Investing - Ameritrade, Sharebuilder or E-trade any other's - who's better?

Question

I do not know much about investing but would really llike to begin doing so, I have been doing a little research on my own. Of the companies listed - from your experiece who would you recommend? Any other recommendations?

Answer 1

There are a lot of good brokererages depending on what you like and how you trade.

Barron's Online has a great article on brokerages that they publish each year. (I'll try to find you the link for the March 6,2006 article)

For basic stuff, E*Trade, Ameritrade, and Scottrade are sufficient. For more complex trades, I'd recommend Optionsxpress, ThinkorSwim, or interactivebrokers.

Based on what you put in your question, I'd recommend one of the first three, but all are very good. Cheapest probably is scottrade (of the larger online firms). Yes there are cheaper like interactivebrokers, but you'll have to get used to their software based platform (which is doable). They're only about $1/contract on options!

Brokerages like Fidelity are horrible for anyone with any decent experience.

So, decide what's important to you as a trader and compare the brokers! You can use the article, or go to each website as they all seem to have comparison charts!

And if there are particular things that you want to mention as being most important to you (such as executions, cust svc, cheapest trade - which you mentioned, flexibility on allowing you to do certain types of trades, stop and stop limit orders, contingent orders, great graphing, what if scenarios, training, etc), I'll be glad to help discuss this with you too!

If you have any questions, let me know.

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

It really depends on what you're looking for in a brokerage. I work in the industry (not at Sharebuilder) and I always recommend Sharebuilder for new investors. They have a low commission of $4 a transaction and you can build up share amounts over time. Ameritrade and ETrade are cookie cutter brokerages. They both offer market research etc etc. But the thing with them is when times go bad they start increasing fees. Don't have 25k in the account? Get hit with a fee. Don't place 2 trades a quarter? Get hit with a fee. Want to transfer your account? Get hit with a fee. So I would stick with Sharebuilder. If you have any additional questions regarding investing (no recommendations however) I'm more than happy to assist. Good luck to you!!

Answer 3

I have accounts with both TDAmeritrade and Fidelity. Ameritrade has a more responsive web site and it is easier to navigate and it is not cluttered. Their fees are straight forward $9.99 a trade. No other fees. They pay next to nothing on cash balances. That is how they generate extra revenue. Executions are rapid. Their research offerings are not great but there are a few.

Fidelity is much more expensive, about $25.00 a trade unless you trade often or have a large account balance. However, they pay considerably more on cash balances. They have some of the absolutely best research offerings, which in my opinion are worth the extra fees.

I have read responses from people that have invested with Scottrade that they like the company. $7.00 per trade.