While this is something we usually discuss in the conclusion of our Zacks Trade review, we feel that it’s obvious enough to put as part of the introduction: Zacks Trade USA is clearly and unashamedly aimed at a more advanced customer base. Our Zacks Trade review noted that while there’s plenty of variety here and we don’t want to give the impression that only a singular type of expert should consider it – it’s also fair to say that at any level, Zacks Trade requires a reasonable amount of experience and understanding.
Being advanced in itself is not a virtue though. There needs to be benefits to its complexities, and considering the immense amount of competition that’s out there – as found in our CitiFX Pro, eToro and Forex review, to name but a few – those benefits will have to be truly exceptional for our Zacks Trade review to live up to the hype.
To see if they manage to rise above the rest, here’s our comprehensive guide on everything that makes Zacks Trade USA tick.
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This is actually one of the hardest parts of this Zacks Trade review to analyse because compared to some sites which make their main priority ease of use, they do lag a little bit behind. Really though, that’s not their fault. The fact is that when you’re talking about a trading platform that is as robust and varied as Zacks Trade, all those options and all those intricacies do inevitably, in some areas, come at the price of simplicity. If you’d prefer a simpler approach, there are a number of platforms aimed squarely at the younger or newcomer trader. If this is you then we’d suggest a look at our SoFi Invest review, or Stash review to check out alternatives.
However, if you ask whether Zacks Trade USA provides usability considering the complexities of some parts of its platform, then the answer is an emphatic yes. It may not be the prettiest of sites – it may not have a mascot and it may not be built for beginners – but for a serious trading platform with plenty of scope, it’s hard to imagine them doing much more. That’s especially true considering it’s really three different platforms we’re talking about here (more on that in a moment).
Finally, we found the terms and conditions clear. Notably, we experienced no technical hiccups, even after many hours of hands on time during our Zacks Trade review. An Impressive feat considering the sheer weight of options available.
In order to understand this part of our Zacks Trade USA review, we must first understand how its different platforms are broken down, because they really are three separate products.
First off, we have the Client Portal. This is available to all Zacks Trade customers and is great for simple trades. It allows for both placement and management as well as providing easy access to your important balances and documents, alongside various settings. While we stand by the fact that Zacks Trade isn’t ideal for someone brand new to trading, this option does show us that you don’t need to be an expert to get something out of the platform.
Next up, there’s the browser based platform Zacks Trader, which manages to be a mid-point between this and the next option we’ll be looking at. This is ideal if you want to make use of a lot of features but don’t need the greatest amount of depth.
Finally, there’s Zacks Trade Pro, which is the granddaddy of this platform, offering the absolute most when it comes to depth, tools and functions. This includes a customisable interface to not only provide the best trading platform experience, but the best trading platform experience for you.
Importantly, the way to get the most out of this software is through download, distinguishing it from the previous example. This is the pinnacle of their products for high volume active traders thanks to its great technical and analysis tools.
Drilling down further, our Zacks Trade review revealed that the the variety of Zacks Trade open account options here goes as far as any we could imagine in terms of providing a platform for the widest amount of people, with over 90 markets across the globe available. The only real limitation is that the lowest level is still higher than some of the competition.
First things first, the Zacks Trade open account help section could make it easier to understand how this process works. The information on the Zacks Trade open account steps is not all in one place and that can make people in the early stages of signing up feel rather uncomfortable. We understand that a lot of this site is, by its nature, complicated. However, areas like this should not be.
With that said, the Zacks Trade open account process itself doesn’t seem too difficult. You hit the ‘Sign up’ button, input some basic information and are then contacted by the expert support team about the next steps. This will include providing identification such as a passport, driver’s license and national ID alongside a utility bill and bank statement from the past three months.
Importantly, we had a chat with customer service and they told us that the $2,500 minimum investment is no longer required and there is now no specified minimum, although that amount is still recommended. This is so important in making a Zacks Trade open account appeal to a lot more people, even if you’re at the more serious end of the market.
