Tradier Brokerage Review

If you are looking for a broker that can execute trades from a third-party or custom-built trading platform, Tradier is a sensible choice. Tradier can link to dozens of third-party applications. You may also use Tradier directly via a mobile app, a web portal or its proprietary TradeHawk desktop platform.

Pros & Cons

Overall Summary

Investment options

This is a broker for traders interested in stocks, ETFs and options. Mutual fund and fixed income orders require phoning in to the trading desk. Those looking for the full gamut of investing instruments should check out competitors Interactive Brokers, TD Ameritrade (which is now being converted to Charles Schwab).

Cryptocurrency: As of our review (June 2023), Tradier has a waitlist for access to crypto. Details at present are vague.

Retirement services: Tradier’s IRAs carry annual fees of $30, which is waived with a Pro subscription. There’s a $60 fee if you close an IRA account.

Commissions and fees

Tradier Brokerage doesn’t charge commissions on stock or ETF trades. While most brokers charge $0.65 per contract for options trades, Tradier charges only $0.35, or $0 with a $10 monthly subscription for the Pro tier.

Other fees: Mutual fund trades cost $30. As with all brokers, there are some incidental fees: $10 for a broker-assisted trade and $9 for an options exercise or assignment. If you don’t subscribe to the Pro plan, there’s a $50 annual inactivity fee for accounts under $2,000 and less than two trades in a year.

Third-party trading platforms have separate pricing, which will add to your costs.

Mobile trading apps

The app is straightforward and loads pages quickly, but it trails the competition in functionality, especially given that the company aims at the advanced trader. Mobile charts are just OK and the tools are basic.

Ease of use: The mobile app is easy to use because it’s stripped down to the essentials. The ease of building multi-leg trades is one of the best features of the app.

News feed: The news feed seems vastly improved compared to our last analysis, when it was cluttered with irrelevant content. This time around, the articles were spot on.

Charting: Charting on mobile is not as advanced as what I found at many of Tradier’s competitors. You can change the time frame and toggle between a couple of chart types, but you can’t zoom or scroll. There are no indicators to add.

Trading tools: The app provides more broad market data than the website. It displays sector performance, most actives, biggest gainers and losers and, interestingly enough, an IPO calendar, which really could be swapped for a more useful widget.

Option chains on mobile offer the basics and calls and puts are listed separately. You can build multi-leg options trades easily, which I find to be one of the best features of the app.

Other trading platforms and tools

The real value of Tradier Brokerage is its ability to link out to a variety of trading platforms. With around 100 third-party platforms supporting Tradier integration, every trader should be able to find the perfect platform for their needs.

Platforms overview: The browser-based Dash trading platform is simple but effective for stocks, ETFs and basic options trading. The research tab pulls up a comprehensive chart package, ratings widgets, and some fundamental data. All of the widgets come from TradingView, a respected third party used by many brokers.

Tradier’s designers seem to prioritize responsiveness over snazzy design and extensive features. Though the absence of many common features may have negatively impacted our review scores, we still think Dash serves as a fine backup in case a primary trading platform goes down.

A Pro subscription includes access to the proprietary TradeHawk platform. I wasn’t over the moon about it. I experienced a puzzling bug on the Mac version that zoomed charts out regardless of whether scrolling up or down on the mouse.

Watch lists: Watch lists are probably the most frequently used broker widget, and it was surprising how little information Dash puts on its watch list. The Dash watch list only has three data points: last price, the daily price change and the daily percent change.

Charting: Charting on the website is quite good. There’s a solid library of studies and drawing tools. Many brokers think it sufficient to offer a choice between candlestick, bar, mountain, and line charts. Tradier offers 17 chart types, including point-and-figure and Kagi charts.

Trading tools: Trading tools on the website are simple but effective for stock, ETF and options trading. The trade ticket allows for building a variety of multi-leg strategies, with a maximum of four legs, a common limit among options brokers.

Options trading: The options chains are not customizable, other than changing the number of strikes and adding or changing an expiration date. I would like for the website to display more than two expiration dates.

Research

Tradier Brokerage’s research includes an overview of the stock, a listing of financial metrics, a news feed and a technical analysis rating for different time periods. Third-party research PDFs and earnings consensus information are notably missing.

Stock research: There is a description of the stock, basic fundamental data and a technical rating. It’s unclear what factors drive the technical rating, which makes me reluctant to rely on it.

Market commentary: Tradier has a compelling mix of market commentary on its blog. I think it needs to be displayed more prominently. Some posts are high-quality (the Tradier-authored posts are excellent) and some guest contributions aren't, but a brief skim through recent blog posts will leave you with solid insights and food for thought.

Education

Tradier’s education is geared toward experienced traders, which isn’t surprising given its focus on partnering with third-party trading platforms. While browsing the list of webinars available on Tradier’s OptionsBrewTV YouTube channel, I found educational content on Tradier on sophisticated topics such as “Learning About the Sub-Greek Vanna in Options Trading.” That was new to me; the only Vanna I was aware of turns letter cubes on a game show.

