Whats a good online investing company to start with?

Question

I am a 20 year old college student looking to get involved with mutual funds and maybe some stocks. I already have a roth ira and am looking for a good online investment company like Charles Schwab, Fidelity, and Ing Direct to start and play around. I am looking to investing a couple thousand for now since that is what I can afford.

Any advice, pros and cons, and anything else you have to say would be appreciated. What is a good company to start with. We all have to start from somewhere.

Answer 1

Buy stocks if you can afford to have time to do some homework. IF you are very busy and dont have time to dedicate much time, then I would recommend you to get into ETF, which is a investment vehicle traded like a stock with multiple holdings of companies. I personally like PWV which invest in large cap (stocks in the Dow Jones.) Mutual funds or ETF is better than stocks for beginners because these investment products are managed by professionals.

Answer 2

I just switched mine to scottrade. No annual fee, no fee for having a roth IRA, and only $7 to trade individual stocks, and they offer a wide variety of no load fund which is important.

Answer 3

If you are a college student, then chances are that you do not have that much money.  Therefore, I would suggest you open an account at one of the cheaper online discount brokers, rather than one of the big name ones, so you can save money on commission.  I currently use Firstrade http://www.firstrade.com/.  There are no maintenance fees, no inactivity fees, no minimums, and trades are $6.95 each.  Firstrade isn't as cheap as the deep discount brokers, but I do not suggest you try extremely cheap companies like Interactive Brokers or Zecco because they have very hard-to-use interfaces and poor customer service -- definitely not for beginner investors.

As for what to invest in.  I'm not sure if it's the best time to pick a company to invest in.  If you want to play it safe, invest in ETFs because they are more diversified, so you'll face less risk.

Answer 4

i started with zecco.....still use it, still very happy. only ones with no fee for stock trades, and no minumums. all the others will charge you fees for trading, but compare and see for yourself!

http://friends.zecco.com/r/a7a2877caab81...

Answer 5

Hey Warriors ... is that plural?

Ok ... for fund investing, it is pretty tough to beat Vanguard.  They have some terrific funds and they advertise low fees.  I use them.

For my trading, I use Fidelity.  But don't let us sway you, check it out for yourself and see what suits you.  

Go to Money-and-investing.com.  In the center of the main page is something like "Investment Basics" ... under that heading you will find their ratings on online brokerage houses.  They break it down by research (why I use Fido), fees, system reliability, etc.

Keep in mind that a great mix is most of your money in mutual funds, and then (at your age) take some money and try out stocks.  But you must have time to devote to those stocks that you own ... or you will get blind-sided.  Vanguard does both cheap mutual funds and stock trades.  I do wish you the best!

Uppity Wench

Answer 6

I love schwab. Great support, lots of free tutorials, and you can buy virtually anything-very low costs to open an account. It's great.

Answer 7

vanguard is the best for cheap mutual funds by a wide margin.

Answer 8

Been happy with Schwab the last 12 years.  Lots of good research available, access to many no-load and loaded funds (not all Schwab).  And offices in many areas if you need to visit one.  Good help desk if you have questions about the website or IRA question.  Not full of poor english speaking foreigners, like other companies support staff.