TD Ameritrade

TD Ameritrade

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About TD Ameritrade

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TD Ameritrade is an online broker of investment trading. It supports a variety of investment products, including stocks, ETFs, options, mutual funds, annuities and cryptocurrency trading. It provides free educational materials, proprietary tools and software, portfolio management and customer service to support investors. Some trades require no commission, and the company is transparent about other fees.

Featured Reviews

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Aurora, CO

TD Ameritrade has made my investing go smoothly... When I first opened my account I was very new to investing but with their mobile app and online tools together with live support...

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Whitehouse Station, New Jersey

For online trading accounts TD Ameritrade surpasses Robin Hood and Wee bull in spades. It is the only brokerage account that you can actually speak to somebody in person right awa...

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What is TD Ameritrade?

TD Ameritrade is an online broker of investing and trading services. It offers online tools and web and mobile platforms for users to trade easily, test investment strategies and perform analyses. Its investment products include:

  • Stocks
  • ETFs
  • Mutual funds
  • Options
  • Futures
  • Forex
  • Cryptocurrency trading
  • Bonds
  • Annuities
  • IPOs

The company also provides cash solutions and managed portfolios. Its online stock, ETF and options trades result in $0 commissions. Trades of other investment products and all broker-assisted trades require fees, however.

In addition to trading, TD Ameritrade also provides educational materials and guidance on its website to help you get your investments in order and reach your goals.

How does TD Ameritrade work?

With TD Ameritrade, users must open up an account before buying and trading. The company’s account options include:

  • Standard Accounts for most individual and joint accounts
  • Retirement Accounts including Traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs and Rollover IRAs
  • Education Accounts for education costs
  • Specialty Accounts including trusts, pension plans and others
  • Managed Portfolios in which a TD Ameritrade professional manages your portfolio for you
  • Margin Trading for investment borrowing

After opening your account, manage it with TD Ameritrade’s platforms and apps, including:

  • Web platforms: These have all the tools to research, plan and stay up to date on market trends.
  • thinkorswim Desktop software: Offers high-powered tools that enable analysis, strategy testing and risk/reward monitoring.
  • thinkorswim Web app: Offers the same options as the desktop software but designed for the internet.
  • Mobile trading: Lets you manage your trading from multiple devices. This platform even has an option for staying on top of your trades via an Apple Watch.

Through these platforms, you can research stocks, place trades and manage your portfolio.

TD Ameritrade fees

TD Ameritrade’s fees depend on the investment product and the level of service you require, but all online trades of U.S. exchange-listed stocks, ETFs and mutual funds require $0 commission. Fees for other investment products and services range from $0 to $49.99.

Before buying and trading with TD Ameritrade, review all commissions, brokerage fees and margin and interest rates. The company has transparent and up-to-date fees on its website.

TD Ameritrade FAQ

Is TD Ameritrade good for beginning investors?

Yes, TD Ameritrade has resources for beginning investors and platforms that guide you through the trading process.

Can you use TD Ameritrade for mobile trading?

Yes, TD Ameritrade has a platform that is specifically for mobile trading.

Does TD Ameritrade have an app?

Yes, TD Ameritrade has an app that allows you to manage your accounts on the go.

Does TD Ameritrade offer mock trading?

Yes, TD Ameritrade offers a virtual stock market simulator called paperMoney.

Is TD Ameritrade safe?

Yes. TD Ameritrade is a trusted company with a long-standing name in investment buying and trading, and it’s stayed up to date with its technology and online resources. It offers a diverse array of investment products, account types and trading tools. Plus, TD Ameritrade offers some trading with $0 commission and is transparent about all other fees.

TD Ameritrade Reviews

ConsumerAffairs has collected 369 reviews and 935 ratings.

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Reviewed Sept. 8, 2023

Be careful using TD Ameritrade. I have reason to believe that they trade against their clients, take a corresponding short or opposite position, and they will pounce on you if your stocks are in a temporary downward trend and you're on margin. After charging me margin interest, TD Ameritrade suddenly changed its margin requirements for a stock I held and force liquidated a partial position of mine, causing an unnecessary loss on 9/7. The stock had been in the same range prior to the changed margin requirements. To no one's surprise, the stock jumped 7% today on 9/8.

