tastytrade trading platform

Web trading platform

BrokerChooser review score: 3.4

The tastytrade web platform is great for experienced traders, especially for options trading. However, it takes time to figure out how its functions work and customizability is limited.

Pros	Cons
• Clear fee report	• Limited customizability (for charts, workspace)
• Price alerts	• Not suited for beginners
• Two-step (safer) authentication for certain functions

tastytrade platforms
	tastytrade	Available
Web platform score	3.4 stars	Yes
Mobile platform score	4.2 stars	Yes
Desktop platform score	3.9 stars	Yes

tastytrade has a proprietary trading platform that is targeted mainly at options and futures traders, with stock trading only as a secondary focus.

The platform is available only in English.

Visit tastytrade

Look and feel

The tastytrade web trading platform is great for advanced traders, but it is hard to navigate as a beginner. It's a well-designed interface that's reasonably easy to use after a bit of practice. It's also equipped with a strong options trading panel, though the platform is not customizable.

tastyworks review - Web trading platform

Login and security

tastytrade requires two-step authentication for certain functions, which ensures an extra layer of security. Two-step authentication is required for the following actions within the account:

Email changes
Password changes or forgotten passwords
Money movements (initiated from within your tastytrade profile)

To use this security feature, you'll need to download an authenticator app, like Authy, Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator or 2FAS Authenticator.

Search functions

The platform's search functions are OK but could use some improvement. If you know the ticker, you're good to go. However, if you want to search for various emerging market ETFs and start typing 'Emerging', the results will only have ETFs starting with the word 'Emerging'. So for example the biggest ETF, the iShares MSCI Emerging Market Fund will not be shown because it starts with 'Ishares' not 'Emerging'.

tastyworks review - Web trading platform - Search

Placing orders

tastytrade's order management has great functions but it's a bit complicated. It is primarily designed for options trading but it can also be used for stock trading. You will find three different order panels: two for options trading and one for stock trading.

The stock-trading panel is of medium quality, offering four order types:

Market
Limit
Stop limit
Stop market

To get a better understanding of these terms, read this overview of order types.

There are various order time limits you can use:

Good 'til cancelled (GTC)
Good 'til date (GTD)

tastyworks review - Web trading platform - Order panel

For options trading, you can choose between two views: the standard option chain, called 'Table', and a unique visual trading interface, called 'Curve'.

Under both views, you can use many predefined strategies:

Vertical
Strangle
Straddle
Option
Iron condor
Covered stock
Butterfly
Jade lizard
Calendar

It looks very complicated at first, but it's a very functional platform once you get the hang of it. For example, it has a list of predefined option strategies, so opening an iron condor takes only two clicks.

tastyworks review - Web Trading platform - Options order panel

You can also drag and drop the different option orders and easily edit the default parameters. We think this is one of the biggest selling points of the platform.

tastyworks review - Web Trading platform - Call option

Alerts and notifications

It is easy to set up price alerts and order notifications. You can set up alerts for each asset for price and implied volatility (IV). You can also set up email and push notifications, as well as text messages if you are in the US.

There is a great watchlist called the 'Grid' that offers an overview of a wide range of assets all in one place. Selected stocks have a well organized mini-infographic with some fundamental data. This is also tailored for options trading, as the most visible data points are IV ranks.

tastyworks review - Web Trading platform - Products

Portfolio and fee reports

The portfolio report is well structured. Its default setting is options-focused as it shows delta and theta values. However, the columns of the table can be easily customized.

The fee report is also clear. Both the portfolio and fee report can be exported to a CSV file.

Desktop trading platform

BrokerChooser review score: 3.9

The desktop platform is very similar to the web trading platform and has extra features such as good customizability. On the other hand, it is likewise not well suited for beginners.

Pros	Cons
• Clear fee report	• Not suited for beginners
• Good customiozability (for charts, workspace)
• Price alerts

You can download the desktop trading platform for OSX, Windows and Linux. It is only available in English.

Look and feel

The tastytrade desktop trading platform is OK. Similarly to the web platform, it is quite complicated and it takes some time to figure out where things are. However, it's slightly more intuitive and has more customizability options.