TD Ameritrade: An Overview

TD Ameritrade caters only to traders based in the United States. As of the first chapter of 2020, client accounts within the brokerage firm had reached over 12 million with the customer assets it holds had already reached $1.1 trillion.  

This broker has a lot to offer, including investors stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, bonds, options, futures, and Forex trading.

Amongst known regulated brokers, the TD Ameritrade group remains to be the only ones offering Retail Forex in the United States.  

The firm is based in Omaha, Nebraska and had established other satellite trading bases in Southlake, Texas, and St, Louis, Missouri. 

Sources of Revenue

Within the late chapter of the year 2019, TD Ameritrade took 33.3 of its revenues from commissions and fees, 28% from the firm’s bank deposit account program, 25.5$ from interest, 9% from investment fees, and the remaining 3% from other sources.

 Legitimacy

Let’s get the question off our heads first: Is TD Ameritrade a broker safe to trade with? Let’s answer that by looking at its regulation.

Publicly-traded and operates a bank, TD Ameritrade FX is given authorization by 5 tier-1 regulators, namely, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), the Securities Futures Commission (SFC), the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), making the firm of high trust.

What TD Ameritrade FX Offers

Additional Forex instruments are also thrown in which come in the form of Options and Futures on pairs, along with the UD Dollar Index, Interest rates are also in the fore, as well as precious metals, grains, stock indices, energy, soft commodities, and livestock futures contracts/ The firm enables its clients to execute orders through the ME, CBOT, NYMEX, COMEX, ICE US, and CFE.

The firm also allows for Cryptocurrency trading, specifically Bitcoin Futures and Greyscale’s Bitcoin Investment Trust (Ticker $GBTC). Cryptocurrency services will be made available in the long-run through what is called ErisX, a derivatives exchange and clearing organization regulated by the CFTC.

Through TD Ameritrade FX, Spot Trading and Social Trading/Copy-Trading are possible. The firm also trades a total of 75 currency pairs.

Costs When Trading With TD Ameritrade FX

TD Ameritrade FX’s average spread data makes it possible for clients to assess the exact costs of trading Forex. The firm’s pricing is competitive and is at par with the industry standard. 

A calculator tool is provided by TD Ameritrade FX. This aids traders estimate what’s called the”Cost of Carry” for currency pairs. This is reliant on the direction of the trade and its order size.

GAIN Capital, owner to FOREX.com, serves as TD Ameritrade FX’s liquidity provider. For the financial year stretching from October 2018 to September 2019, the broker’s EUR/USD contract is pegged at 1.06 pips.

TD Ameritrade FX does not require a minimum initial deposit. On top of that, active traders and VIPs get various discounts.

The Exchange Software

Thinkorswim is TD Ameritrade FX’s trading platform. And while one would be compelled to spend a considerable amount of time to learn through all the software’s functionality, the tools made available to the firm’s clients are reliable and efficient. 

The good thing about Thinkorswim is its compartmentalization of products into individual tabs. This makes for a more streamlined and highly-effective trading. The platform’s Forex Trader module shows all rates for the 6 primary currencies that the firm trades. For all pairs included in the 75 currency pairs that the firm trades, each is kept in its module for customization.

With charting, TD Ameritrade FX has 382 technical indicators, the highest count that a firm offers in the trading industry. Should apt conditions be met, an additional 83 indicator-based strategies are made available that will; serve to trigger trading signals. There are also 58 common candlestick patterns subject for customization through an editor. New technical indicators may also be created or modified much like what can be found in platforms like JForex3 and the widely-known MetaTrader4.

 Education

The Thinkorswim platform also offers educational tools such as live coverage from the CNBC and TD Ameritrade Network TV. Data are also sent by other finance media titans such as Reuters and Morningstar.

FRED Data is included in the platform. It is purposeful for market and financial research as it includes historical data on U.S. interest rates and other U.S. economic indicators.

An economic calendar is made available in the exchange. It includes out-of-the box features such as the client’s capability of filtering it in accordance to news events. Prompts for events that bear relevance to a trader’s portfolio may also be set.

The Mobile Application

TD Ameritrade FX’s mobile application is available for both Android and iOS,

The application effectively reflects the web platform’s research capacity. The calendar, news streaming, and global economic indicator events are included in the app. This makes it easy for clients to monitor of leads and potential investments.

Another standout feature that the TD Ameritrade FX’s application offers is its mobile charting. And why is that?  The app includes technical indicators of up to 400 that can easily be inserted in charts. This feature allows for the creation of a template through the addition of a study to a chart upon the opening of other charts or logging back in. 

Trading With TD Ameritrade FX

TD Ameritrade FX’s many offerings make it highly viable. What attracts clients the most is the firm’s willingness to offer its trading services without a minimum initial deposit. This strongly suggests that the company is not afraid to put a stake on its potential clients, which is ultimately a good come-on.

In addition, the spreads and commissions are entirely attractive with its competitive pricing. And what seems to be an icing to the cake is its allotment for trading digital currencies, something that the global market is eyeing to be the future of all economic transactions.

As always, while the feature had presented the positive offerings made possible by this broker, it is still commendable that the reader make up his or her mind, not through the mere word of this literature, but through actual legwork and due diligence. We must well remember that trading CFDs, FX, and cryptocurrencies are high risk market activities making the stakes higher when considering a brokerage firm to do trades with.