Favorite online brokers...

Dave · #1 (**permalink**) 08-31-2007, 01:12 PM

What do you guys use? How is it working out?

I'm with Firstrade mostly, and I like them alot BUT the lack of premarket access is scary (they have after market trading, by phone only...supposedly "rolling out" premarket in a few months *ugh*)...so I've been moving my money slowly over to Scottrade which I use for the more risky stuff BUT...

I'm really interested in ThinkorSwim...

The software and neat tricks are fun, but I wonder how much experience anyone has with THOSE guys...

SO, what brokerage is the best/cheapest/most reliable etc., etc...

srains · #2 (**permalink**) 08-31-2007, 02:18 PM

I have two online brokers.

Wellsfargo
I have my morgage through them which helps me meet a 50K account minimum. If you meet that minimum you get 100 trades/yr free. After that it is $5.95. They do not have after hours trading which sucks. I have also had issues with the system being down twice in the last month. I also have a problem with how the credit and debit your account. Buying and selling on the same day seems to give them problems in applying $. This is a real problem when you use cash and margin. I have other accounts with wellsfargo and can link them. Overall the ability to trade free and linking my broker account with my other account is nice. The customer service I have used was very good but I have heard other say they were not real happy with wellsfargo. If you are buying and holding (at least a few days) it is great. I do pay for options and they are a little expensive.

Etrade
It offers after hours. I have never had a problem with the site. Overall I like Etrade. Trades are fast. I met the 30 trades per qtr and qualified for the Etrade pro which is cool. Lvl II and crap like that. I just got it so I need to figure out how to use all of the functions. The only real problem I had with them was the 5 day waiting period to get the funds in my account. I think you can wire instead of transfer for immediate funding but not sure.

Both Etrade and WF offer you the ability to link outside accounts into your broker account.

Dave · #3 (**permalink**) 08-31-2007, 02:24 PM

Thanks Rains...

What are the E-Trade fees like?

What is that "link" deal...from a bank account or something? Do they have a regular cash account you can use otherwise?

MontrealStocks · #4 (**permalink**) 08-31-2007, 03:26 PM

I'm debating wether I should go with interactive broker or tradefreedom. IB seems to have dirt cheap commissions, which really appeals to me, tradefreedom is Montreal based and with 10$ commissions. Keep in mind in Canada brokers are more expensive. IB has a 5000 US$ minimum, I'm hoping the CAD$ stays strong as I'll have 6500$ available in January.

chuck · #5 (**permalink**) 09-04-2007, 09:20 AM

I use Ameritrade. One trade= 9.95. I do not know how this stacks up with the other brokerages.
Round-trip, should be around $20.

moneysavvy89 · #6 (**permalink**) 09-05-2007, 02:34 AM

scottrade $7 trades baby!

Dave · #7 (**permalink**) 09-05-2007, 06:31 AM

Thanks for all the info, guys.

Yeah, I agree the $7 trades are cool (Firstrade is the same, plus I think they have VERY good customer service which is important to me), HOWEVER getting better fills is also an issue when you consider commissions.

Last week I got a "bad fill" on a stop limit order that ended up costing me $30 in lost profits. Granted, that's nothing much. BUT, if that could be avoided by paying $10 or $12 per trade for a better system, it's worth it in the long run I think.

Temujin · #8 (**permalink**) 09-05-2007, 12:17 PM

I think scottrade have top-notch order execution. The charting/streaming tool you get is weaker compared to eTrade/Ameritrade, but if you already use third party that wouldn't matter.

IMO scottrade is no frills low-cost and great fills, even aftermarket.

chuck · #9 (**permalink**) 09-05-2007, 02:28 PM

It would appear,that seven dollars would be a better deal than what I am giving. But I have one big question. That question being, do you have the capabilities of building your own formulas? Also one can go and scanned premarket hours with your own formulas or the formulas that they have set up, which are not bad .

The biggest plus I think are the capabilities of scanning stocks for premarket readings versus the high low and close from the previous day. Before I forget it. They also have what they call advanced analyzer. This is really something else.

I think the capabilities that they have outweigh any two dollars. Even if you were daytrading.

srains · #10 (**permalink**) 09-05-2007, 03:19 PM

the fees are 12.99 (if you margin) or $9.99 if you dont. After 30 trades it also goes from 12.99 to 9.99. Option trading is an additional $1 per contract and after 30 trades it goes to .75 per contract. Becasue I made 30 trades in a quarter I get the level II quotes which is cool.

The linking bank accounts is good because once you get going you can transfer money easy between your etrade account and your regular bank account. I have a citibank account, after going through the process of linking and verifying my citibank account # shows up on my etrade account. So the process of transfering money between etrade and citibank is just about the same as transfering money from my citibank checking to savings account. I just go to the transfer section and transfer from: Etrade To: Citibank and I am done.

I do not know about the other services but Etrade also gives me a check book and an atm card to get money out of my account.