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About TradeZero

TradeZero is a brokerage for active traders, offering professional-grade execution, deep short-selling workflows, and a Developer API for programmatic access. Founded in 2015 and regulated across four jurisdictions (including FINRA and SIPC membership in the United States), we operate broker-dealer subsidiaries in the U.S., Bahamas, Canada, and Europe. This page covers our history, services, regulatory standing, and the Developer API program.

History & Founders​

TradeZero was founded in 2015 by Daniel Pipitone, John Muscatella, and Giovanni Ferrara - three friends from Brooklyn, New York, who had previously built and run Noble Trading together since 1999. After more than a decade serving active traders at Noble, the team set out to build a next-generation brokerage for active self-directed traders who need low-latency execution, short-selling workflows, and configurable trading tools.

TradeZero now operates as TradeZero Holding Corp., with broker-dealer subsidiaries across four jurisdictions:

  • TradeZero America, Inc. - a U.S. broker-dealer registered with the SEC and a member of FINRA and SIPC.
  • TradeZero International Inc. - a Bahamian broker-dealer registered with the Securities Commission of The Bahamas.
  • TradeZero Canada Securities ULC - a Canadian broker-dealer and member of the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) and the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF).
  • TradeZero Europe B.V. - a Dutch broker-dealer authorized and regulated by the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), launched in 2025.

Awards & Recognition​

TradeZero has been recognized year after year for leadership in retail short selling, paper trading, and trading platform design:

Vision​

Professional-grade market access and short-side capability for self-directed traders - available through TradeZero Platforms and through code.

TradeZero is committed to a professional-grade trading experience for self-directed retail traders, with a particular focus on short selling, hard-to-borrow stock locates, and execution speed. We support traders building their own tools, customizing their workflows, and integrating TradeZero into broader systems - whether that's a custom dashboard, an in-house trading tool, or a third-party application built on top of our platform.

Services​

TradeZero offers self-directed trading and clearing services for U.S. equities and equity options. We currently support:

  • U.S. equities listed on NYSE, Nasdaq, and AMEX, plus access to OTC markets.
  • Single-leg and multi-leg options trading across a fixed catalog of strategies - verticals, straddles, strangles, butterflies, iron butterflies, condors, iron condors, covered calls, and married puts.
  • Short selling with our Short Locator, including Single-Use Locates, Pre-Borrows, and standard locates - with credit-back on unused inventory.
  • Extended-hours equities trading from 4:00 AM to 8:00 PM ET with eligible Limit / StopLimit × Day_Plus / GTC_Plus combinations - see Order types, times in force, and session hours (options trade on their own route TIF sets).
  • Margin leverage scaled per jurisdiction - up to 6× intraday on TradeZero International Inc. (Bahamas), 4:1 intraday / 2:1 overnight on TradeZero America, and 3:1 intraday / 2:1 overnight on TradeZero Canada.

Traders access these services through TradeZero Platforms - desktop, web, mobile, and lite web - plus our TradingView brokerage integration, which lets you trade your TradeZero account directly from TradingView.com. For developers, there's the TradeZero Developer API documented on this site.

Actual available buying power may vary based on margin requirements, account equity, and risk controls.

TradeZero Developer​

TradeZero Developer gives you programmatic access to your account: a REST API for orders and locates, plus WebSocket streams for live P&L and portfolio events. Orders submitted through the API follow the same routing, risk validation, and fill path as orders placed through TradeZero Platforms.

You can use the API to:

  • Place and cancel orders for equities and options, including single- and multi-leg option strategies.

  • Retrieve account state, balances, buying power, and routing details.

  • Manage positions and order history programmatically.

  • Run the full short-locate workflow - easy-to-borrow checks, locate quotes, accept and cancel, inventory management, sell-back for credit, and locate history with audit details.

  • Stream real-time updates over WebSocket - live P&L per position and order-status changes as they happen, with the same API key authenticating both the REST and WebSocket layers.

  • Market data (quotes, charts, historical prices) is provided through TradeZero Platforms and market-data partners - it is outside this public Trading API surface. See Beyond REST. Watch the Change Log for any future additions to this site.

The Developer API focuses on execution, account state, and real-time streaming. Access is enabled by activating the API Trading add-on in the TradeZero Portal and signing the API Trading Agreement. Assistants connect through TradeZero MCP with the hosted URL and OAuth sign-in.

Built for your workflow​

The API is for self-directed traders building personal trading tools on their own TradeZero account - custom dashboards, execution assistants, and monitoring integrations you operate yourself. You retain full access through TradeZero Platforms alongside your integration, so you can always manage the account directly when needed.

When you enable API Trading, you sign the API Trading Agreement in the portal. That agreement defines what your Customer Application may do (in short: software you personally develop to enter and manage orders on your account, for your use only). This documentation describes how the API works; the agreement you sign defines permitted use. Test on paper before live keys, and use your own or third-party market data unless TradeZero provides data under a separate agreement.

Tools you control - applications that help you place, cancel, and monitor orders while you remain responsible for trading decisions - are what the program is designed for. Fully unattended systems that trade without your ongoing control are outside the scope of the current agreement.

Ready to integrate? Start with Authentication, connect an assistant through TradeZero MCP, or browse Quickstart Recipes.

TradeZero Holding Corp. is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, with offices in Nassau (Bahamas), Toronto, Amsterdam, Austin, Dublin, and Bhopal.