This review discovers that Zacks Trade is a good choice if you want access to the global stock markets, low margin rates, research, and news access.
In business for 40 years, Zacks offers unique research tools and one of the best direct market access trading platforms, all for a very low trade commission.
With its comprehensive research offerings, user-friendly platform, and global market access, it’s no wonder that Zacks Trade has become a popular choice among traders.
Review Rating
ZACKS Trade Rating | 4.1/5.0 |
💸 Trades & Commissions | ★★✩✩✩ |
📈 Trading Platform | ★★★★✩ |
🙋♂️ Usability | ★★★★✩ |
📰 Research & News | ★★★★★ |
💵 Account Opening Balance | ★★★★✩ |
🔍 Regulation | ★★★★★ |
Review Summary
ZacksTrade offers something unique. Direct Market Access (DMA), free broker-assisted trades, and an incredible selection of integrated research and advisory tools. How is this possible? Unlike the new breed of free stock trade brokers, you will need to pay a small commission.
Key Features
Pros
- Free Broker-assisted Stock, ETF, Option & Bond Trades
- Access to Research & News
- 218 countries & 91 Exchanges Covered
- $1 Stock, Options & ETF Trades (1 cent per share)
- Low Currency Conversion Fee $2.00 to $2.50
- Lowest Margin Rates (3.59% or less)
- One free withdrawal per month
- Free Options Exercises
- No Inactivity Fees
- Free Access to All Software Platforms
- Telephone and Email Support
Cons
- CAD 4.50 Minimum for Canadian Trades
- 0.3% of Trade Value Commission Outside USA
- 1% of Trade Value CAD Charge for Canadian Users
- $27.50 Charge for Mutual Fund Trades
ZacksTrade is good for speculators and casual investors transitioning to trading. Additionally, those who need access to margin accounts, bond traders, and corporate customers will benefit greatly. Lastly, people need a one-stop international trading platform accessible through all devices and features advanced tools like backtesting, portfolio management, and algorithmic trading.
ZacksTrade is not ideal for people who need frequent withdrawals, mutual fund traders, or some international customers for whom higher commissions are applicable.
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Is Zacks Trade Worth It?
Yes and No. Zacks Trade is a good service, but in a world that is moving to free stock trades, investors would be wise to try Firstrade or Schwab. With ZacksTrade, trading is not free, but it is very low-cost at 1 cent per share ($1 min). For that commission, you can access a wealth of research, trade signals, and direct market access (DMA). Zacks Trade uses the best-in-class Interactive Brokers’ TWS platform.
What is ZacksTrade
Founded by Len Zacks in the 1960s, ZacksTrade is a digital brokerage that targets investors and active traders. Zacks specializes in low-cost trading, excellent access to research and ratings, lowest-cost margin trading, and free broker-assisted trades.
Even though Zacks Trade is a discount brokerage, unlike many competitors, it encourages human-assisted trading for that personal touch. Most discount brokerages offer no assistance or charge for human help and advice. Other brokerages use fees to discourage the use of brokers and cut costs. In addition to broker assistance, ZacksTrade offers access to three robust digital trading platforms to access international markets. All of Zacks’ platforms allow for unassisted trades and automated trading.
The low prices and flexible automated trading platforms allow speculators to buy in volume and take advantage of excellent margin credit.
Fees
Speculators use Zacks because it offers 75¢ option contracts and 1¢ a share stock and exchange-traded fund (ETF) trades.
However, Zacks will charge $1 for the first stock or ETF trade and $1 for the first options contract. Options exercises are free at ZacksTrade, and there are no assignment fees.
One advantage to ZacksTrade is that it allows private bond trades. Zacks charges a 0.1% face value fee and $3 for each private bond under $10,000 in face value. Zacks charges a 0.025% face value fee and a $3 per bond fee for private bonds. There is no fee for broker-assisted bond trades.
The fee for government bond trades up to $1 million is 0.025% of face value plus $3 for each bond trade. For government bond trades over $1 million, there is a 0.005% face value and a $3 fee. Zacks charges $27.50 for Mutual Fund Trades.
Zacks charges a 2¢ CAD fee for Canadian users. There is a 1% of trade value CAD charge for Canadian customers. ZacksTrade also requires a CAD$4.50 trade minimum for Canadian customers.
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For all transactions outside the USA, there is a very low estimated currency conversion fee of $2.00 to $2.50.
Zacks eliminates several fees, including inactivity, order cancellation, and IRA Custodial fees. Zacks offers free incoming and outgoing account transfers.
Zacks offers one free monthly withdrawal, which can be a check, ACH, or wire. It charges $1 for each additional ACH withdrawal, $4 for each check withdrawal, and $10 for each additional monthly withdrawal.
ZacksTrade is great for beginners because it offers free human broker-assisted trades. Novices have real people to ask for advice and somebody to walk them through the process without paying a fee.
Broker-assisted trades can help casual investors who want to transition to full-time or large-scale trading and people who know a little about the market but need more detailed knowledge.
Another attraction at Zacks is its low margin loan interest rates of 3.59% or less. ZACKSTrade bases the margin interest rate on the balance in the client’s account, which means Zacks charges a higher interest rate for traders with larger unpaid balances.
Speculators and traders who need margin accounts use Zacks because of the low-margin interest rates. Zacks charges 3.59% or less for users who pay their margin accounts.
Zacks offers broker assistance to help people learn how to use margin accounts, making ZacksTrade a useful tool for people new to margin trading.
Middle and upper-income investors trying to control their investments more will benefit from Zacks because of broker assistance and access to research. Zacks offers enormous amounts of information from several top investment news and research information if you need access to research.
