Medved Trader Premium access is now free for all clients with funded TradeKing accounts

[Jerry Medved]

 

We are happy to announce that Medved Trader premium access is now free for all clients with funded TradeKing accounts. If you do not have an account, opening one is easy. Please refer to

https://www.medvedtrader.com/TradeKing

If you already have an account, then all you need to do is:

• Start Medved Trader
• Login to Medved Trader if needed with your existing Medved Trader account. 
• Use your TradeKing account for either quotes or trading. (In the case of MB Trading clients, it has to be trading specifically). 
• Wait a minute, then restart Medved Trader. When it restarts, all free account restrictions should be removed.

 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us here or via email

 

[riclru]

Jerry - I just created and funded a Tradeking account.  I have two comments so far.

First, Tradeking has a special introductory offer.  I would recommend that anyone signing up to use this offer.

Second, when I logged in to my new TradeKing account through MT, I got an "API Agreement" screen.  This is something I am not familiar with, since I have used Quote Tracker in the past with Fido, Ameritrade and Etrade and they never required this.  I tried to fill out the form right there online, but could not fill it out, so I printed it and filled it out manually.  I called a very friendly guy at TradeKing to ask him what the API agreement was.  He was not familiar with it but told me to scan the completed form and send it to services@tradeking.com, along with a brief statement telling them why I am filling out the form.  I don't know what magic occurs after I send the agreement, but I will let you know what occurs if you are interested in what happens from an "I am clueless" perspective.  I don't know if this is something new since I don't notice anybody else addressing this API form on the message board.  Right now I cannot login via Tradeking to take advantage of MT full capabilities.  I have been using MT introductory platform for a week or so and it looks pretty good so far.  I still miss the jumping jack alerts from the original QT...

[Jerry Medved]

Seems that the API agreement is a general thing TK requires first time you access the account via the API.  I actually meant to create another account myself so I can go through the process again and see where that pops up. 

Jumping jack alerts?

[riclru]

It popped up after I logged in to TK from Medved Trader.  It has a legalese statement but I couldn't fill it out from the popup.  Your original QT had alerts in the form of red or green cartoon characters that did jumping jacks when the alert kicked in.

[Xinfinitum]

Hi Jerry,

I am in the process of attempting to sign up for the TradeKing Account and take advantage of your generous offer of obtaining the Medved Trader Premium Access.

I have some questions about the process that I am a bit confused about.

I hope I can explain my question coherently.

Your website "TradeKing MB Trading Signup" indicates that there are two platforms, the main TradeKing platform, and the MB Trading platform.

It then shows the procedure for signing up for the MB Trading Platform.

In your statement above you said "Use your TradeKing account for either quotes or trading. (In the case of MB Trading clients, it has to be trading specifically)."

I had hoped to use what ever platform I chose for just the quotes and trade directly from the brokers website (unless in the future I determine it better to make trades directly through MT).

My questions are:

(1). If I chose to set up the TradeKing account with the MB Trading Platform will I have to "be trading specifically" or can I just use MT with the quotes option to have Premium Access? 

(2). Will I be considered  an "MB Trading Client"?

(3). If I wanted to use MT with just the quotes connected and am using the MB Trading Platform would I not qualify for the Premium Access?

(4). You recommend the MB Trading Platform over the "Main TradeKing Platform", can you tell me what are the advantages of the MB Platform?

Thank you for any information you can supply.

Regards,

Xin

[Jerry Medved]

Xin, 

TradeKing bought MB Trading so all MB Trading clients are now TradeKing clients.  Right now the MB Trading system and the TradeKing original system are still separate with the accounts being separate. They will be merged in the future at which time we will combine stuff in MT as well.

The requirement to connect via trading for MB is a technical one because of how stuff works internally in MT. Basically, bringing up anything related to trading would be sufficient for the "Trading Login" in MT - Balances for example.   MT will at that point do the eligibility check. 

There is no requirement to actually trade via MT, though you will definitely want to do that. With the MB Trading accounts you do not trade on the web site.  The default mode is to use their software (MBT Desktop Pro), so it would be either using that or MT.  Trust me - you want to use MT

 

[Xinfinitum]

Thanks for the quick response.

So if I understand you correctly, I can sign up with TradeKing, using your instructions found on "TradeKing MB Trading Signup" webpage, selecting The MB Trading Platform.

When I use the Medved Trader I do not have to actually place trades through MT, just check my balance with Trade King using MT and that would be sufficient to be eligible for the MT Premium Access.

If I do place any trades, it also sounds like if I select the MB Trading Platform I will have to choose placing trades either through the MBT Desktop Pro or MT since there is no website available.

If I were to choose the TradeKing Original Platform or system I would not be able to make trades using MT until they merge both systems in the future, I would have to go to TradeKing's website to place trades.

Does that sound right?

Thanks.
 

[Jerry Medved]

first stuff is correct.  As for the last item - if you choose to go with the original platform, you CAN use it to place trades in MT as well. MT supports both. It is just different than the MB Trading system.

Once they do integrate, then we will no longer have 2 different options in MT. We will merge them here as well.

