TradeKing.com IRA Review

TradeKing.com is one of the leaders in the online discount broker business with their $4.95 market and limit equity trades and $4.95 option trades (+65 cents per contract). It was named Smart Money #1 Discount Broker in both 2006 and 2007 and likely will win for 2008 as well. It is comforting to know that a reputable publication like Smart Money is willing to stake it’s reputation and name it #1 in discount brokers two years running (it also happens to be #1 in online discount brokers as rated by me!).

So, what are the specifics of their IRAs? Well first off, TradeKing.com does not charge an annual fee for maintaining an IRA account, which is relatively rare. By comparison, Vanguard has a sizable fee that can be avoided if you request all electronic notifications. TradeKing.com also charges a $50 fee for closing your IRA or transferring out funds but that’s a standard fee in the industry.

Lastly, another nice, and rare, feature is that TradeKing.com has no account minimums. If you want a Vanguard account, the minimum you need to open an account is $3,000. While you’ll always want to put as much as you can into your IRAs in the beginning, it’s always nice to know that you can start with $100 if you really want to. Of course you won’t want to begin trading yet because even at $4.95 a trade, each transaction costs you 5% of your portfolio if it’s only $100.

So, TradeKing.com looks like a pretty good place to put your IRA if you haven’t yet picked a spot for it yet. Smart Money can’t be wrong two years in a row, can they?

If you’d like to learn more, he’s a far more in-depth TradeKing review at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.