If you’re an intermediate or advanced investor looking to skip overusing a financial advisor, then Zacks Trade might be your new favorite investing platform.
You can take investing into your own hands with their easy-to-use platform. Customize your dashboard, trade securities, and access their awesome customer support from the comfort of your home.
Table of Contents
Pros & Cons
Pros | Cons |
- Great for experienced investors. | - Not the easiest dashboard to use. |
- Low fee investing compared to competitors. | - The platform provides an average user experience. |
- Great customer support. | - Not for a beginner investor. |
- Easy securities trading. | |
- Customizable platform. | |
- Tons of educational materials. |
Zacks Trade Explained
If you’re a day trader or want to see what it’s like to day-trade, then you should check out Zacks Trade. Zacks Trade is a broker created to support investors who spend a lot of time and money on trading. It’s a platform built for investors to make high-volume trades on a day-to-day basis.
What Makes Zacks Trade Different
Zacks Trade is a Chicago, Illinois based online broker. They have an elaborate platform dedicated to committed multi-security investors and day-traders.
It was created by Len Zacks, the founder, and CEO of Zacks Investment Research, who is popular in the investment community because of the incredibly intricate research reports they create for investors.
The platform, like many others, allows investors to buy stocks and bonds. However, Zacks Trade is unique because it provides you access to two all-inclusive platforms where you can easily make more dynamic trades.
How Zacks Trade Works
Since Zacks Trade is a broker, they help you trade various types of securities. It differs from competing brokers because of how they allow you to trade.
They offer investors 3 different platforms (we’ll cover them in just a bit). One of their platforms is quite basic, while the other two are intricate, highly involved platforms that are very popular in the day-trader world.
Who Should Use Zacks Trade
Zacks Trade was made for investors who have quite a bit of capital to work with, who are willing to borrow on margin, and who want to frequently trade stocks and securities.
The platform was created for seasoned investors and experienced day-traders looking to perform high-volume trades. If you’re an investor who has a good sum of capital to work with, and you understand how to do frequent securities trades, then Zacks Trade is a good fit for you.
The platform allows you to access various investments across a variety of countries at a low cost.
Who Zacks Trade Isn’t Suited For
Zacks Trade is unfortunately not the best platform for those just starting out. If you’re a beginner in the trading world and are just getting your feet wet with investing, then you should stick to simple beginner platforms.
Trading options, especially on margin is not an easy game. Especially when you’re working with foreign currency in different countries, you’ll need quite a bit of experience. It can be very easy to quickly lose money on Zacks Trade or other intricate platforms when you’re not sure what you’re doing
Let’s check out the 3 different platforms they offer when you sign up for a Zacks Trade account.
1. Client Portal
The first platform Zacks Trade offer is the Client Portal. It acts as your online Account Management platform for Zacks Trade. It’s relatively easy to set up so you can track every aspect of your account, including your portfolio.
Here are a few things the Client Portal allows you to do:
- Make simple trades in Account Management
- View your trade confirmations and statements
- Access your tax documents
- Make withdrawals and deposits with your account
- Make account transfers from other brokers
- Adjust your password and security settings
- Increase your security by adding a secure login card
- Alter the permissions on your account
- Add other services or products like margin privileges and options
- Analyze your Zacks Trade portfolio data by day, month, or quarter
- Easily create and view reports for simply viewing and downloading in PDF form
- Compare your portfolio’s performance to the S&P 500 Index
Overall, the Client Portal offers some basic account features and simple trading. But, if you’re wanting to start doing higher-level trades or access option chains, it’s not the platform you’d want to use. It does, however, allow you to do some basic trading and analysis.
2. ZacksTrader
The next, more intricate platform is called “ZacksTrader” and you will use it to do advanced trades on securities, options, and more.
Internet Browser Platform
ZacksTrader can be accessed online as it’s completely browser-based. It’s great if you have to work behind a firewall. Since it’s accessible through your web browser it’s also beneficial since it doesn’t take up storage on your computer.
ZacksTrader allows active traders to use an intricate trading platform that offers a wide variety of features and tools.
