Review from Reddit user:

My experiences posted below. But first, if you are a TastyWorks user, please post your experience as well. Feel welcome to differentiate between the desktop and web-based platform. It’d be terrific to have an assortment of reviews from many.

TLDR: Overall review at bottom of post. Or just register here (for free with this link) and fund it later for a margin account: Tastyworks Account Registration.

The point:

I have written, and will continue to write, my reviews of the TastyWorks platform released January 2017. I’m consolidating them here and plan to add more if this thread grows in popularity/is found useful.

A little about me:

I have been trading for a long time (years and years and years). Fully independent and self employed.
I like to test software and hardware. Built my own computers and coding since I was a kid. And, if I’m trading, I want my software to work very fluidly, without hangups. I am quite picky in that regard. Time is money. Mistakes cost money. Improper data costs money. These costs can be huge when scaled.

I’ve tested many platforms over the years: CQG, Sierra Charts, Interactive Brokers, Tradestation, Multicharts (.com & .net), Ninjatrader, TD Ameritrade, Fidelity, Chase, Vanguard, Tradingview, Robinhood, Investor RT, Bookmap, S5 – to name a few.
I am a big fan of education. Huge fan, actually. I’d love to see others post their reviews in this thread, and, if a user of TastyWork, their own referral link so any readers who find their review helpful, may follow through and sign up if desired (so that particular reviewer gets the appropriate credit).

My review/log so far:

January 2017:

It’s certainly interesting so far. There are -definitely- errors though so use caution. Just got assigned an option (on purpose). Luckily it was a small assignment as the platform was scrolling error messages on across my screen when I tried to sell at a profit. Looks like it has issues grasping assignment to stock selling?

Worst part was the execution button was covered with the errors. Luckily, I was able to log into the web browser version of the platform and get out of my position still at a profit. Missed out on some money, but not a lot. But boy, if I had a larger position and missed out on a bigger move, that would have been infuriating. I expect glitches, but wow.
UPDATE: The above glitch was more of a visual glitch. By restarting the program via signing out and back in, the problem went away. The assignment didn’t automatically register without actually logging out. It seems signing out daily is essential to the program’s proper functionality and updates with its own server.

February 2017:

Following up now a month later, Tastyworks has come a long way. I have been using their software web-based for several months, and their desktop platform since January.

Here are comments I can make and some noticeable improvements: It’s a very easy to navigate and read. Big font. Updates very quickly. Easy to breakdown individual tickers into an overall reading by ticker or individual options within said ticker.
Logs for errors now automatically submit errors (before they did not). If there is an error, the program doesn’t spam you with messages stating such, it simply notifies you and you can generally fix the problem easily. IE: if an order you are attempting to place can’t be found via your account, delete the selected option in the table, and repeat. This fixes the problem.
This is a beta so expect bugs. But these bugs are extremely non-invasive from what I have experienced. And occurring quite rarely at this point.
The platform itself is very nice and smooth looking. Seriously. I know I said it before, but it’s one of the most easy to quickly navigate platforms I’ve used (I have used many).

Drag and drop is an amazingly easy feature for moving option chain components around. As well as an easy click to change to buy or sell. Or
quantity amounts. Fluidity is super simple.

I feel like it is similar to the TD Ameritrade platform, except just better. Much better. Navigation, readability, information, and more.
The fees they charge are cheap. At least, I feel so. And rather transparent. They want your business.
Customer service is quick, nice, helpful, and easy to work with if needed. IMPORTANT NOTE: the program will auto sign you out every 24hours. It also gets updated frequently. I advise you sign out an hour before market opens so you can have it do any updates it needs and you can sign back in. You sign out via the sign out button in the bottom left of the window. If you don’t sign out and leave the program open from the day before, as soon as you try to make it a trade, it will auto-sign you out to have you sign back in as a security measure. Problematic to waste time like that during open hours. Their downloadable platform can be supplemented by their web-based platform. I actually like to have the web-based platform up on one monitor for the follow and grid IV rank system, with the desktop version on another monitor.
I use Tastyworks in conjunction with Simpler Options very successfully. It is VERY easy to make set up trades either manually or with their “quick place” buttons. It is also very hard to make an accidental trade.

There are very bluntly placed percentage accuracy numbers listed in the options selection table based upon their algorithms they have. Very useful when selling premiums to maximize income based on possibilities and the costs to buy (the money you make selling). Their IV Ranking system is just cool. And works fairly well. I found a biotech stock a while back that had HUGE IV rank (aka high premiums for selling) that was sitting around $30 and you could sell huge premium all the way down 15 and all the way up to 80. Was a very easy way to make quick money by researching when announcements would come out compared to expiration dates and premium selling. I would not have found that stock without their IV ranking system.

I recommend the web browser version for that though.