Casual traders looking for an alternative might consider the Robinhood open account as an option.
Naturally, the sheer amount that is available at Zacks Trade USA provides a rather unique challenge. They don’t just have to get one trading platform right: they essentially have to manage it across three platforms. The software here is clearly built with practicality first and foremost in mind. That means there’s not much in terms of unnecessary extras. Zacks Trade doesn’t have any mascot parading around random pages to provide personality, for instance.
However, this stripped back approach pays dividends in delivering exactly what they set out to do in the Client Portal, Zacks Trader and Zacks Trader Pro options. Every one feels like a logical and well thought through step up in options and the software matches it every step of the way, never breaking under the sweat of the growing number of tools as you upgrade.
Technically sound in our experience for this Zacks Trade review, we have found little with regards to customer feedback to suggest otherwise. Once again, we’re not saying that Zacks Trade – especially Zacks Trade Pro – is easy to use, but for something this ambitious, it’s about as easy as it can be without compromises.
While there are, of course, costs associated with trading in general – in fact, an extensive list of them from regional fees to requests to exercise appraisal rights is available to look at – access to a Zacks Trade open account and the platforms themselves are, at the time of our Zacks Trade review, absolutely free.
That means all the platforms too, meaning that Zacks Trade is offering access to all of this for nothing. The $2,500 mentioned previously is only a recommended amount. You can’t do much better than that. It’s full marks in this part of our Zacks Trade review. You might also like to take a peek at our SogoTrade review, which reports on a generous trading cash back offer.
One of the key criticisms of Zacks Trade found during our Zacks Trade review – a point all the more significant considering how highly they are thought of – is that they can appear a little cold. This is perhaps no surprise considering their business approach to design, and the need for maximum webspace in their uncompromising vision for their platform. It leaves little room for warmth.
However, this isn’t reflected by their customer service team. We got in touch and explained that we wanted to clarify some pieces of information for this Zacks Trade review and found them to be very accommodating, helpful and quick to respond.
We think it’s a really underrated element of Zacks Trade that you have such expertise available to you at any level. In fact, you don’t even need to have a Zacks Trade open account in order to utilise their live chat. A lot of similar options require you to have already invested – sometimes a lot of money – in order to actually talk to someone.
Considering that a lot of people won’t feel comfortable doing so before they get their questions answered – which is understandable considering the risk involved – we really appreciate this being available for everyone. Not only that, but it’s not phoned in. We considered them to be exceptionally helpful and one of the best customer service teams we’ve come across.
They’re available via phone, email and live chat, although they’re not available on weekends. The phone line and live chat are available between 9am-6pm Eastern Time Monday to Friday, and are quite excellent. Plus, the live chat automatically sends you an email when it’s not available, making it a brilliantly user-friendly experience.
We feel that Zacks Trade could explain itself better in some areas, but the service could only be bettered by being available for longer hours.
The first thing to note when talking about regulation and deposit protection in our Zacks Trade review is that they have a parent company called LBMZ securities, which is a member of both FINRA and SIPC, also known as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation.
These institutions exist to protect investors and ensure that everything is done properly and according to regulation. If you are looking at Zacks Trade and wondering where their security credentials are, that is because they come through the parent company.
The SIPC provides insurance, meaning that you are protected in the event of a brokerage failure up to half a million. Obviously, this does not protect you if you lose money just through trading. They also utilise two factor authentication to keep your Zacks Trade open account secure and, of course, there’s also the registration process which includes identification checks, as we have already mentioned.
When we have talked about options in our Zacks Trade review, we’ve gone into detail about the sheer amount available. However, when it comes to Forex, we’re afraid that the offer at Zacks Trade USA is, by its nature, limited.
Zacks Trade only handles the conversion of currencies, and not trading currency pairs. It’s a nice addition and considering the sheer amount of other options available, this shouldn’t be much of a surprise. That said, Forex trading is an area that, we have to admit in this part of our Zacks Trade review USA, they have chosen to remain limited for now.