I also have reason to believe that they are actively trading against their clients or at least assisting algo's, hedge funds, market makers, and more sophisticated (or deep-pocketed) traders and institutions to front-run a person's retail trades on TD Ameritrade. Whenever I sell an option, the price of the underlying moves against me. Almost instantaneously. Don't use TD Ameritrade. Their margin rates are high, they can change the margin rules at any time, and they can decide to enforce/implement margin rules to cause you a loss (plus they will have charged you interest). I'm filing a complaint with FINRA, the FTC, the CFPB, state securities authorities, and exploring legal action. I've been a customer with TD Ameritrade for 20 years and this was the last straw.

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Reviewed Aug. 11, 2023

My mother passed away in March 2023. Five months later, TDAmeritrade is keeping her funds & will not give it to her named beneficiaries. On 5/18/23, I contacted TDAI to submit the paperwork & death certificate needed to start the inheritance claim. The auto reply stated they would get back to me with further instructions within 5 days. They never did get back to me. On 7/7/23 I started calling every day only to get excuses, runaround, & lies from 31 agents; Luis & Martin twice each. I conference call with my financial advisor & solo every day for the past 5 weeks. I have made 35 phone calls totaling 455 minutes to date.

TDAI never contacts me about whatever problems are preventing them from opening an account for me & dispersing the estate, but every time I call they find a new NIGO that is holding everything up. They cannot accept the electronic signatures, the docusigned Form 9017, or the ink signed 9017 emailed to estates@tdameritrade.com, nor can they accept the 9017 that my financial advisor uploaded in the secure portal. Their last excuse was that the 9017 that they gave me was an out of date revision. So they sent me an identical 9017 with the new revision date on it, but that hasn't opened my account yet either.

The masterpiece of customer disservice however, is that someone in Estates has put a note in my file that this whole matter needs to be handled by Institutional, while someone in Institutional has put a note in my file that all of this is to be handled by Estates. So no matter who I call, they tell me that it's supposed to be handled by the other department. If they did not conspire on that, there are two criminal geniuses at TD Ameritrade finding ways to frustrate, annoy, and rob their clients. Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice. Hey, TDAmeritrade: open my account and fund it from my mom's estate. This should have been a one call transaction months ago, not my endless part time job.

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    Reviewed Aug. 3, 2023

    For several weeks now, my siblings and I have been trying to move the funds from my deceased father's IRA into beneficiary IRAs. It is supposed to take only 3-5 days for Ameritrade to create a beneficiary IRA, but not with Ameritrade. With Ameritrade, it looks like it could take several months. I submitted my application for the beneficiary IRA on 7/18/23. On 7/26/23 I called for an update, and was told they were currently working on applications from 7/1/23. On 8/3/23 I again called for an update, and was told they are currently working on applications submitted 6/3023. What?! They're going backward instead of forwards?

    Something is definitely not right... but Ameritrade won't connect me with anyone who can give me any answers. In the meantime, the funds are locked into Ameritrade and we cannot move them elsewhere until the funds are moved into the beneficiary IRAs. Maybe that's why Ameritrade is taking so long to create those beneficiary IRAs... they want to continue using our money as long as they can. Either way, what they're doing cannot be legal.

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    Reviewed March 7, 2023

    IN 2023, I simply cannot understand why TD charges $2.25 a contract for futures trading. It is crazy it is not justifiable whatsoever. It is not that TOS is the most superior platform out there compared to others especially when it comes to Futures trading yet their charges are simply ridiculous. I would love to use TOS since I can integrate all my trading in one platform, that is Options, stocks and futures but I had to move to other platforms that are fair in futures pricing....until TD get back to their senses and review this unjustifiable Futures commission.

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    Reviewed Nov. 19, 2022

    Well I am A victim of identity theft with identity theft.gov and somehow I already A 401k, cryptocurrency, stock, bonds, and I already have been given retirement documents from the social security administration, and TD Ameritrade has on my documents retired as a professional trader and federal government entrepreneur.

