Markus Heitkoetter
Rockwell Trading
In this article, I’m going to dive into the details of selecting the best brokerage account in 2020.
Here are some of the questions we’re going to consider when selecting the best brokerage account:
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What brokers do we have?
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What are the best criteria?
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What is the difference between the brokerages?
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Where can I open a brokerage account?
It’s 2020… and we have several options to choose from when selecting a brokerage!
When my head trading coach Mark Hodge and I had a discussion of which brokerages to consider, we created a simple list of the most important criteria to consider.
Here are the top 8 criteria that I use when selecting a brokerage:
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Easy to short stocks
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Sell Naked Calls and Puts (level 3 and 4)
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Margin Interest Rate
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Understanding Margin impact
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Commissions for 50 options
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Platform ease of use
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Live data feed
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Customer service
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Overall rating
It’s important to remember that you may have a different set of criteria or requirements for the brokerage that you select. The criteria I’ve selected is based on my own personal experience. These are the things that I feel are important when selecting the best brokerage.
What brokers are we going to review?
Although there are many different brokerages to choose from, we’re going to review TD Ameritrade, Interactive Brokers, Webull and Tastyworks.
TD Ameritrade
Overall Rating
TD Ameritrade is a great platform. For the purpose of this article, we gave this platform 4th place. Although TD Ameritrade has extensive features, we found it to have higher commissions and lack some of the features we need. TD Ameritrade has fantastic customer service and free live data, but it lacks the ability to short stocks easily and it has high margin interest rates. This translates to less profitability over a long period of time.
Easy to short stocks No
Sell Naked Calls and Puts (level 3 and 4) Yes
Margin Interest Rate 9.25%
Understanding Margin impact Easy
Commissions for 50 options $65
Platform ease of use Ok
Live data Feed Free
Customer service Great
Interactive Brokers
Overall rating
We found in our review of Interactive Brokers that the platform had poor customer service. As a professional trader, I typically don’t need extensive customer service. But the purpose of this review is to help newer traders select the best brokerage for them. For this reason, we’re giving Interactive Brokers 3rd place in this review.
Easy to short stocks Yes
Sell Naked Calls and Puts (level 3 and 4) Yes
Margin Interest Rate 1.55%
Understanding Margin impact Difficult
Commissions for 50 options $65
Platform ease of use No
Live data feed Pay
Customer service Poor
Webull
Overall Rating
I really love what I saw when looking at Webull. ZERO commissions, very easy to use, and shorts stocks easily! What’s not to love? Well.. there are a few things. You can’t sell naked calls and puts YET. Supposedly they will have this feature in late 2020. When Webull has this feature, I will definitely be signing up and using their platform! Since we’re looking for the BEST brokerage…we’re giving Webull a solid 2nd place!
Easy to short stocks Yes
Sell Naked Calls and Puts (level 3 and 4) NOT yet.
Margin Interest Rate 6.99%
Understanding Margin impact Ok
Commissions for 50 options $0
Platform ease of use Very Easy
Live data feed ??
Customer service ??
TastyWorks
Overall Rating
From my perspective, TastyWorks is the BEST brokerage platform for 2020. It’s very easy to use has cheap commissions and the best functionality out of all of the brokerages we have considered to date. We’re giving Tastyworks first place in this competition!
Easy to short stocks Yes
Sell Naked Calls and Puts (level 3 and 4) Yes
Margin Interest Rate 8%
Understanding Margin impact Super Easy
Commissions for 50 options $10
Platform ease of use Very Easy
Live data feed Free
Customer service Good
In Conclusion
When selecting the best brokerage of 2020, we believe the clear choice is TastyTrade. Due to the ease of use, functionality, and overall costs, this platform is a great place to get started. It’s important to remember that you may have a different set of criteria when selecting a brokerage. The information considered in this article is my personal opinion. Please do your own diligent research when making important decisions regarding the trading platform you will use.
Trading Futures, options on futures and retail off-exchange foreign currency transactions involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. You should carefully consider whether trading is suitable for you in light of your circumstances, knowledge, and financial resources. You may lose all or more of your initial investment. The lower the day trade margin, the higher the leverage and riskier the trade. Leverage can work for you as well as against you; it magnifies gains as well as losses. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Editors’ Picks
EUR/USD bounces off lows, back to 1.1860
EUR/USD now manages to regain some balance, retesting the 1.1860-1.1870 band after bottoming out near 1.1830 following the US NFP data on Wednesday. The pair, in the meantime, remains on the defensive amid fresh upside traction surrounding the US Dollar.
GBP/USD rebounds to 1.3660, USD loses momentum
GBP/USD trades with decent gains in the 1.3660 region, regaining composure following the post-NFP knee-jerk toward the 1.3600 zone on Wednesday. Cable, in the meantime, should now shift its attention to key UK data due on Thursday, including preliminary GDP gauges.
USD/JPY remains heavy around 153.00 on firmer Japanese Yen
USD/JPY is sustaining its three-day rout at around 153.00 in the European session on Wednesday, awaiting the closely-watched US NFP report. Rising bets on Fed rate cuts keep the US Dollar depressed. In contrast, expectations that PM Takaichi's policies will boost the economy and allow the BoJ to stick to its hawkish stance bolster the Japanese Yen, weighing on the pair amid intervention fears.
Editors’ Picks
EUR/USD bounces off lows, back to 1.1860
EUR/USD now manages to regain some balance, retesting the 1.1860-1.1870 band after bottoming out near 1.1830 following the US NFP data on Wednesday. The pair, in the meantime, remains on the defensive amid fresh upside traction surrounding the US Dollar.
GBP/USD rebounds to 1.3660, USD loses momentum
GBP/USD trades with decent gains in the 1.3660 region, regaining composure following the post-NFP knee-jerk toward the 1.3600 zone on Wednesday. Cable, in the meantime, should now shift its attention to key UK data due on Thursday, including preliminary GDP gauges.
Gold stays bid, still below $5,100
Gold keeps the bid tone well in place on Wednesday, retargeting the $5,100 zone per troy ounce on the back of humble gains in the US Dollar and firm US Treasury yields across the curve. Moving forward, the yellow metal’s next test will come from the release of US CPI figures on Friday.
Ripple Price Forecast: XRP sell-side pressure intensifies despite surge in addresses transacting on-chain
Ripple (XRP) is edging lower around $1.36 at the time of writing on Wednesday, weighed down by low retail interest and macroeconomic uncertainty, which is accelerating risk-off sentiment.
US jobs data surprises to the upside, boosts stocks but pushes back Fed rate cut expectations
This was an unusual payrolls report for two reasons. Firstly, because it was released on Wednesday, and secondly, because it included the 2025 revisions alongside the January NFP figure.
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