According to customer service, the currency conversion fee is between $2 and $2.50, and the distinction depends on the amount converted.
There’s really not that much to say here: they provide conversions but not trading currency shares. It’s a nice addition to have but it’s far from the main event in terms of options, and thus is a smaller consideration in our Zacks Trade review.
As exchange-traded funds – also known as ETFs – work very, very similarly to stocks, pretty much everything we have written there is also applicable here. EFTs can actually hold stock, commodities or bonds, and are traded on the stock exchange. Often, they track an underlying index. This is done by buying the underlying assets of the index in the same ratios in order to mirror its fluctuations. This allows you to remain more passive, if you wish.
There’s also a wide variety of options in terms of the level of risk you’re looking for. Another important note is that ETFs have blossomed in terms of popularity, and the amount of available markets from Zacks Trade is therefore hugely beneficial to make the most out of this variety. The ability for ETFs to be quite passive has meant that some trading platforms utilise them to create services which appeal to beginner users, but Zacks Trade is, as always, about depth.
This and all the other trading options benefit greatly from things like the Market Pulse tab, which gives you a look at how markets around the world are performing, with the ability to dig deeper into things like specific stocks. Alongside this, there’s Market Data and Charts, New and Fundamentals, Watch List, Real Time Alerts and more, all working together to help you get the fullest picture of the markets available.
Whatever you’re trading in, knowledge is always the most important leg up on the market, especially if – like many people – you’re using ETFs alongside other options.
As far as we are able to tell, ETFs have the same costs as stocks and shares, meaning that the information given there is also correct here. For a quick reminder, there’s a dollar minimum and for stocks & ETFs less than $1 per share, the charge is 1% of trade value, whereas above that amount, there’s a charge of 1 cent per share.
The inclusion of ETFs really helps bring Zacks Trade USA together as a complete and comprehensive choice for traders who want to utilise a lot of different investments in a single place. It also shows that Zacks Trade does intend to be as diverse as possible when it comes to more passive options, even if their key selling point to a lot of people will be the amount of depth that’s available through their platforms.
We’re going to be honest with you, if you’re not familiar with stocks and shares, then an advanced platform like Zacks Trade might not be for you.
They are both put together here because in essence, they both refer to financial equities, or donate an amount of ownership in a public company. There is, however, some differences between the two terms that are occasionally confused amongst advanced traders. Shares often refer to how much ownership a person has in an individual company, while stocks refer to the ownership of multiple companies. So, if someone was talking about the many stocks they owned, you could likely assume that meant they had ownership steaks in many different ventures.
And many different ventures are exactly what will be available to you at Zacks Trade USA, with an absolutely huge amount listed on its platform. There’s availability in markets across 19 different nations, including the likes of the UK’s London Stock Exchange to the Tokyo Stock Exchange with plenty more in between. Another huge selling point is the availability of things like penny stocks and OTC stocks. Penny stocks aren’t always made available in online brokers, which will be a huge selling point for many here.
There’s also no better example than stocks of the many amazing features available at Zacks Trade. The massive amount of markets, for instance, is easy to follow thanks to the ability to create a watchlist of assets you want to track, from stocks to currencies, with the ability to manipulate the default list to your advantage.
The ability to manage your Zacks Trade open account and easily organise everything you need really comes in handy here, as does the order management panel. When you’re dealing with over 90 markets worldwide, all of this becomes like your arsenal against a mammoth amount of information.
We hope you’re able to see in our Zacks Trade review how – although in a way, this is complicated – all of it is actually there for your convenience. It’s like going into a kitchen with all the tools of the trade you could ever need all in one place. It may initially seem overwhelmingly but ultimately, it all exists to make your job easier.
We mentioned that there were penny stocks available, so that should give you a good idea that these prices are pretty cheap. According to their site for U.S. Commissions, for stocks less than a dollar per share, you are charged 1% of the trade value. For stocks greater than a dollar per share, the cost is a cent per share. Importantly, there is a one dollar minimum for either, so there is a small level of restriction.
