Firstrade commission and other fees

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Overview of Firstrade fees and charges

We know that fees are on top of people's mind when selecting a broker. Brokerage fees consist of trading and non-trading fees. The most important trading fees are commission, spread, and financing rate.

Commission: it's charged when you execute a trade (either buy or sell). Commissions can be volume-tiered or flat fees. Nowadays, there are many commission-free brokers, click on the following links to check out the best free stockbrokers in the US and the EU.
Spread: it denotes the difference between the bid and ask price. When you trade forex, spreads can make up a significant part of your trading costs.
Financing rate/overnight costs: if you trade on leverage, you may be charged for holding your positions overnight. This cost can be expressed as a percentage or in swap points.
Non-trading fees: these occur when you deposit and withdraw funds, or if you don't use your account for a certain period.

Now, let's dive into the details and see what commissions, spreads, and financing rates Firstrade charges.

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Firstrade

4.4/5

Minimum deposit

Stock fee

Low

Options fee

Low

Inactivity fee

Account opening

1-3 days

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Firstrade commission and other trading fees

The good news is that Firstrade has low trading fees in general. We ranked the fees of Firstrade as low, average, or high based on how they compare with all reviewed brokers.

Check out this table to get an overview of whether Firstrade commissions, spreads, and financing rates for each asset class are low/average/high.

Classification of Firstrade commission and other trading fees
	Firstrade Firstrade	TradeStation TradeStation	Interactive Brokers Interactive Brokers
Stock and ETF	Low	Low	Low
Forex	-	-	Average
Fund	Low	Average	Average
Bond	Low	Low	Low
Options	Low	Average	Low
Futures	-	Low	Low

Now let's go over the trading fees for each asset class one by one.

Firstrade stock and ETF commissions, spreads

Firstrade stock and ETF commissions are low. Firstrade stock and ETF commissions are charged as per the table below.

Firstrade stock and ETF commission
	Firstrade Firstrade
US stock Estimated commission of a $2,000 trade, assuming a $50 stock price	$0 per trade

You can compare Firstrade stock and ETF fees with the two closest competitors.

Firstrade stock and ETF commission, spreads vs competitors
	Firstrade Firstrade	TradeStation TradeStation	Interactive Brokers Interactive Brokers
US stock Estimated commission of a $2,000 trade, assuming a $50 stock price	$0.0 $0 per trade	$5.0 $5 per trade for non-US clients. For US clients, commission-free up to the first 10,000 shares per trade.	$1.0 Fixed pricing: $0.005 per share, min. $1, max. 1% of trade value. Free for US clients choosing IBKR Lite plan.

Stock and ETF commissions are calculated for a $2,000 trade

Firstrade fund commissions

Firstrade fund commissions are low. The table below shows how Firstrade fund commissions are calculated.

Firstrade fund commissions
	Firstrade Firstrade
Mutual fund Estimated commission of a $2,000 US domiciled fund trade	$0 per trade

Check out how Firstrade fund fees compare with the competition.

Firstrade fund commissions
	Firstrade Firstrade	TradeStation TradeStation	Interactive Brokers Interactive Brokers
Mutual fund Estimated commission of a $2,000 US domiciled fund trade	$0.0 $0 per trade	$15.0 $14.95 per transaction	$15.0 $14.95 per transaction or 3% of trade value, whichever is lower. There are also more than 18,000 funds with no transaction fee

Fund commissions are calculated for a $2,000 trade

Firstrade bond commissions

Firstrade bond commissions are low. The table below contains the description of Firstrade bond commissions.

Firstrade bond commissions
	Firstrade Firstrade
US Treasury bond Estimated commission of a $10,000 US treasury bond trade	Net Yield Basis for treasury, corporate, municipal, agencies, secondary CDs and zero bonds and $30 min for primary CD. Net Yield Basis means Firstrade acts as principal whereby the bonds will be subject to a markup or markdown.

See how Firstrade bond fees stack up against the competition.

Firstrade bond commissions vs competitors
	Firstrade Firstrade	TradeStation TradeStation	Interactive Brokers Interactive Brokers
US Treasury bond Estimated commission of a $10,000 US treasury bond trade	$0.0 Net Yield Basis for treasury, corporate, municipal, agencies, secondary CDs and zero bonds and $30 min for primary CD. Net Yield Basis means Firstrade acts as principal whereby the bonds will be subject to a markup or markdown.	$20.0 $14.95 + $5 per bond	$5.0 For the first $1,000,000 face value: 0.002% of trade value with $5 min.

Bond commissions are calculated for a $10,000 trade

Firstrade options commissions

You can see below the description of Firstrade options commissions. Firstrade options fees are low.

Firstrade options commissions
	Firstrade Firstrade
US stock index options Estimated commission for 10 contracts	$0 per trade
US stock options Estimated commission for opening 10 contracts	$0 per trade

Compare options commissions charged by Firstrade with those of TradeStation and Interactive Brokers.

Firstrade options commissions vs competitors
	Firstrade Firstrade	TradeStation TradeStation	Interactive Brokers Interactive Brokers
US stock index options Estimated commission for 10 contracts	$0.0 $0 per trade	$11.0 For US clients, $0.6 contract per contract, for non-US clients $5 flat fee plus $0.6 per contract	$6.5 Less than 10,000 contract per month and for a 10 contracts trade: $0.65 per contract with $1 min
US stock options Estimated commission for opening 10 contracts	$0.0 $0 per trade	$11.0 For US clients, $0.6 contract per contract, for non-US clients $5 flat fee plus $0.6 per contract	$6.5 Less than 10,000 contracts per month and for a 10 contract trade: $0.65 per contract with a $1 minimum fee

Options commissions are calculated for 10 contracts

Firstrade non-trading fees

In addition to trading fees, it's important to see if Firstrade charges a fee on deposits, withdrawals, account maintenance, and inactivity. We compared these fees levied by Firstrade with its two closest competitors.

Firstrade non-trading fees vs competitors
	Firstrade Firstrade	TradeStation TradeStation	Interactive Brokers Interactive Brokers
Deposit fee	$0 Free deposit	$0 Free deposit	$0 Free deposit
Withdrawal fee Fee for withdrawing money from the broker account. It is zero if you can withdraw money for free via any method, e.g. credit/debit card or bank transfer.	$0 Free withdrawal for ACH, but wire transfers cost $25	$0 $0 for ACH withdrawals and $25 for US wire withdrawals	$0 One free per month, after that $10
Account fee Monthly account fee	No No account fee	No No account fee	No No account fee
Inactivity fee Fee applied if a customer does not trade for a certain length of time	No No inactivity fee	Yes $10/month – waived if 10 or more trades placed in prior 90 days OR $5000 avg end of month balance	No No inactivity fee

CFD fees are calculated for a $2,000 trade using 20:1 leverage for stock index CFDs, and 5:1 leverage for stock CFDs

Bottom line

Hopefully, by now you have a clear picture of the commissions, spreads, financing rates, and non-trading fees charged by Firstrade and its closest competitors. To learn more about Firstrade, check out this detailed review. If you would like more information about fees in general, read this article about brokerage fees.

If you're not sure which broker to choose, get a personal recommendation from our broker recommendation algorithm or compare brokers with our broker comparison table.

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Everything you find on BrokerChooser is based on reliable data and unbiased information. We combine our 10+ years finance experience with readers feedback. Read more about our methodology.