tastyworks Review 2023

András I.
January 30, 2023

tastyworks Broker Overview

tastyworks is a US-based brokerage specializing in options and stock trading. It stands out as a strong choice for options traders, as its trading platform is built with options strategies at its core and offers competitive, low-cost pricing. In addition, the broker provides high-quality educational content and research resources that help traders improve both their knowledge and execution.

The platform’s primary focus is on options and futures, making it less streamlined for trading US stocks and ETFs compared to more traditional brokers. While equity trading is available, the process can feel more complex. There are also some practical drawbacks: withdrawing funds via bank wire can be costly, and deposits using credit or debit cards are not supported.

Although the platform is highly effective for advanced options trading, it may feel overwhelming for beginners, especially since there is no demo account to practice with. Overall, tastyworks is best suited to experienced traders who are primarily interested in options and futures and value powerful tools over simplicity.

tastyworks Safety and Regulation Overview

tastyworks operates as a regulated financial brokerage under the supervision of a leading US regulatory authority. Client assets are safeguarded through applicable investor protection schemes, and in certain jurisdictions the broker also provides negative balance protection to help limit potential losses.

From an operational standpoint, key account processes such as funding and withdrawals are structured to meet regulatory standards and function reliably in practice. Overall, tastyworks offers a solid regulatory framework and appropriate client protections, making it a trustworthy choice from a safety and compliance perspective.

tastyworks pros and cons

Pros	Cons
• Low trading fees	• Limited product selection
• Great educational materials	• Few deposit and withdrawal options
• Good research tools	• No demo account

tastyworks main highlights

Country of regulation	USA
Trading fees class	Low
Inactivity fee charged	No
Withdrawal fee amount	$0
Minimum deposit	$0
Time to open an account	1 days
Deposit with bank card	Not available
Depositing with electronic wallet	Not available
Number of base currencies supported	1
Demo account provided	No
Products offered	Stock, ETF, Fund, Options, Futures, Crypto

Our overall TD Ameritrade Review rating

Fees

8.4
Account opening

10
Deposit and withdrawal

3.8
WebTrading platform

6.8
Mobile trading platform

8.4
Desktop trading platform

7.8
Markets and products

6.6
Research

10
Customer service

10
Education

9

tastyworks review

Fees

tastyworks has low trading fees and there is no inactivity fee. On the other hand, you have to pay a high withdrawal fee for wire transfers and margin rates are quite high.

Pros	Cons
• No inactivity fee	• High margin rates for stock trading
• Free stock trading	• Withdrawal fee for bank (wire) transfers
• Low options fees

tastyworks fees snapshot
Assets	Fee level	Fee terms
US stock	Low	Free stock and ETF
EURUSD	–	Not available
Mutual fund	–	Not available
Inactivity fee	Low	No inactivity fee

How We Assessed tastyworks’ Fees

tastyworks’ pricing was categorized as low, average, or high by benchmarking it against the broader universe of brokers we analyzed.

Before looking at the numbers, it helps to clarify the two main types of brokerage costs: trading fees and non-trading fees.

Trading fees are applied when you place trades, while non-trading fees cover expenses not directly tied to trading activity, such as withdrawal charges or inactivity-related costs.

To put tastyworks’ pricing into context, its fees were also compared with those of two similar platforms, TradeStation and Interactive Brokers. These peers were chosen based on objective criteria including product range, typical client base, and overall pricing structure. A broader comparison with alternative brokers helps highlight where tastyworks stands.

For a clear overview, it makes sense to begin with trading-related costs.

tastyworks Trading Fees

tastyworks offers generally low trading costs. One of its standout pricing features is the cap on equity option commissions, which are limited to $10 per leg. In addition, trading US stocks and ETFs comes with no commission at all.

Stock and ETF Fees

tastyworks does not charge any commission for buying or selling stocks and ETFs, making it a cost-efficient choice for traders active in these markets.

