The mechanisms and interplay of coactivators that underlie transcription activation is a critical avenue of investigation in biology today. Using nuclear receptor (NR) mediated transcription activation as a model, the nature of coactivator recruitment and chromatin modifications has been found to be highly dynamic. Progress in understanding the kinetics and regulation of coactivator recruitment, and subsequent effects on transcriptional readout, has greatly improved our understanding of nuclear receptor mediated transcription, the subject of discussion in this ‘At the Cutting Edge’ review.