I'd like to start purchasing some stocks on line. Which is the best site to do this from?

Question

I've heard good things about Fidelity. I'm not looking to make an enormous amount of trades and don't want to be hit with a ton of fees. I'm just trying to slowly but surely build my portfolio. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

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 now there’s a 2007 one). Kiplinger does one too.

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

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). 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. Their fills are sometimes slow, their page showing positions is laughable, and a lot of times their reps just don’t understand anything beyond a simple buy/sell.

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! But as I said, for settlement, that shouldn't change by changing brokers.

And if there are particular things that are most important to you (such as executions, cust svc, cheapest trade, 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

Fidelity is the largest mutual fund and brokerage company in the world. Many of their mutual funds have low fees. Whether it is funds or individual securities, I'm sure you can find anything you need at Fidelity.

You are correct in your approach to avoid trading a lot. Costs are a big factor in the long run.

Answer 3

I've used Ameritrade for 26 years and really like them. They charge a flat $9 fee and have all kinds of trading tools. They also keep record of your short and long term trades for income tax purposes. Another site you should look into is "clear station dot com. I make all my trade decisions based on the information they give me and it's free!