Withdrawal fee | Withdrawal method | Minimum withdrawal | Maximum withdrawal | Completion Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $0 | ACH Withdrawal | No limit | $250,000 | 1 business day |
| $75 | ACAT Withdrawal | No limit | $250,000 | 1 business day |
| $0 | Physical Stock Certificates | No limit | $250,000 | 1 business day |
| $0 | Account Transfer from Another Firm | No limit | $250,000 | About a week |
| $0 | Check | No limit | No limit | 1 – 3 business days |
| $25 | Wire Transfer | No limit | No limit | 1 business day |
Final comment
TD Ameritrade Futures & Forex Llc may be a purely American forex brokerage, which started operations earlier in 2016 and is currently only active within the us.
It is one among the five forex brokers currently active within the country, although it’s considered a lucrative market. the rationale for the tiny number of forex brokers within the us is that the regulations are very strict and therefore the requirements for forex brokers are strict.
Even though forex isn’t TD Ameritrade’s core business, it appears to be a really stable and well-regulated broker that gives an in-depth portfolio of around 100 currency pairs.
It has a proprietary trading platform, which has its good and bad sides. On the one hand, one can trade both forex and ETFs, stocks, options, etc. On the opposite hand, it’s not very suitable for novice forex traders.