Update March 31st, 2017:

Still working well. In fact, better and more stable. Came across one minor additional bug yesterday. I had a working order already submitted, attempted to replace. Within a close enough time period between me hitting submit to replace the order, the order I was replacing filled. This caused the order to appear both as “filled” and “working” as far as the platform considered it to be. Same went for their web-based system, so it must have been a bug on their broker side. I could -not- cancel or replace the working order. It also wouldn’t fill since it thought it already had. You could argue it technically was a matter of awkward timing, rather than a bug, but I’m calling it a bug for simplicity sake.
In addition, the bug made it so I couldn’t close the existing position either as their system does not allow a buy and sell submission of the same expiration, date, and type. I was stuck in the position. One ten minute phone call later to tech support and the problem was resolved. Their developers had to go in and manually fix it.

In the end, not a huge deal, but it is good to know what can happen and potentially go wrong. This was only one out of many hundreds of trades since I have started utilizing their system. Actually, I felt good about the bug. There was zero wait time when calling customer service. No speculation that I made a mistake or anything like that. Just a quick confirmation of the problem and fixing of the problem.

I am quite happy with the service and platform so far.

FEE STRUCTURE

Their fee structure basics for those interested:

$1.00 per contract Options to open
$5 flat rate to open Stocks
$2.5 per contract Futures
$0.00 commission to close
No reoccurring monthly fees.

I don’t believe you can trade futures contracts yet. Though there are options on futures contracts available.

General Thoughts:

You can tell the people at Tastyworks are hard at work on the system. There’s minor tweaks that are noticeably implemented. For example, working orders now show a very quick pop up (you choose the time length) as a reminder that they are open/working after platform close/re-open. It still is essential to remember to sign out of your desktop platform BEFORE market opens and not just leave the desktop platform open 24/7. It wants a password entry for security reasons every 24 hours. Imagine needing to do a trade immediately and then that pop up interrupts you. Whoops. But obviously an easy fix to just get in the habit of logging out/back in.

I think the biggest comparison between Think or Swim (ToS) and TastyWorks (given the obviousness to compare the two) is that TastyWorks is more fluid, seems to update much faster, has easier to read font, and has a lot of room for growth potential. ToS is something I was very familiar with using and the switch over was quite easy. There’s certainly a lot more indicators and in-depth charting in ToS compared to TastyWorks currently (I’m sure this will change). BUT given I can keep a ToS account open for free with funding and TastyWorks account open for free with funding, I just use them both. The ToS on one monitor where I utilize charting and my indicators, the TastyWorks platform open on another monitor for quick trading and trade monitoring. I find this a very easy and straight forward set up.

You will need to fund your account, but there’s not actual fees to just have the account and check out the platform.
I know they are developing an iOS platform too, which is nice. Though I do know for a fact you can log in via Safari to the https://trade.tastyworks.com/tw/login website platform just fine.

If you have any questions I can answer since I’m actively using the platform, feel welcome to post a reply and ask.

UPDATE April 1st, 2017:

I want to mention that sometimes, as a trader, it is easy to get the equivalent of writer’s block. Call it trader’s block or whatever you want. What is nice about this platform is that the Dough Options trading group posts their own trades and has a live broadcast television channel. Both stream directly to the web-based AND desktop-based platform.

If you ever feel like getting some trading ideas while you’re feeling a bit stuck, or just general trading education (never hurts at any point in your trading background), it’s nice these additions come free with the platform. It’s a nice reminder that it’s great to have a free subscription w/data platform without catches.

Overall Review:

Stability:

The platform is very fluid. Switching tabs/pages is near-instant without lag. Changing contract details when attempting to alter details on an options contract (such as quantity/expiration/strike) is fast, smooth, and mostly drag-and-drop or button pushing. The drag-and-drop features are VERY nice and INCREDIBLY user-friendly.

Fees:

Very competitive, listed in above post. There as an incident where retirement accounts (IRA) received a $35 monthly fee. Tastyworks proactively refunded the fees and sent an email to all users (even those not effected) to notify of both the issue and resolution.

Platform Transparency:

As shown by the fee example issue of IRAs above, incredibly transparent.

Learning Curve:

Very easy if you have used ThinkorSwim. The creator of ThinkorSwim actually made Tastyworks. Even if you have not, the instruction guides are simple enough and the drag-drop features of moving contracts around makes it a breeze. Also, there’s a quick contract placement method available where you can select trades such as long butterfly, short strangle, long veritical, etc. You choose long/short and the type of trade.

Ingenuity:

There’s additional technology tools available exclusively to them such as their implied volatility ranking system. Even if I wasn’t using their platform for actual trading, I would consider having it just for the extra tools and access to the wealth of live trading of their group and educational information.

If you wish to sign up, and have found this review helpful, please use my referral link as a thank you: referral link to tastyworks – referral credit requires opening balance of $2,000 (free and easy if you use their ACH service). But the minimum balance to open is less. Please do only what is in your best interest and works with your own financial trading needs.

And if you have -any- questions you’d like me to look into, let me know and I’ll see about helping answer them and post updates.