Opening a trading account can be a scary proposition for some and it can seem a little overwhelming. Opening an account will require having a lot of information on hand, the investment industry is very highly regulated by the government and as such there are many hurdles to jump through. Not to worry though we will walk through the process together.
Why TradeKing
Darla and I use two different trading platforms to handle all our different investment portfolios – TradeKing and ThinkorSwim however ThinkorSwim has been bought out by TD Ameritrade and their fee structure for new clients is something I no longer can promote. I continue to use ThinkorSwim because we are grandfathered in under the old fee and commission schedule. For our new accounts we use TradeKing and that is what we used to open our most recent trading account.
TradeKing has a flat $4.95 flat rate trading price and competitive options trading prices. They’ve also won numerous service awards from SmartMoney, Barron’s, Kiplinger’s, and many others. I don’t want to sound like a commercial for them so if you want to know more about why we recommend TradeKing you can watch their video tour here.
How To Open A Trading Account
What You Need
- Mailing Address
- Social Security Number
- Driver’s License
- Contact Phone Numbers
- Annual Gross Income
- Bank Account Information
Open The Account
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Once you have everything ready the next step is to set up your account. The first question you will need to answer is the type of account – Individual, Joint, IRA, etc… Once you get pass this then we get to play a little game of 20 questions.
You’ll find yourself having to answer what seems like an army of questions but it’s the price paid when dealing with such a regulated industry. Eventually though the questions will end and your account will be activated.
Fund The Account
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Once you’ve made it through the question maze the next step is to fund the account.
You will find that you have several options for funding your account. TradeKing offers ACH Profile – the simplest and easiest, a direct link to your checking account – Wire Deposit, Check Deposit and Account Transfers. This is where you will need your account information in order to set up the links between your trading account and your checking account. This will allow you to fund and withdraw as needed.
Once all the funding is set up then you will have your fully functioning trading account up and running and ready for some action.
As a last special bonus if you transfer over to TradeKing you can get up to $150 of your transfer fees reimbursed! Click Here to find out more about this special program.
About Peter Serrano
Good article. I have used Tradeking for over 4 years now and they are a very good brokerage with great customer service and good pricing for the average investor. I also really like the community forum and chat feature that integrates really well with the site and allows you to talk to other traders and continue to learn about investing. I am excited to see what they will do now that they have merged with Zecco.com. I have used Zecco and while the platform wasn’t as good as Tradeking’s the spirit of customer service was comparable. I think the new company will be good for investors.