best online broker?

[cmdavid]

ameritrade? etrade? scottrade? which one would you guys suggest and for what reasons? thanks..

 

[Zim Hosein]

Depends on how much trading you plan on doing cmdavid.

 

[cmdavid]

ok... you mean like # of trades a month? definitely not gonna be a daytrader.. maybe a few trades a month...

 

[cmdavid]

anybody with suggestions?

 

[TubStain]

I'm on Ameritrade, but I trade 3 - 4 times a week in large quantities of shares (thousands), so I user Ameritrade, they also gave me free Apex (customized service, level II quotes, News) because I'm a frequent trader.

$10.99 per trade. So far I dont have any complaints. They have merged with Datek.

g'luck

 

[Stifko]

Which one is good if you are the buy-and-hold type of person w/a transaction only once in a while ?

They all charge fees like twice a year and have minimums, eh?

 

[Zipp]

Scottrade is very good. They have alot of local offices nationwide and they charge 7 bucks a trade with no inactivity fee where as most charge that now. I been using them for a while now and I'm very happy with there service.

Edit: I will add that they do however have a minimum amout to open up an accout buts its only $500

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: Stifko
Which one is good if you are the buy-and-hold type of person w/a transaction only once in a while ?

They all charge fees like twice a year and have minimums, eh?

Yes, account fees 2 or 4 times a year. But the minimum is much lower at some, $5K at etrade vs. $50K at Schwab.

If you want to buy and hold only mutual funds (like the VFINX S&P 500 index fund fool.com recommends) you can open an account directly with Vanguard (www.vanguard.com) and avoid transaction fees too.