What's the best online discount brokerage?

Question

I've so far looked into a couple, but I'm a beginner so your inputs would be a great asset.

E*Trade looks very expensive and you need to have a minimum number of trades per quarter even to qualify for their fees.

Scottrade looks more reasonable at $7/trade without contraints.

But I've been looking into 3 other brokerages which are not nearly as famous but offer extremely cheap deals.

Zecco offers 10 free trades a month with a min. of $2500 in your account, or 4.50/trade otherwise.

Sogo Trade charges $3/trade, and Interactive Brokers $1/trade (I think).

My question is, are these very cheap brokers reliable and what is the best broker for me to go with as a beginner planning to invest less than a $1000 into the market at this point. Also, if you know of any additional fees or could confirm the aforementioned fees for Zecco, Sogo, and IB, I'd be grateful.

Answer 1

I use Charles Schwab...trade are $12.95 and I think the minimum is $1k.  The also have offices nationwide in case you need to visit.

Answer 2

It's great to see young investors taking the initiative. Managing your own portfolio is a great decision, no one else is ever going to care as much about your money as you do so kudos for getting started early.

Most people that get pretty serious about investing care more about the overall trading experience at their online broker than about the transaction costs. Granted, the transaction costs will always be very important until your portfolio is at least $100k but since your online brokerage is basically your investing patner, you'll also want to consider their web site functionality, account fees (that are charged in addition to transaction costs), research and investing tools available to help you, customer service and perks to name a few.

If I were you I would start at http://www.money-and-investing.com/Onlin... to check the overall ranks of some of today's most popular brokerages. If any of them spark your interest, click on the "In-Depth" review link for that brokerage to learn a lot more about them before deciding.

I would personally recommend Firstrade if you're going to be trading mostly stocks since they are very inexpensive and cater to beginners, there's no better place to start. If you're planning on trading mutual funds, then I'd recommend Schwab.com, they have the largest selection of no-load no-fee funds of any broker, you can basically trade for free at Schwab if you're a mutual fund investor.

Have you studied strategy? There's a ton of free info out there, so take some time to learn about various strategies and choose one that is in line with your investing goals and risk tolerance. Since you have a long investing time horizon, I'd recommend and aggressive strategy like Growth or Momentum Investing. Check out http://www.money-and-investing.com/Stock... for a good free source of info if you want to learn more.

Good luck and post back here often, it's fun to watch someone on their wealth-building journey!

Best of luck,

Odd Lot

Answer 3

I think this is what you need!  consumersearch.com/www/internet/online-b...

Answer 4

I personally use and would recommend Firstrade http://www.firstrade.com/.  At $6.95 per trade, they are much cheaper than big name brokers like Etrade, TD Ameritrade, and Schwab.  They are even slightly cheaper than Scottrade.  The problem I have with Scottrade is that they don't offer dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs), which is crucial for the long term investor.  At Firstrade, I can be rest-assured that my dividends will be automatically reinvested at no additional commission costs.  Although Zecco, Sogo Trade, and Interactive Brokers are cheap, you get what you pay for.  Unlike Firstrade, I do not think any of them are beginner-friendly at all.  Zecco and Sogo Trade have horrible research.  Zecco was also rated as the worst in customer service.  As for Interactive Brokers, they have one of the worst and most unfriendly websites I have seen.

Answer 5

this is the company which I trust for my investments. No problem with them the last 4 years. Small spread no hidden fees.

http://www.easy-forex.com/Gateway.aspx?g...

But if you want more info, just send me a pm.

I hope that it was helpful.