Many other brokers are making great strides in beginning investor education these days. If you want robust educational content, consider Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab and, for advanced traders, Interactive Brokers.

Customer service

To score Customer Service, StockBrokers.com partners with customer experience research firm Confero to conduct phone tests from locations throughout the United States. For our 2023 Broker Review, 168 customer service tests were conducted over six weeks, with wait times logged for each call.

Customer service representatives were asked for assistance or details in several areas of broker services, including account opening, trading tools, apps, rollovers, active trading, and more. Here are the results for Tradier.

• Average Connection Time: <1 minute
• Average Net Promoter Score: 7.4 / 10
• Average Professionalism Score: 6.4 / 10
• Overall Score: 7.4 / 10
• Ranking: 11th of 14 brokers

Final thoughts

Tradier Brokerage appears to be targeting a very specific audience: advanced stock, ETF and options traders who are using third party platforms. If you fall into this category, Tradier is a solid choice. If you don’t, there are plenty of other brokers that offer the tools and instruments you are looking for. We offer guides and a comparison tool that can help you narrow down your choices.

Here are our top takeaways for Tradier for 2023.

1. Beginner traders who are still building skills will find a better fit with an industry leader like Fidelity or E*TRADE.
2. It’s likely that you’re considering Tradier in conjunction with a third party trading app. On that basis, Tradier is perfectly fine.

About Tradier

Tradier, Inc., is a cloud-based financial services provider and brokerage API company. The company’s platform services providers, advisors, developers and individual investors. It was founded in 2012 in North Carolina.

What does Tradier do?

Yes, Tradier is a registered broker that trades stocks, exchange-traded funds and options online and other instruments by phone. Tradier is an appropriate choice for active traders adding a broker to a trading platform.

Is Tradier a brokerage?

Yes, Tradier is a registered broker that trades stocks, exchange-traded funds and options. Our research found that it could be an appealing choice for active traders looking to use their own programming skills or those looking for a specific trading platform.

Does Tradier have an app?

Yes, Tradier has a mobile app. The app isn’t as feature-laden as many of Tradier’s competitors, but it is very responsive.

How much does Tradier cost?

Tradier does not charge commissions for stocks and ETFs. There are two price plans. The base plan has no monthly charge and relatively low priced options trading. IRA accounts do carry an annual fee. Frequent options traders might find their Pro plan to be cost effective. The $10 per month plan waives options commissions and some other fees.

How does Tradier make money?

Tradier does not charge commissions on stock and ETF trades. Instead, exchanges and other parties pay Tradier to execute customers’ trades, a common practice called payment for order flow (PFOF). Tradier also offers margin lending and charges incidental fees.

Does Tradier have paper trading?

Yes, Tradier provides a virtual portfolio that can be accessed on the account tab. Paper, or virtual, trading can be a useful tool for learning about buying and selling stocks.

2023 Review methodology

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For the StockBrokers.com 13th Annual Review published in January 2023, a total of 3,332 data points were collected over three months and used to score 17 top brokers. This makes StockBrokers.com home to the largest independent database on the web covering the online broker industry. All research, writing and data collection at StockBrokers.com is done by humans, for humans. Read our generative AI policy here.

As part of our annual review process, all brokers had the opportunity to provide updates and key milestones and complete an in-depth data profile, which we hand-checked for accuracy. Brokers also were offered the opportunity to provide executive time for an annual update meeting.

Our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than .001% each year, providing site visitors quality data they can trust. Learn more about how we test.

Tradier 2023 results

For the StockBrokers.com 2023 Review, all U.S. equity brokers we reviewed were assessed on 196 different variables across eight areas: Commissions & Fees, Investment Options, Platforms & Tools, Research, Mobile Trading, Education, Ease of Use, and Overall.

StockBrokers.com also presented “Best in Class” awards to brokers for additional categories Beginners, Options Trading, Futures Trading, Active Trading, IRA Accounts, Investor Community, Penny Stock Trading, Banking Services and Customer Service. A “Best in Class” designation means finishing in the top five brokers for that category.

For more information, see how we test.

Primary categories

Tradier fees and features data

The data collection efforts at StockBrokers.com are unmatched in the industry. The following tables show a deeper dive into the offerings available at this broker. You can also compare its offerings side-by-side with those of other brokers using our Comparison Tool.

In addition to meticulous annual data collection by our in-house analyst, every broker that participates in our review is afforded the opportunity to complete an in-depth data profile. We then audit each data point to ensure its accuracy.

Trading fees

Account fees

Margin rates

Investment options

Order types

Beginners

Stock trading apps

Stock app features

Stock app charting

Trading platforms overview

Trading platform stock chart features

Day trading features

Investment research overview

Stock research features

ETF research features

Mutual fund research features

Options trading overview

Banking features

Customer service options

About the Editorial Team