Trading Platforms
Zacks offers three trading platforms: Zacks Trade Pro, Client Portal, and Zacks Trader.
Zacks Trade Pro
Zacks Trade Pro is Zacks’ main trading platform. It allows users to trade options, stocks, bonds, and funds in over 19 countries from a single account. Each user can configure Zacks Trade Pro to match their trading style. Traders can list as many investments as they want and customize data columns on Zacks Trade Pro.
The Zacks Trade Pro allows users to view account balances, margin balances, trading fund balances, and track the market value of investments. Zacks Trade Pro gives investors access to enormous amounts of portfolio data.
One popular feature of the Zacks Trade Pro is real-time alerts based on price, time, margin, and volume data. These alerts inform traders about any market events. Customers can track all open and filled market orders on the Zacks Trade Pro.
The Zacks Trade Pro allows investors to trade options by clicking on the bid or ask for an option price. The Strategy Builder feature allows investors to create spread and option orders. An integrated suite of options tools includes an Options Trader, Spread Trader, and Rollover Options to analyze and manage options on a single screen.
Trade Pro offers customizable Charting and Technical Analysis tools. Users can choose from 120 configurable technical indicators. One popular feature allows investors to trade right from the chart.
Some Zacks Trade Pro tools include a basket trader, market scanners, an options strategy lab, a probability lab, a spread trader, and a volatility lab.
The Zacks Trade Pro is available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux operating systems. The Zacks Trade Pro website offers a free demonstration.
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Zacks Stock Screener
Client Portal
Zacks gives all customers access to the Client Portal, which allows users to manage all key aspects of their accounts and portfolios.
The Client Portal allows users to access statements and trade confirmations based on custom parameters and retrieve all tax documents.
Users can make deposits and withdrawals from their accounts at the portal. Traders can use the Client Portal to initiate account transfers from other brokers.
Tools available through the Client Portal include account configuration, trading, and the Zacks Portfolio Analyst. The Zacks Portfolio Analyst offers portfolio analysis, detailed stock reports, and performance attribution.
Zacks Trader
The Zacks Trader was designed to be an uncluttered trading interface that is easy to learn.
The Zacks Trader is a scaled-back version of the Zacks Trade Pro that offers a simpler trading experience. Tools available through the Zacks Trader include orders and execution, streaming market data, and charts.
Users can view security-specific fundamentals, including news, charts, financial data, insider trading information, analyst information, and SEC filings for any company on Zacks Trader. Zacks Trader offers the latest market news through Reuters Newsfeeds.
Zacks Trader has a modular design that makes adding and removing trading tools easy. The trading tools include tabbed product pages.
Handy Trader for Phones & Tablets
The Handy Trader is Zacks’ mobile trading app. It allows Zacks users to access their accounts through their phones.
The Handy Trader features real-time streaming quotes and charts, stock trading, options trading, bond trading, and fund trading worldwide. Users can view delayed market data for non-subscribed tickers through the Handy Trader.
The Handy Trader allows users to route orders using Zack’s SmartRouting technology. The SmartRouting technology searches for the best price and reroutes orders for optimal execution.
Handy Trader allows users to access fundamental data and independent analyst reports on their phones. It also lets people quickly access trade reports, portfolios, and account information. The Handy Trader can set price alerts with email notifications.
Zacks claims users can reconnect to Handy Trader after taking a call without having to log back in.
Customer Support
ZacksTrade offers live customer support through the phone, email, chat, fax, and social media. ZacksTrade’s human customer services representatives will answer the company’s local and toll-free numbers Monday-Friday between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 Eastern Standard Time. No customer service is available on American holidays such as Christmas, the Fourth of July, and Martin Luther King Day.
You can also reach ZacksTrade Customer Support through live chat, email, and even a fax number. ZacksTrade also offers connectivity through two social media services: Facebook and Twitter.
The US-based customer service is centered at the ZacksTrade offices in downtown Chicago. Reviewers think Zacks’ customer service is deficient. One reason for the low scores could be that users could wait days for ZacksTrade to respond. It could also be hard for users outside the United States to reach ZacksTrade customer support.
Research & Trade Signals
ZacksTrade offers clients an incredible selection of research and news sources; the list of high-profile research offerings included for free with Zacks Trade are:
- Zacks Investment Research (High Value).
- Dow Jones Newswires Premium.
- IB Market Signals.
- Morningstar research.
- Seeking Alpha research and commentary.
- The Motley Fool (not the premium Motley Fool Services).
- Thomson Reuters news research.
Zacks includes all of this data for free with subscriptions. This gives users access to premium data and news that normally requires separate subscriptions.
An advantage to ZacksTrade is that it offers an enormous amount of research and news from various sources. One advantage to variety is that it offers investors news and data from different points of view.
Investors can use the research to access data they may not normally see. However, ZacksTrade does not appear to offer any new or original research. Instead, Zack’s research comes from outside sources such as Reuters, Morningstar, and Dow Jones. Much of that research could be available elsewhere for free for those willing to search for it. Many Dow Jones Newswire stories are available for free on news websites such as Google News, for example.
However, Zacks could save traders time and effort by giving them access to one easy-to-access investment research source.
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Summary
The ZacksTrade platforms are a good resource for trading large volumes of stocks, bonds, or options on margin. However, Firstrade and Schwab are more worthy of consideration for free stock trading. High-net-worth individuals who regularly trade stocks, bonds, or options will find ZacksTrade a useful resource. Consumer brokerages will better serve smaller-volume traders with limited incomes.