Which one do you choose (Sharebuilder, Scottrade, TradeKing, Zecco, or others)?????

Question

Why???

for small investment!

Answer 1

For buy and hold, I like sharebuilders. Cash (I think it's $500 and up and I know it's $1,000 and up) is actually put in a money market account which has the same rate as bonds (so you are still gaining something while being all cash). The buy is $4 for once a week buys. The Roth IRA fee is $25 a year which can be covered in the money market (around $800 in the money market will pay the fee). There is no fee for owning a non IRA account. DRIPs are free.

Other brokerage firms are based on trading so you might get cheaper buy and sell fees.

Answer 2

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

Barron's has a great article on brokerages that they publish each year. (Latest one was in March 6, 2006 though the 2007 article “just” came out). Kiplinger does one too.

Here’s the link to the 2006 Barron’s article.
http://webreprints.djreprints.com/1550280182488.html

Here’s the link to the new Barron’s 2007 – Best online Brokers 3/5/07
http://online.barrons.com/public/article/SB117288684364425609-wsYkdd74F9ukYSQgQJifDpHYwsY_20070402.html?mod=mktw

Here’s the link to the Kiplinger’s July 2006 article which isn’t bad either.
http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/2006/07/brokers.html


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).

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!

P.S. I just found a link to a review of reviews as well! Here it is:
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/internet/online-brokers/reviews.html

Answer 3

Choose the one with the ability to make trades inexpensively and have the tools to watch items effectively especially if day trading.

I use Ameritrade. I've heard Scott is a good one as well. I prefer Ameritrade because I can watch Level II trades a bit closer.

Answer 4

ShareBuilder

Answer 5

I have used Ameritrade for 4-5 years. Very good value. If you trade options, I would look at Think-or-Swim.

Answer 6

I trade mostly covered calls and use Trade King. It works well for me.

I blog my trading at: http://coveredcall.wordpress.com

Answer 7

TRADE KING is the best by far there is no one else that compares to them.

Answer 8

other.