    Once again I'm beating myself up daily because my credit score is poor and I can't get A startup business loan from anybody in which identity theft plays A big part into. But I don't know if this company has established partnerships with different regions but I'm with the European Economic Area United Kingdom and Switzerland and the business structure is accurate connectivity with accurate intellectual property. They want to commercialize in other countries 12 million United Kingdom users and 3 million Asian users and just maybe if but from the looks of it I doubt any changes just based off the representative customer service skills but maybe you guys can reach out to them on the behalf of TDANINJA04 LLC that improvement are A must. Thank you for your help and services.

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    Reviewed Oct. 31, 2022

    I have had an account open with them from early '2007. Last year + they keep reorganizing securities seems like every month, as soon as they charge you $38.- and you pay it, they find another reorganizing fee to charge you with, it is total **, so watch your account is melting away just paying their fees: sample right here...

    09/14/2022 06:44:44 MANDATORY REORGANIZATION FEE (007025109) -38.00
    09/06/2022 13:54:31 MANDATORY REORGANIZATION FEE (CTEK) -38.00

    10/03/2022 06:50:21 MANDATORY REORGANIZATION FEE (030382105) -38.00

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    Reviewed Oct. 24, 2022

    I have given them two opportunities to keep my business. The first time they promised me a $1000 bonus for moving my $500k to their platform and never paid it. I moved my money to Merrill. The second time I moved a small amount there to trade SPX and they gave me instructions on how to remove a hold from an ACH deposit so I would have funds available to trade before a Google earnings report. I sent them the requested document from my BoA branch manager and, after receiving it, they then told me "Oh, it needs to have this special verbiage."

    So why would you not tell me that when you sent me to get the document and waste half a day of my time as well as the branch manager's? I decided to just forget it and let the funds sit there on hold for four days even though they had the money the next day from the bank rather than look like an even bigger fool for having to go back and get another document. There are better, faster, more respectful brokerages that treat you like they appreciate and welcome your business. Find one of those, in my opinion.

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    Reviewed Oct. 18, 2022

    Lost my mother-in-law in Dec '21 due to Covid; she had small Ameritrade account. After providing death certificate we were told to complete several pages to transfer account into her son's name and then he could close account. We submitted all documentation by Feb '22 and were given email confirmation all set. To this date, October '22 we have not gotten this taken care of, we continue to get monthly statements in my deceased mother in law name and when we call we get told to call back after another month, that it would be done and to this date not done. Terrible customer service.

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    Reviewed Oct. 11, 2022

    These people are unethical, politically driven monsters who will rape you of your money without warning within seconds. They only care about covering their own asses and will lie their heads off after they do so. They don't have to follow federal or FINRA guidelines and are given carte blanche to destroy people intentionally. Do not, I repeat, do not go to FINRA for anything. Do not go to a FINRA arbitration. The system is 100%, indisputably rigged. FINRA is not there to protect consumers. They are there to protect the brokerages and keep the table tilted. TURN AND RUN FROM TD AMERITRADE AND FINRA IF YOU VALUE YOUR HARD-EARNED MONEY. THESE PEOPLE ARE MONSTERS AND HAVE ZERO CONSCIENCE ABOUT PUTTING PEOPLE THROUGH LIVING HELL.

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    Reviewed Sept. 8, 2022

    One of my largest positions, Mineworx MWXRF decided to offer a Rights Offering @ 1.5 cents per share for a right to a share of common stock up to the amount on record July 18 ,22. Mineworx is a Canadian company and in in order to be eligible as a US resident, required a waiver. I received the waivers and instructions by mail from TD Ameritrade. TD however decided that they would Not allow me to participate because Mineworx is a Canadian company. TD Ameritrade had No trouble selling me 103,800 shares in 6 or 8 transactions (fees) I was on the phone twice over 45 minutes with TD refusing to give me the Exact reason for the denial of service. Mineworx has No problem and has said that the only broker that they had trouble with in this Rights Offering is TD Ameritrade.

    Because TD won't let me participate in this Rights Offering even though I have the completed waivers and funds in my account, I will suffer a 50% dilution because of a TD decision. As I read other people's feedback I have to add that I have been also frustrated with TD tying up my funds sometimes for days to a week. Also recently TD changed the software requirements for their website effectively locking me out unless I upgrade to the latest Intrusive iPhone Spyware

    I would NOT Recommend TD Ameritrade to anyone.

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    TD Ameritrade Company Information

    Company Name:
    TD Ameritrade
    Website:
    www.tdameritrade.com