TD Ameritrade supports four platforms: a web version, thinkorswim its advanced platform for active traders , and two mobile apps—TD Ameritrade Mobile Trader and thinkorswim Mobile. Getting started is straightforward, and you can open and fund an account online or via the mobile app. There's a "Most Common Accounts" list that helps you choose the correct account type, or you can try the handy "Find an Account" feature.
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Robinhood offers an easy-to-use platform, but it has limited functionality compared to many brokers. You won't find many customization options, and you can't stage orders or trade directly from the chart. The trade ticket for stocks is intuitive, but trading options is a bit more complicated. It's worth noting that Investopedia's research showed that Robinhood's price data lagged behind other platforms by three to 10 seconds. Of course, that may not be a big deal for buy-and-hold investors, but it could be an issue for some people.
With TD Ameritrade's web platform, you can customize the order type, quantity, size, and tax-lot methodology.
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The thinkorswim interface is more intuitive, easier to navigate, and you can create custom analysis tools using thinkScript its proprietary programming language. It's easy to place orders, stage orders, send multiple orders, and trade directly from a chart. Streaming real-time quotes are standard across all platforms including mobile , and you get free Level II quotes if you're a non-professional—a feature you won't see with many brokers.
Robinhood has one mobile app. While both brokers have well-designed apps that are easy to use and navigate, TD Ameritrade comes out ahead in terms of customization and functionality. Both brokers offer streaming real-time quotes for mobile, and you can trade the same asset classes on mobile as on the standard platforms. Robinhood supports a limited range of asset classes—you can trade stocks no shorts , ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies. Data is available for ten other coins. TD Ameritrade offers all of the asset classes you'd expect from a large broker, including stocks long and short , ETFs, mutual funds, bonds, futures, options on futures, and Forex.
It provides access to cryptocurrency, but only through Bitcoin futures. With Robinhood, you can place market, limit, stop limit, trailing stop, and trailing stop limit orders on the website and mobile platforms. It doesn't support conditional orders on either platform. The default cost basis is first-in-first-out FIFO , but you can request to change that.
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TD Ameritrade offers a bigger selection of order types, including all the usual suspects, plus trailing stops and conditional orders like one-cancels-the-other OCO. There are no restrictions on order types on the mobile platform, and you can stage orders for later entry on all platforms. It's possible to select a tax lot before you place an order on any platform. Robinhood doesn't publish its trading statistics, so it's hard to rank its payment for order flow PFOF numbers. While the industry standard is to report PFOF on a per-share basis, Robinhood uses a per-dollar basis. The company doesn't disclose its price improvement statistics either.
Nevertheless, its target customers tend to trade small quantities, so price improvement may not be a big concern. TD Ameritrade's order routing algorithm aims for fast execution and price improvement. Robinhood's trading fees are uncomplicated: You can trade stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies for free. Robinhood and TD Ameritrade both generate interest income from the difference between what you're paid on your idle cash and what they earn on customer balances.
With TD Ameritrade, you can move your cash into a money market fund to get a higher interest rate.
Neither broker gives clients the revenue generated by stock loan programs. Robinhood's research offerings are limited. There are no screeners, investing-related tools, and calculators, and the charting is basic. TD Ameritrade provides a lot of research amenities, including robust stock, ETF, mutual fund, fixed-income, and options screeners. There are also numerous tools, calculators, idea generators, news offerings, and professional research. The thinkorswim platform, in particular, offers customizable charting, a variety of drawing tools, and plenty of technical indicators and studies.
Robinhood's portfolio analysis tools are somewhat limited, but you can view your unrealized gains and losses, total portfolio value, buying power, margin information, dividend history, and tax reports. TD Ameritrade clients have access to real-time buying power and margin information, internal rate of return, and unrealized and realized gains. Monthly tax reports are accessible directly from the website, and you can combine holdings from outside your account to get an overall view. Robinhood's educational articles are easy to understand. Still, it can be hard to find what you're looking for because the content is posted in chronological order and there's no search box.
There are no videos or webinars, but the daily Robinhood Snacks 3-minute podcast offers some interesting commentary. TD Ameritrade provides a robust library of educational content, including articles, glossaries, videos, and webinars. Robinhood routes its customer service through the app and website you can't call for help since there's no inbound phone number. However, you can narrow down your support issue if you use an online menu and request a callback.
Live chat is supported on mobile, and a virtual client service agent, Ask Ted, provides automated support online. TD Ameritrade's security is up to industry standards. You can log into the app with biometric face or fingerprint recognition, and you're protected against account losses due to unauthorized or fraudulent activity. Robinhood's technical security is up to standards, but it's lacking the excess SIPC insurance. Through Nov. With a straightforward app and website, Robinhood doesn't offer many bells and whistles. Research overview: TD Ameritrade offers traders a variety of tools and data, including several advanced screeners.
Written articles: TD Ameritrade staff and third-party providers produce a large variety of market analysis covering technical and fundamental research for global asset classes, including forex. For example, there is a dedicated currencies section on the research section of TD Ameritrade's website, with articles from MarketWatch and related news headlines.
While these series cover the broader financial markets, I found the economic news category, which covers monetary policy, relevant for forex research. Economic calendar: Beyond the basics typically found in an economic calendar, thinkorswim adds smart features such as the ability to filter the calendar based on various news events. Traders can even set alerts on upcoming events relevant to their portfolio. That said, the calendar is more optimized for stock trading, but I did find forex-related event headlines from Econoday, which are available in the desktop version of thinkorswim.
Social research: Numerous social features developed from in-house and third parties are found on the thinkorswim desktop platform. One highlight for me is the integrated chat rooms, which includes the forex dedicated Global FX Chat channel. Chat aside, the Social Signals service pulls insights from Twitter to help gauge sentiment by tracking the number of times a symbol is mentioned.
This way, when you are looking at a chart, the social sentiment results are displayed as positive, neutral, or negative.
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There is an extensive array of educational material available from TD Ameritrade. Compared to peers, TD Ameritrade ranks well above the industry average in this category. Learning Center and Ticker Tape portal: Under its Learning Center within the thinkorswim desktop platform, and within the Ticker Tape portal, there is an extensive array of content for forex traders.
For example, from among over items video and written content , there are at least 24 directly related to forex in the Learning Center library. I found it easy to navigate this library as there are drop-down menus to filter by category and sub-category, and progress tracking is enabled so you can track what you have learned along the way. Written articles: There are nine articles within the Forex section in the Ticker Tape education hub, and an additional 40 articles covering advanced technical analysis, alongside hundreds of articles covering broader markets. I found the educational material to be of high quality.
For example, one article on forex market volatility compares the use of the VIX and options on forex futures to find implied volatility ahead of geopolitical events like the US election.
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TD Ameritrade's thinkorswim mobile app, available for iOS and Android devices, comes packed with an extensive selection of features. From complex order types and advanced charting with over indicators to creating custom watch lists, all elements are organized neatly in a modern, user-friendly platform design. Mobile research: In terms of research in the app, the same calendar experience from the desktop platform is present for filtering news events by symbol, watchlist, or account positions. This filtering helps ensures that traders will always view the news that is most relevant to their portfolios, including global economic indicator events.
Mobile charting: Charting is also robust, as the thinkorswim app includes over technical indicators that are easily insertable into charts. After adding a study to a chart, they become the default template when other charts are opened or when logging back in i. Mobile innovation: One advanced feature I found interesting is the Blast All order type. This order type allows you to put on a multi-legged position simultaneous across various symbols and could be useful for advanced strategies that include long and short positions.