**tastyworks stock and ETF commission of a $2,000 trade**
	tastyworks	TradeStation	Interactive Brokers
US stock	$0.0	$0.0	$1.0

If you prefer stock trading on margin, you should check tastyworks’s margin rates.

What is the margin rate? Margin rates are charged when you trade on margin. This basically means that you borrow money from your broker to trade, for which you have to pay interest.

**tastyworks annual margin rates**
	tastyworks	TradeStation	Interactive Brokers
USD margin rate	11.0%	11.5%	5.3%

tastyworks’s margin rates are volume-tiered. It involves a base rate, and a premium or discount depending on the margin amount. The base rate is set at tastyworks’s discretion; at the time of our review, the base rate was 10%.

tastyworks financing rate
Debit balance	Rate %	Base rate + / –
$0 – $24,999	11.00%	Base Rate + 1.00%
$25,000 – $49,999	10.50%	Base Rate + 0.50%
$50,000 – $99,999	10.00%	Base Rate
$100,000 – $249,999	9.50%	Base Rate – 0.50%
$250,000 – $499,999	9.00%	Base Rate – 1.00%
$500,000 – $999,999	8.50%	Base Rate – 1.50%
$1,000,000 +	8.00%	Base Rate – 2.00%

Options fees

tastyworks options fees are low.

Note that tastyworks charges a flat $5 fee/leg for exercise and assignment (irrespective of how many shares are exercised or assigned).

**tastyworks stock index options commission of 10 contracts**
	tastyworks	TradeStation	Interactive Brokers
US stock index options	$7.5	$0.0	$6.5

The fees for the Single-Listed Exchange Proprietary Index Options are cheaper: for example, it’s $0.65 per contract on the SPX and $0.18 on the NDX indexes.

**tastyworks options fees detailed**
	Commission to open trade	Commission to close trade
Options on stocks	$1.00/contract, max $10.00 per leg	free
Options on micro futures	$1.50/contract	free
Options on Smalls Futures	$0.18 – $0.65 /contract	$0.18 – $0.65 /contract

Futures fees

tastyworks futures fees are generally low. However, they are still higher than futures fees at TradeStation.

**TradeStation stock index options commission of 10 contracts**
	tastyworks	TradeStation	Interactive Brokers
US micro e-mini stock index futures	$8.5	$0.0	$2.5

Crypto fees

The commission is currently set to 1% of your total crypto purchase to open and 1% of your total crypto sale to close a trade.

The above commissions are capped at $10, per order ticket.

Non-trading fees

tastyworks has average non-trading fees. It doesn’t charge you a general account fee, an inactivity fee, a custody fee or a deposit fee.

ACH withdrawal is free, but the wire withdrawal fee is quite high: it is $25 for wire transfers within the US and $45 for international wire transfers.

**tastyworks non-trading fees**
	tastyworks	TradeStation	Interactive Brokers
Account fee	No	No	No
Inactivity fee	No	Yes	No
Deposit fee	$0	$0	$0
Withdrawal fee	$0	$0	$0

tastyworks review

Account opening

tastyworks account opening is user-friendly, fast, fully digital, and involves no minimum deposit.

Pros	Cons
• Fast	• None
• Fully digital
• No minimum deposit

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tastyworks accepts customers from many countries. These include almost all EU countries, most South and Central American countries, as well as India, Indonesia, New Zealand and Turkey, among others.

What is the minimum deposit at tastyworks?

The required tastyworks minimum deposit is $0 for cash accounts. For margin accounts, you need to deposit a minimum of $2,000.

Account types

tastyworks offers two account types for individuals: cash and margin accounts. With a margin account, you can use leverage, which means you can borrow money from the broker to trade.

Retirement accounts are available for US citizens. You can choose among traditional, self-employed (SEP), roth or beneficiary (inherited) IRAs.

Based on ownership, you can open the following account types:

Individual account – account owned by an individual
Joint account – account owned by more than one person
Corporate and trust account – account owned by a legal entity (available only in the US)

In our tastyworks review, we tested the individual margin account, called ‘The Works’.