We have to say that the lifting of the $2,500 minimum has a big impact here, because it was these lower priced options which felt out of synch with such heavy restrictions. While some Zacks Trade opinions will still cast them as a serious platform, their efforts with their design and with changes like this has widened the net in terms of their appeal.
Stocks and shares are arguably the truest example of whether Zacks Trade can live up to the hype, and we have to say, we think they have absolutely nailed it. The variety of stocks is as immense as you could have hoped and Zacks Trade is more than capable of keeping track of all of it, from the price supply to your own documentation and records, thanks to its massively ambitious design.
Stocks and shares may be the natural place to start for any trading platform but there is perhaps nothing quite as fitting for somewhere like Zacks Trade USA than their dedicated options page.
Options are, by their nature, quite complicated. They are a contract which gives the buyer the right to buy an asset rather than actually buying them outright. They often have a specified price (known as a strike price) or date for them to be bought depending on the option. And that is just the absolute basics. What you need for this kind of complicated endeavor is a platform that appreciates the level of depth needed to make the most of this type of trading.
Zacks Trade is pretty much perfect in this regard, with its ability to look at so many different variables throughout the financial world. Options trading is available on the basic version of Zacks Trader (not Client Portal), with its own dedicated tab allowing you to create an option chain for an asset which can show the strike prices and other necessary financial information in a single place.
They do an amazing job here of making something that is naturally complicated seem as straightforward as possible. Once again, it’s not about it being easy, but as easy as it can be. On Zacks Trade Pro, there’s an additional options trading section that includes a strategy builder, and this allows you to use additional tools like spread trader and rollover options. Essentially, this makes changing multiple orders at once a lot easier.
Options in general may be complicated but that doesn’t mean the costs and fees have to be. The trading fee here is $1 for the first contract, with a further 75 cents for additional contacts. This is a really excellent, competitive fee which will make a lot of people consider Zacks Trade.
If you’re looking for an options trading platform and need something to push you over the line, the availability of all the features of this platform with these highly competitive trading fees might be exactly that.
The options trading at Zacks Trade USA justifies so many of their choices here. The need for an advanced platform – at least to make the most out of options – is clearly apparent. Also, while it remains aimed at an advanced user, nothing is made harder than it needs to. The fact that Zacks Trade is complicated is a choice not a flaw and there is nowhere that fact is more apparent.
Match that with some very competitive trading fees and you have a seriously impressive product that’s going to attract a lot of savvy traders. We’ve done a lot of research into their competition and while there might be some that can, for instance, offer a more straightforward route when it comes to ETFs (more on that later), it’s here that we view this operator to be as good as any we can think of. Truly excellent stuff.
We’ve discussed at length in this Zacks Trade review that the key target demographic for Zacks Trade USA is advanced traders, and that is definitely the case. But before we go into how well they work for that demographic, we do also want to point out that it’s very clear that this is not a platform that’s intentionally being difficult.
In fact, we would say that the efforts that are made in terms of customer service and getting rid of minimum amounts – alongside things like ETFs and the easier platforms offered by Zacks Trade – do make it clear that their intention is to create as broad appeal for their product as possible, even if there are areas where we could still see improvements in that regard.
When we get to what they offer at even an intermediate level though, they have very few peers. They are once again not perfect – there’s no futures, for instance, so we can’t say they are totally comprehensive – but what is offered here in terms of features and customisation is simply astonishing. And just as important is that, although this is by its nature complex, the effort that has been made to curb the difficulty is exceptional.
Zacks Trade USA may seem intimidating to some, but when you’re this ambitious, it’s hard not to appear that way. Overall though, our Zacks Trade review notes that beneath that surface, is a team which has gone above and beyond in making their platform as accessible as it can be without compromise. If you’re looking for more comparisons, visit our ATC brokers review and eToro review.
Trading financial products carries a high risk to your capital, especially trading leverage products such as CFDs. CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
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