Is Scottrade a good choice for starting a Roth IRA & stock trading?

Question

I am considering joining up with Scottrade due to their (apparent) no fee Roth IRA, $7 per online stock trade, and fairly low fee for Vanguard fund purchases ($17 on 5,000 shares) and no maintainence fees.
Anyone with Scottrade? Is this a good choice or is there a better option out there?

Answer 1

I've been with Scottrade for ten years and I've been happy. No problems with their site or with their service. If there was a firm I thought was better, I'd be trading with them.

Answer 2

Here is one thing to keep in mind about the Roth IRA account. There is never any tax on it where as there is on your 401k. This becomes important when considering your asset mix. Income producing investments are taxed at the full tax rate as will be your 401k. Hence it makes sense to invest at least some of your 401k in income producing assets--bonds, LPs, REITs. The income from each of those is taxed at the full tax rate anyway. Now since the Roth IRA is never taxed, it also makes sense to put those types of assets into the Roth IRA also. And also equity investments. What you neglected to mention are investments outside of these two vehicles. If you have some, they should be investments that would be taxed at the capital gains rate--equity investments. Actually, unless you are in the highest tax bracket it makes sense to have a portion of your equity investments outside of a 401k. By doing so your total tax bill will be decreased, especially if you are a long term investor. If you have the least hankering to invest some of your money in gold and silver those absolutely should be within a Roth IRA. Both are taxed as collectibles otherwise. Another thing to consider in regard to the 401k is that in future years the tax rate might actually be higher, perhaps much higher, than it currently is. Since you really have no choice of placing non-mutual fund investments within a 401k except for perhaps company stock, it certainly does make sense to invest Roth IRA money in company stocks rather than mutual funds. But be careful. It is very tempting for many to speculate with their Roth IRA account especially short term trading which otherwise would be taxed at the full tax rate. That would be a good way to reduce that value of the Roth account. Be just a little cautious. Invest in the likes of MCD, WMT, JNJ, BDX, KO, etc. Or maybe ETP with its 8% dividend or PAA with its 7.5% dividend. And do not invest it in fewer than 5 different companies.

Answer 3

Scottrade, Ameritrade and Etrade are all good discount brokers.
I used BrownCo until they sold out to ETrade. Now I use ETrade. They give good service--almost instant execution of trades and answer questions promptly. I goofed once and asked them to transfer part of my rollover IRA into my Roth IRA, then realized that my income exceeded the limit for making that type conversion. I called them and they stopped the transfer which could have caused me to owe a lot of penalty.

Answer 4

I have used Ameritrade and Scottrade. Scottrade has hidden fees like Ameritrade, buyt they;re far less. I've been happy with Scottrade and I generally reccomend them

Answer 5

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Answer 6

the best trading software http://tradingsolution.info
i have attended a lot of seminars, read counless books on forex trading and it all cost me thousands of dollars. the worst thing was i blew up my first account. after that i opened another account and the same thing happened again. i started to wonder why i couldn,t make any money in forex trading. at first i thought i knew everything about trading. finally i found that the main problem i have was i did not have the right mental in trading. as we know that psychology has great impact on our trading result. apart from psychology issue, there is another problem that we have to address. they are money management, market analysis, and entry/exit rules. to me money management is important in trading. i opened another account and start to trade profitably after i learnt from my past mistake. i don't trade emotionally anymore.
if you are serious about trading you need to address your weakness and try to fix it. no forex guru can make you Professional trader unless you want to learn from your mistake.

Answer 7

here is a review of some brokerage firms

http://finance-information.blogspot.com/2006/12/best-brokerage-firms.html