Trade in 90+ Countries
Inside ZacksTrader, you can access securities like options, stocks, bonds, and more. Plus, the best part is, you’re not limited to trading withing your own country. You can trade in over 90 countries around the world all from your computer.
The platform lets you submit equity orders at the click of your mouse. Experienced traders will love having the ability to create complex options trades and higher-level trades through the Order Management Panel.
You can easily add ticker symbols to your main screen so you’re able to quickly see what’s going on in the market in real-time. ZacksTrader also lets you view interactive charts to see live data on individual stocks.
Research Done Easy on ZacksTrader
One of the best bonuses to using ZacksTrader is its research tools. You’re able to access specific security fundamentals, from news to charting to profiles, insider trading stats, financials, SEC filings, and analyst data on any company. This makes it easy to do quick market research without having to leave the platform.
Customize The Platform
Another awesome feature is ZacksTrader gives you the ability to customize your platform. If you don’t like the way the platform looks, rearrange it. You can add or remove your frequent views so you see only what you want to on the platform.
This is a great add-on for day-traders, since most experienced traders understand how frustrating it can be wasting time hunting down relevant information by searching through piles of irrelevant data. Keep the information you need on the main screen so it’s easy to access whenever you launch the platform.
3. ZacksTrade Pro
ZacksTrade Pro is the advanced version of ZacksTrader, allowing easy access to a much more robust platform for the professional trader.
Software, Not Browser-Based
The first thing you’ll notice about ZacksTrade Pro is that it isn’t browser-based like ZacksTrader. It’s much more intricate, and requires you to download it to your computer. Yes, it will take up some room on your computer, but it’s definitely worth it.
It allows you to place complex trades in an intricate, all-in-one platform – Place higher-level trades from options, stocks, and bonds to funds – in 19 different countries, from one account.
Customize The Layout
Like ZacksTrader, you can customize the layout of the ZacksTrade Pro software. Depending on your preferences, you can make it as simple or complex as you want. You can do a bit more customization than ZacksTrader since you’re able to conduct more robust trades than the browser-based platform.
Build Your Watch Lists
One great feature of ZacksTrade Pro is the ability to create watch lists for whatever you want. Create a watch list for bonds, options, or foreign securities. You can customize these lists to let you view the data that matters to you.
You can also craft real-time alerts depending on the rules you set. Get notified immediately of any market changes based on time, price, volume, or margin.
Inside your account overview, you can see your portfolio’s total market value, your funds available for trades, your margin, and other information about the cash and securities in your portfolio. Plus, you can also view-filled and open orders, and easily adjust your existing orders where necessary.
Research Done Easy on ZacksTrade Pro
For securities research, you can make a variety of charts customized to your liking. Choose from 120+ technical indicators to set the perfect view for exactly what you need.
Easy Options Trading
With ZacksTrade Pro, you’re able to do easy options trading. The software is equipped with a straight-forward tool to make option or spread orders with various legs. You also have access to these 3 options trading tools:
- Rollover Options
- Spread Trader
- Options Trader
These three tools let you create even more customized options orders that match the exact features you need in a trade.
Great Customer Support
One standalone feature of signing up for a Zacks Trade account is its extremely helpful customer support team. They are accessible Monday to Friday 9 AM – 6 PM EST (Eastern Standard Time). They aren’t open on weekends and holidays though).
You can reach them easily through the platform. You can also get a hold of customer support through Facebook, Twitter, and of course, email. They are quite friendly and will usually respond within an hour which is very fast compared to other software companies.
Final Thoughts on Zacks Trade
Overall, Zacks Trade is one of the best day-trading platforms available for experienced, high-volume investors.
The platform is unique compared to other brokers in that it is focused on serving day traders. Their competitors could include TD Ameritrade, Fidelity, Vanguard, and Charles Schwab, though these platforms weren’t specifically made for day traders.
The one downside to Zacks Trade is that the platform can be a little clunky and hard to use. The user experience isn’t the greatest, but the saving grace is that you can customize the platform however you like.
If you’re an experienced, high-volume investor and want a platform that offers a ton of trading features and research tools, while also offering a great customer support team, then Zacks Trade can be an extremely beneficial platform.
Read also our honest review on Personal Capital here.