[Xinfinitum]

Thank you.  I have a better grasp of the platform choices to make a decision on how to approach this.  I appreciate it.

...Xin

[Saty]

What kind of financial relationship do you have with this Tradeking for you to give it free?

[Jerry Medved]

They cover the cost of the subscription for their users.  So it is not that we are giving it for free to you.  They are. So, every TK client that gets it free is obviously beneficial to us, but then so is any regular paid client as well.  

However, note that we give the same high level of support to everyone, regardless of how they signed up, or if they are paid or free. Best advertising is word of mouth and nothing says more about you than the quality of your support. 

[ex_hacker202]

Jerry, quick question - to gain free use of MT by having a TradeKing account your site says "* $500 minimum balance required in order to get Medved Trader full Premium access for free." - does that mean you have to have assets worth $500 or more, or just to have deposited a minimum of $500 with TK? Reason I ask is I currently have $500 cash sitting in my TK account while still struggling to get my SP2 problems resolved, and I wonder if I bought $500 worth of stock in that account, but the pps dropped, leaving me with < $500 in assets in TK, would that then disqualify me from free access to MT?

[Jerry Medved]

MT checks the account value, so that includes assets and cash.  I would suggest keeping a little bit more to account for fluctuations

[ex_hacker202]

Thanks - that's what I thought - if/when I start trading in TK account, will leave that initial $500 in cash alone.

[Jerry Medved]

NOTE: if the balance drops below that, it is not like MT will immediately reset itself. But if it stays that way for a few weeks, then that would be a problem. 

[riclru]

Jerry - does the buyout of TradeKing by Ally change my free access to MT?

[Jerry Medved]

No

[Almighty1]

Jerry, long time QuoteTracker user here since the beginning.  Just realize QT is no more and now MedvedTrader.  Anyways, so one has to maintain the $500 minimum all the time or is that only to open the account?  Reason I am asking is I will not trade in the account because I still have 1300 free trades annually elsewhere so the money will most likely settle idle in the account.  

[Jerry Medved]

the account value would have to be $500 for MT to stay on Premium access. Not just opening.  if you have that many free trades available elsewhere, may be better to just pay for the premium access for the time being. Will be much easier.

[Almighty1]

Thanks Jerry!  It's actually cheaper to just put in $500 since the premium access will obviously cost more as it's really just idle cash and the bad part is Ally Invest does not pay interest for cash balances like the other brokerages do.  I can always do a small trade with that $500 and try to make it higher over time since the risk is lower with a smaller amount.  

Just a suggestion, maybe they should really look at the minimum balance requirement with Ally in general so that it can be with the Ally Bank or Ally Invest as a combined balance thing as the bank side is paying 1.20% in interest. 

When opening a account, I noticed that there is actually 3 different accounts one can open, one being a Ally Invest, another being a MB Trading and the third one being Trade King.  It seems when I talk to Ally Invest, they said Ally Invest is basically the Trade King platform so it does not support Level 2 quotes while MB Trading does so out of the three, would opening it via MB Trading actually provide the most data features? 

On another topic, there should probably be a About MedvedTracker on the main home page with the history from the beginning of QT so people will know what it is.   

Edited October 9, 2017 by Almighty1

[Jerry Medved]

MB Trading and TradeKing accounts are both part of "Ally Invest" and both qualify. We recommend MB Trading. NOTE: You may want to fund above $500 so if there are data fees, or stock fluctuations, it will not cause the account to go below.  

Keep in mind that their whole purpose for this promo is to have people trade, not just keep the money parked, so doing what you suggest wouldn't help that goal.

 

[Almighty1]

Thanks, technically it is trading except if it goes up, one can always hold unless the money is needed or if the security isn't performing well long term and only short term, then it would be wise to sell and buy something else.  Money parked actually helps them as well because instead of the customer using it, they will borrow from it and actually gain from it.  

[Almighty1]

Is MB Trading no longer available for new clients?  What about Discount Trading as I know it's listed on the Brokers page.  Now I have another question, can I use a different data sources for each of the items in the data sources page with the checkmarks like if Ally Invest doesn't have level 2 quotes but they have news, can I use TD Ameritrade for the level 2 quotes for example?  

[Jerry Medved]

Yes, MB trading is for existing clients only now. New accounts are on the regular Ally invest system.

Discount trading? I don't remember it being on our list. However if they use rhythmic or gain systems, then sure you can use that.

As for different sources, sure you can do that. You can even have one level II window getting data from one source and another from another. Or two portfolios getting data from two different sources. The only thing is if doing that with portfolios, make sure they do not share any symbols or that will cause problems

[Almighty1]

I wonder if the regular Ally Invest/Tradeking system will ever get Real time 2 quotes.  

Discount Trading is listed on the Brokers page except it seems they are a Futures broker, never knew Futures brokers provided Level 2 quotes but apparently, that is one of the listed features.  

Never realized you can have multiple level 2 windows getting data from different sources.  One of my concerns was the opposite of what you had mentioned and that sometimes, different data sources/brokers use different symbols for the same security.