Worked example
Practising on TradeStation Global's numbers
This is an exercise sheet, not a review. We are going to take three things that TradeStation Global publishes — a spread, a ladder of account types and a list of licences — and turn each of them into something you can do arithmetic with. By the end you should be able to repeat the whole exercise on any firm you come across, which is the actual skill being taught.
The figures we are working from
Nothing below is our estimate. Where a firm has not published something, or we could not read it on a source we trust, the box says so instead of guessing — a habit worth copying when you build your own broker notes.
Exercise one — turn the spread into money
TradeStation Global does not publish a EUR/USD spread we were able to verify, so there is no honest arithmetic to do on this page. Do not substitute a number you read on a comparison site: an unverified spread quietly becomes an unverified cost, and then an unverified plan. Use one of the other examples on the practice index for this exercise and come back to this file for the account ladder below.
Exercise two — read the account ladder
Account tiers are a pricing structure dressed as a status ladder. TradeStation Global offers 0 rungs. Read them as a question — what does each rung ask of me, and what does it give back? — rather than as a set of prizes to climb towards.
Exercise three — what this licence list means for you
A long licence list is not automatically a good sign. What matters to a beginner is a narrower question: which entity would hold my money, and who supervises that entity? Those are often not the same as the impressive name at the top of the list. Here are TradeStation Global's lines, each with a plain reading.
| Regulator | Entity on the register | Number | What that means for a beginner |
|---|---|---|---|
| FCA · United Kingdom | TradeStation International Ltd | 445531 | a top-tier regulator: compensation scheme, capital rules and a public register you can search yourself |
1 of these line is top-tier — held by TradeStation International Ltd. If you are onboarded to a different entity than those, the protections attached to the top-tier line are not yours, however prominently the regulator's initials appear in the marketing.
The record behind these numbers
- TradeStation International Ltd states it is authorised and regulated by the FCA under registration number 445531.
- TradeStation Global is an introduced-account offering: TradeStation International Ltd acts as an introducer and the underlying brokerage account is held with an Interactive Brokers entity.
- TradeStation International markets access to more than 160 markets across 36 countries through the Interactive Brokers universal account.
- TradeStation Group is owned by Monex Group of Japan.
What we could not verify
The following are unconfirmed and are deliberately left blank rather than estimated: founding year of the UK entity; minimum deposit; maximum leverage; EUR/USD spread; account types; segregated funds; negative balance protection; current status of the IBKR introducing arrangement; founding year; public listing status. Confidence in this file overall: medium. When you build your own notes on a firm, keep a list like this one — the gaps are more useful than the figures, because they tell you what to go and check.
Run the same exercise on another firm
PipMentor does not rank brokers, does not award badges and does not tell you where to open an account. This page exists so the arithmetic you learn in the curriculum has real numbers to bite on.