How to open your account

tastyworks account opening is fast and fully digital. Our account was approved after 1 day.

tastyworks account application takes 10-15 minutes and is fairly straightforward. You need to provide the following information:

Account type
Personal information
Employer information (name, address, phone number)
Financial knowledge
Name of your primary bank
Digital copies of your ID and proof of address

tastyworks review – Account opening

Our best alternatives to tastyworks are:

The highest ranking competitors are:

TradeStation full review
Interactive Brokers full review
TD Ameritrade full review
NinjaTrader full review

tastyworks review

Deposit and withdrawal

tastyworks’s deposit and withdrawal functions are easy to use and there’s no deposit fee, but you can use only bank transfer, and withdrawals can be expensive especially for non-US clients.

Pros	Cons
• No deposit fee	• Credit/Debit card not available
• User-friendly	• High fee for wire withdrawals
• Free ACH withdrawals in the US

Account base currencies

At tastyworks, the only available base currency is USD.

Deposit fees and options

tastyworks deposit is free of charge. However, non-US citizens can only use bank transfers, known as wire transfers in US banking lingo.

If you are from the US, you can also use

ACH (automated clearing house)
check

**tastyworks deposit options**
	tastyworks	TradeStation	Interactive Brokers
Bank transfer	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bank transfer	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bank transfer	Yes	Yes	Yes

We tested the non-US wire transfer, and it took 3 business days.

According to tastyworks’ website, ACH transfers take 4 business days. However, some US bank accounts can be linked to tastyworks, making instant transfers possible.

You can only deposit money from accounts that are in your name.

tastyworks review – Deposit and withdrawal – Deposit

tastyworks withdrawal fees and options

tastyworks withdrawal costs $45 for non-US wire transfers and $25 for wire transfers within the US. ACH withdrawals are free of charge.

Withdrawing money can be done the same way as making deposits, i.e. only via wire transfer for non-US citizens, plus ACH and check for US citizens. The user interface for wire transfer withdrawal is customer-friendly and easy to use.

**tastyworks withdrawal fees and options**
	tastyworks	TradeStation	Interactive Brokers
Bank transfer	Yes	Yes	Yes
Credit/debit card	No	No	No
Electronic wallets	No	No	No
Withdrawal fee	$0	$0	$0

How long does it take to withdraw money from tastyworks? In our experience, bank transfer withdrawal can take at least 3 business days.

You can only withdraw money to accounts in your name.

How do you withdraw money from tastyworks?

Select the account to withdraw from
Link your bank account
Set the transaction date/frequency
Enter the amount to be withdrawn
Confirm the withdrawal

tastyworks review

Web trading platform

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

tastyworks platforms to choose from
Trading platform	Score	Available
Web	3.4 stars	Yes
Mobile	4.2 stars	Yes
Desktop	3.9 stars	Yes

tastyworks uses its own trading platform. It is targeted mainly for options and futures traders, with stock trading only as a secondary focus.

The platform is available only in English.

Look and feel

The tastyworks web trading platform is great for advanced traders, but it is hard to navigate as a beginner. It’s a well-designed platform 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

tastyworks now requires two-step authentication for certain functions, which gives you extra 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 tastyworks 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, say, 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

tastyworks’s order management has great functions but it’s a bit complicated. It is primarily designed for options trading but 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 mid-range 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 also 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’. You can have an overview of a wide range of assets in one place. All 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.

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tastyworks review

Mobile trading platform

tastyworks’s mobile platform is very similar to its web platform. It is well organized but feels complicated, and it also lacks price alerts.

Pros	Cons
• User-friendly	• No price alerts
• Touch/Face ID login
• Order confirmation

The tastyworks mobile platform is very similar to the web platform and shares its major functions.

The mobile trading platform is available in English for both iOS and Android. We tested it on iOS.