- Review of: SogoTrade
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Summary: Active traders are a better fit to SogoTrade's pricing model even if it lacks the features that options traders really need.
Simply put SogoTrade is a no-frills discount stock brokerage firm. Why? It’s possible to get some of the cheapest commissions for stock trading that we’ve been able to find, but with a catch. Read more to find out how.
SogoTrade seems great if you are just trading with stocks and ETFs, but with mutual funds it’s not recommended.
If you are a passive investor SogoTrade is definitely not right for you.
Since Vanguard Investments is without a doubt the low-cost leader in index funds of this nature, and might be a better option. Active traders are a better fit to SogoTrade’s pricing model. Though low in option pricing, SogoTrade lacks the features an options trader really needs.
Let’s discuss the various characteristics and features of SogoTrade.
SogoTrade Features
| Minimum Deposit | $500 |
|---|---|
| Stock Trades | $5 |
| Options Trades | $5 + $0.50/contract |
| Mutual Funds | $15 |
| Accounts Available | Traditional IRA, Rollover IRA, ESA and Individual |
| Mobile App | Yes — Apple iOS and Google Android |
| Customer Service | Phone and Email |
| Promotions | None |
SogoTrade Account Options
To date, the only type of account we’ve tested with SogoTrade.com is an individual, taxable stock trading account. However, SogoTrade offers the following types of accounts from which a person can choose.
- Individual, taxable trading accounts
- Traditional and Rollover IRAs
- Educational Savings Accounts (ESA’s)
SogoTrade Investment Options
Within my individual, taxable trading account (mentioned above), I have only so far invested in individual stocks and ETF’s. However, SogoTrade.com offers the following selection of investments from which to choose.
- Stocks
- ETFs
- Margin accounts
- Fixed income (bonds) and CDs
- Money market mutual funds and regular mutual funds
- Stock/ETF options
SogoTrade Fees and Commissions
Listed below are the all-important fine-print cost details for SogoTrade.com:
| Stock Trades | Options Base | Options Contract | Minimum Deposit | Mutual Funds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $5.00 | $5.00 | $0.50 | $500 | $15.00 |
Sogotrade does have options to lower trades to as low as $3 per trade. One option is to pre-purchase 20 trades. The other method is perform more than 50 trades per month, and you automatically get $3.00 per trade.
There’s no recurring/periodic account maintenance or inactivity fees on individual, taxable accounts. If you want a paper statement it’s $5 month, and free to receive online. IRA account unfortunately have a $30 annual IRA fee, but there’s no fee for opening an IRA.
Visit their web site for the complete listing of SogoTrade’s fees. They also feature a very nice comparison of their fees to other major brokerages.
Online Account Interface and User Experience
Overall, SogoTrade’s online account/user interface offers the tools you need to execute trades without many added bells-and-whistles (which is what you’d come to expect from a low-cost leader in online stock trading).
Once you fill out all of the account sign-up forms and log in to your account, you’ll see a screen like the one in the image pasted below. Shown on this “starting” screen are the normal account details one would expect to see, including your cash balance, market value of your holdings, amount of cash you have available for trading, and total account equity. The screen also shows the current status of any open stock trading orders you have as well as a snap-shot of your portfolio positions and the market value over time of your total portfolio.
In order to get a more detailed view of what’s going on with your portfolio holdings, you can navigate on the “start” page to the “account” drop-down menu and click the “account positions” menu selection. When you do this, a screen similar to the one in the image below appears.
Along with showing the normal investment holding details (ticker symbol, price per share, no. of shares, total purchase cost, market value, and % and $ value gain/loss), one fairly interesting feature of this tool is that it displays a pie chart that shows a breakdown of your portfolio by long and short positions. As you can see in the screenshot below, I don’t currently have any short positions, however, this is a very useful tool to quickly capture the overall components of your portfolio.
