Zacks Trade Review 2023: Pros, Cons and How It Compares

Where Zacks Trade shines

Where Zacks Trade falls short

What Zacks Trade is best for

Zacks Trade at a glance

Full details about Zacks Trade

Is Zacks Trade right for you?

How we review brokers: our methodology

Where Zacks Trade shines

Trading platforms and research: Zacks is an introducing broker to Interactive Brokers, which means the company’s trading platforms and research mirror that of Interactive Brokers — they are powerful and professional-level.

Free access to a broker: If you’re inclined to place phone trades, those are completely free at Zacks, a rare offering among brokers.

Access for international investors and to foreign stock exchanges. Because of the broker's relationship with Interactive Brokers, Zacks is available in 218 countries and territories; customers can trade on more than 90 international exchanges.

Where Zacks Trade falls short

Commissions: These are largely a thing of the past among brokers, but Zacks still charges a commission on stock and ETF trades.

Poor mutual fund selection: The company has no transaction-fee-free mutual funds, and no funds with minimums under $100. (Many brokers offer thousands of options that fall in this category.)

Zacks Trade is best for:

• Active traders.

• Investors seeking access to a human broker.

• Investors looking to trade on foreign stock exchanges.

• Options traders.

Zacks Trade at a glance

More details about Zacks Trade's ratings

Account minimum: 2 out of 5 stars

These days, most brokers require no minimum to open an account (of course, you must fund the account in order to purchase investments). Zacks Trade is one of the few brokers we review that has held on to its higher account minimum, which creates a barrier to entry for beginners. Admittedly, beginners do not seem to be the target audience here.

Stock trading costs: 4 out of 5 stars

Again, most brokers have completely dropped their trading commission to $0 on U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs, which makes Zacks Trade stand out for its comparatively higher fee. However, among brokers that cater to advanced traders and still charge a minimum, Zacks Trade’s fee is on the low end at 1 cent per share (or 1% of trade value, in the case of penny stocks).

Options trades: 2 out of 5 stars

There’s no base commission for options trades, which earns Zacks Trade some marks, but the per-contract fee is on the higher side at $.75 (and $1 for the first contract). Many brokers charge no base commission and set their contract fee at a lower $.65.

Account fees: 5 out of 5 stars

Zacks Trade earns points here for charging few account fees — the broker does not charge a fee to transfer out assets via ACAT as other brokers do. There is an inactivity fee of $15 per month which can be waived by trading or by maintaining a balance above $25,000.

Number of no-transaction-fee mutual funds: 1 out of 5 stars

If you want to invest in mutual funds, Zacks isn't ideal: Trades cost $27.50, and Zacks offers zero no-transaction-fee funds.

Tradable securities: 4 out of 5 stars

Zacks Trade offers stocks (domestic and foreign), bonds, mutual funds, ETFs and options, as well as fractional shares of stocks, an increasingly popular offering that allows investors to purchase small pieces of a stock, rather than a full share.

As noted above, the company is not a good fit for mutual-fund investors — not only are no transaction-fee-free funds offered, but the company has no mutual funds with minimums below $100.

Crypto availability: Like Interactive Brokers, Zacks Trade offers investors access to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.

Trading platform: 5 out of 5 stars

Zacks offers three trading platforms, all of which are free and available to all customers. Among other features, the downloadable Zacks Trade Pro lets you customize the layout to suit your needs, offers custom charting, more than 120 technical indicators and an Options Strategy Lab to help you assess how profitable an options trade might be.

The web-based Zacks Trader is the lower-calorie version of the Pro platform, offering interactive charts, streaming market data and other tools.

All of these tools are created by Interactive Brokers, another discount broker, and Zacks Trade simply rebrands them for its own customers (more on this below). Zacks also offers Client Portal, which provides access to account documents and balances and can facilitate simple trades, as well as a mobile app called Handy Trader.

Mobile app: 3 out of 5 stars

Again, Zacks mobile app, called Handy Trader, comes from Interactive Brokers, but it gets fairly low marks from users. It does boast fast execution, and it offers real-time data, instant orders and charts.

Research and data: 5 out of 5 stars

Zacks Trade offers investors free access to more than 20 research and news reports, including Zacks Investment Research, plus about 80 subscription reports, at varying prices. Since the company serves as an introducing broker to Interactive Brokers, it offers the same research as that provider.

Customer support options: 3.5 out of 5 stars

While Zacks' phone and chat lines are staffed only during regular business hours (9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday), the company offers a rare service: access to a broker, for free. Unlike pretty much every other broker out there, Zacks doesn't charge an extra fee for making trades over the phone, so if you often find yourself without internet service, or just wanting a little extra help, Zacks could be a good solution for you.

Is Zacks Trade right for you?

Zacks offers basically what Interactive Brokers offers — same platform, same mobile app — but at a slightly higher price in exchange for better customer service, including free broker-assisted trades.

Zacks is a good fit for people who are relatively savvy — active investors but aren't yet ready to go it entirely alone and might want a little hand-holding and/or a backup plan for their online trades.