TradeStation Crypto

TradeStation Crypto CFD Review

What is TradeStation?

TradeStation is a global provider of online foreign exchange (FX) trading, CFD trading and related services. It was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in the financial centre of Europe, London (United Kingdom). 

The platform is a so called derivatives platform, meaning that they focus on derivatives trading, or more specifically "CFDs". A derivative is an instrument priced based on the value of another asset (normally stocks, bonds, commodities etc). In the cryptocurrency world, derivatives accordingly derive its values from the prices of specific cryptocurrencies.

This review focuses on TradeStation’s cryptocurrency offering, hereinafter referred to as TradeStation Crypto.

Supported Crypto CFD Contracts

TradeStation Crypto offers CFDs in cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. You can also easily switch between different asset classes, for instance from options to crypto, and from crypto to equities.

US-investors

According to information we have received, US-investors are indeed permitted to trade at TradeStation Crypto. Any US-investors should however also form their own opinion on this, as various state rules could also be an obstacle in their cryptocurrency trading.

Mobile Support

Most crypto traders feel that desktop give the best conditions for their trading. The computer has a bigger screen, and on bigger screens, more of the crucial information that most traders base their trading decisions on can be viewed at the same time. The trading chart will also be easier to display. However, not all crypto CFD investors require desktops for their trading. Some prefer to do their crypto CFD trading via their mobile phone. If you are one of those traders, you’ll be happy to learn that TradeStation Crypto is also mobile compatible as apps for both iPhones and Android users.

TradeStation Crypto Trading View

Different exchanges have different trading views. And there is no “this overview is the best”-view. You should yourself determine which trading view that suits you the best. What the views normally have in common is that they all show the order book or at least part of the order book, a price chart of the chosen CFD-contract and order history. They normally also have buy and sell-boxes. Before you choose an exchange, try to have a look at the trading view so that you can see that it feels right to you.

The following is an example of the trading view at TradeStation (this specific one is their "Day Trader"-interface):

It is up to you – and only you – to decide if the above trading view is suitable to you. Finally, there are usually many different ways in which you can change the settings to tailor the trading view after your very own preferences.

TradeStation Crypto Fees

TradeStation Crypto Trading Fees

The fees at any exchange are very important to consider. Every trade occurs between two parties: the maker, whose order exists on the order book prior to the trade, and the taker, who places the order that matches (or “takes”) the maker’s order. Makers are so named because their orders make the liquidity in a market. Takers are the ones who remove this liquidity by matching makers’ orders with their own.

TradeStation Crypto’s trading fees for both takers and makers start at 0.30%. This is a bit above the global industry average for cryptocurrency trading platforms. According to this report), the current averages are 0.221% for takers and 0.178% for makers.

You can also receive trading fee reductions if your account balance exceeds certain levels, as follows:

Crypto CFD Overnight Fee

What is an overnight fee? An overnight is the fee charged by the platform when you hold a position (i.e. a Crypto CFD) overnight. It's as easy as that. Seeing as it is charged every night, it is small, and a trader will of course hope that his position will be successful enough that he won't even notice the overnight fee as the value of his position appreciates.

At TradeStation Crypto, they don't charge any overnight fees. In fact, they even pay you interest on your crypto balance (!). This is extremely competitive and quite unique among the FX/Crypto Brokers we have encountered.

Inactivity Fee

An inactivity fee is a fee that is charged if you have not logger in to your trading account for a certain period of time. For instance, both Plus500 and IG Markets charge inactivity fees each month after a certain grace period, corresponding to USD 120 per year for Plus500 (but with a grace period of 3 months) and USD 180 per year for IG Markets (but with a grace period of 24 months).

TradeStation Crypto, however, does not charge any inactivity fees.

TradeStation Crypto Withdrawal fees

To our understanding, TradeStation Crypto does not charge any fees of their own when you withdraw crypto from your account at the platform. Accordingly, the only fee you have to think about when withdrawing are the network fees. The network fees are fees paid to the miners of the relevant crypto/blockchain, and not fees paid to the exchange itself. Network fees vary from day to day depending on the network pressure.

Deposit Methods

At TradeStation Crypto, you can deposit fiat currency in a lot of different ways. Wire transfer is one of the possibilities, but deposits via debit/credit card are not yet available.