Another important SogoTrade online account feature that I almost always have to use at tax time to tally up my stock gains/losses each year is the “account history” menu feature. An example of what this feature looks like is shown below. Using this feature, you can look up your stock purchase, dividend, commission, and selling records from a two year period.
Summary
On the positive, SogoTrade is currently the lowest brokerage available, though you have to be a frequent trader or prepay for trades.
However, being a low-cost leader in stock trades, do not expect a lot of extra “bells-and-whistles” or help researching which stock to buy. SogoTrade assumes that you have done this research independently. Options traders might want to look at OptionsHouse as more feature filled alternative.
Additionally, SogoTrade is not the best/lowest cost option for purchasing mutual funds. If you are looking to invest in that type of security, we would recommend another broker. In addition, with many commission free ETFs available at other firms, can save you considerable transaction fees as well.
For an IRA, SogoTrade is not recommended. There are many other low cost brokers like TradeKing that don’t charge for maintaining an IRA account.
Comments
Sogotrade is the worst in many respects. Way back in 2008 was great with $3 trades. But I will not ever use Sogo trade to buy anything ever again. If you have any issue, all I can tell you is good luck because these guys are not only Chinese, idiots and a**hles but goes way further to show you what kind of company this is really. Customer service is so horrible and over the years it got worse. Back in 2009, it was way better. Now if there is any issue they are like the Catholic Church. The blow you off for as long as they can and they hide like rats.
How are the executions and fills for sogotrade. I’ve heard conflicting reviews all over about sogotrade. I’m mainly a swing trader with occasional day trades for listed stocks (no penny stocks for me).
Thanks for reading Zachariah. The executions and fills for me using Sogotrade have always been fine. However, my purposes for using Sogotrade were always more for long-term investing where small price changes didn’t matter within the day I was buying the stock. For swing trading or day trading, I know you all need a whole other level of accuracy in order to make money, so I’d suggest to continue searching around to get clarification. Best of luck!
I tried SogoTrade back in 2007 when I found out they had extremely low execution costs for online trades. However, the service was not very good and they seemed to have some issues that needed to be worked out, so I just sort of left after about 9-10 months. After trying two other brokerages with mixed results, I decided to look around again and see what was out there today (about 3-4 months ago). I noticed a lot of mixed reviews for SogoTrade and with no better alternative (in my mind), I decided to give them another shot. I could not have been more pleased with the customer service and platform. I have never had any issues with executions or fills and customer service has been very responsive the couple of times I contacted them. Anyway, I was just wanting to put my 2 cents in and let you know about the positive experience I have been having with SogoTrade this time around.
Thanks for the insight Bill.
What about the stocks listed on OTCBB. Does SogoTrade allow to trade them or not?
Could you please, explain why this brokerage firm isn´t for long term investor?
Hi Alex where do we say this?
SogoTrade is a great choice! It provides lowest commission fees compare to other online brokers. And now there are more investment products for customers. Also the online trading platforms and market research tools can help customers a lot in investing and trading. Also, the website provide great guideline and education of how to trade in market, which is a great assist for customers, especially when you just start to trade. Also, I have no problem with the customer service! They answered phone quickly and really helpful. SogoTrade is a good choice!
Started my investing with Sogotrade (been with them since 2009).
At the time, it was the cheapest of the block. As they say, you get what you pay for; the customer service was horrendous to say the least. It was very common to have a wait time for 30 minutes if you wanted to speak with a customer representative.
Having said that, the customer service and other aspects have considerably improved over the last year or so. Emails are typically answered within a couple of hours, customer service is also easy to reach (~2-5 minutes depending on the time of day).
One gripe with them is the time they take to put out the tax documents (it was almost mid of March the last 2 years); they can surely send them earlier.
Also, they don’t offer cost basis (and if you buy their prepaid package, they don’t include the prepaid commission in the sale. It is your responsibility to keep a track of the cost and commissions).
Still, the low cost kinda justifies the hassles. Recommended if you are not a heavy trader.