tradeMONSTER was built to bring professional grade information to retail investors.

tradeMONSTER, a subsidiary of optionMONSTER ® Holdings, Inc., was co−founded by Jon Najarian, Pete Najarian, and Dirk Mueller − professional traders and respected investment industry experts. Over the years, they had seen too many people make mistakes because they didn't have a disciplined investment process with a start−to−finish plan or weren't aware of the risks they were taking.

optionMONSTER.com was launched in 2006 to help make the professional's approach accessible to everyone, thereby reducing the gap between self-directed and institutional investing. tradeMONSTER followed with a launch in late 2008. While the timing of launching a brokerage firm in late 2008 as major Wall Street firms were failing might have been a bit unfortunate, they were immediately awarded a 4-star rating from Barron's. From the very beginning, tradeMONSTER's goal has been to help self−directed investors manage their money with the skill and confidence of professionals.

Commission Structure and Fees

tradeMONSTER has competitive commissions and fees, but quite frankly, so does almost every online brokerage these days. They charge $7.50 for stocks trades, and $.50 per contract for options trades. They do impose a $12.50 minimum on option trades for single-leg trades, and $7.50 per leg on multi-leg trades. Their margin rates are based on the Fed Funds rate, and vary from Fed Funds +1% to Fed Funds +3.25%, depending upon your debit balance.

While their cost structure is on par with most other brokers, where they stand out is in their technology, education, and support. In this day and age of high competition in the online brokerage space, costs have become very similar from firm to firm, however, service and support haven't.

Tools

Barron's Magazine gave tradeMONSTER 4.5 stars for their Portfolio Analysis & Report features, and also rated them 4-stars for Research Amenities. With many online brokers today, you're required to make a certain number of trades a month to get access to their full line of streaming quotes tools. However, at TradeMonster, everybody gets access to the all their tools.

Since the background of tradeMONSTER management lies in options trading, a lot of their tools have options traders in mind. They have several powerful tools, most notably SpreadMAKER and AdjustTRADE, which are designed to help you tailor your options trading. They also have portfolio simulators that let you see how your trade would react to market changes before putting your money on the line. An added bonus is that all of their tools are internet based, so there is no software to download. This makes it so you can trade from any computer or mobile device.

While options oriented, they also have great tools for stock traders, such as their analysis report cards. All you have to do is enter a stock symbol and it will give you key fundamental data at-a-glance in one screen. Then you can drill down for more detailed information including financial performance, earnings growth, dividends, analyst ratings and similar stocks. The report card will give you an overall grade, as well as grades on individual components of the fundamental analysis.

Try it Before You Buy It

tradeMonster offers a free virtual trading account to anybody who opens an account with them, even if your account hasn't been funded. This will allow you to test their platform, browse their educational pieces, and use their proprietary trading tools before funding your account.

Overall Assessment

We believe tradeMONSTER is a great choice for the average retail investor. Their tools and trading platform will greatly improve your odds of trading on the same level as a professional, without having a multi-million dollar account and decades of trading experience. Give them a try. We think you'll be pleased.

Need a New Online Broker? Introducing tradeMONSTER. No minimums, no inactivity fees, real-time streaming quotes and charts.