Online trading

[themuzicman]

Anyone have any experience with online trading companies?

I've been lookin around at the ones I know of: eTrade, tdwaterhouse, Schwaab, Scottrade, and Scottrade seems to have the best trading price, but what other factors should I consider?

I doubt I'll be doing the 30 trades every 90 days or possibly even every calendar year, so the other ones seem to jack you up to $18/trade.

Am I missing something?

Michael

[micah4]

Anyone have any experience with online trading companies?

I've been lookin around at the ones I know of: eTrade, tdwaterhouse, Schwaab, Scottrade, and Scottrade seems to have the best trading price, but what other factors should I consider?

I doubt I'll be doing the 30 trades every 90 days or possibly even every calendar year, so the other ones seem to jack you up to $18/trade.

Am I missing something?

Michael

I like foliofn's service a great deal, because the rate is flat/year and they let you trade fractional shares which works well for folks like me with not a ton of money to invest (commissions don't eat your returns). It's a bit unconventional, but very smart if you like to actively manage your portfolio while maintaining broad diversification.

[NSMinistries]

I like Sharebuilder. :nsm:

[Rusty T]

Uhm, I like mutual funds :P

[ForHimAlone]

Anyone have any experience with online trading companies?

I've been lookin around at the ones I know of: eTrade, tdwaterhouse, Schwaab, Scottrade, and Scottrade seems to have the best trading price, but what other factors should I consider?

I doubt I'll be doing the 30 trades every 90 days or possibly even every calendar year, so the other ones seem to jack you up to $18/trade.

Am I missing something?

Michael

Michael,
No, you're not. I use Schwaab at the moment, though I am tempted (don't tempt me!) to move to Scottrade as they do have the best prices per trade - $7 I think is all they charge and no fees for inactivity. But with Scottrade you can't buy / sell Pink Sheet securities, which should not be an issue if you're only going to trade blue chips or Nasdaq listings.

I tried my hand at trading penny stocks. There's money to be had but one must be diligent and vigilant and this = spending a lot of time looking at live streaming.

Schwaab offers such a live streaming of stocks with their "StreetSmart Pro" software. It's slick and complex. Perhaps Scottrade offers something similar. I can't see why not.

My advice: Invest in what you know about, diversify your acquisitions, buy into good, solid companies and, whether your like his delivery or not, take some time to listen to Jim Kramer. He's got a quarter century in the business and has to be worth somewhere between 50-150M, plus he's Harvard educated. Some people can't stand him but if you can get past the hyped-up presenation he really does have a ton of good info and insight into the trading business.

Blessings,
FHA

[Crow]

I like Sharebuilder. :nsm:

I'll second that. They are relatively inexpensive and fine for folks who don't want their hands held and they will deal in fractional shares as well.

I've had accounts with them for several years with no problems.