One of TD Ameritrade’s hallmarks is how they can maintain a high-quality service while charging no fees or commissions on a number of things many brokerages do. They do not charge a commission to trade stocks, options and ETFs, although options trades do incur a $0.65 fee per contract. There are no inactivity or annual fees, or even partial transfer fees. There is a $75 fee that you have to pay in case you decide to make a total transfer of assets from your TD Ameritrade account into another external account. When it comes to mutual funds, they are also commission free, although mutual funds as well as ETFs carry expense ratios charged by the funds themselves.

You can use any of the two trading platforms TD Ameritrade offers, as well as their mobile app, to buy and sell stocks. Beginners will find it easier to use the company’s main website to place stock orders. Just search for the stock’s ticker symbol and enter your order right there. More advanced traders, however, will find it better to enter their trades on the thinkstorm desktop platform. This is an advanced and robust platform with a number of resources made for optimal performance. Alternatively, however, you can even place trades via Twitter Direct Messages, Facebook Messenger and Apple Business Chat.

Although they do not charge fees or commissions, they do charge fees on certain products. Products like forex, futures have a trading cost, and so do their robo-advisor, financial advisory and any broker-assisted trades investors may use. TD Ameritrade also makes money through interest earned on uninvested cash balances, as well as through order flow when a third-party market maker receives a trade, paying a small fee to the broker.