etrade or ameritrade? take your pick

[Pyramix]

i am going to join one of them
i like etrade better from the info on both sites

is there a trading site better than these two?

any experiences you've had with either will be helpful

 

[gotsmack]

ameritrade merged with datek. and is cheaper for trades and stuff.

 

[Pyramix]

not from what i have found

ameritrade - $10.99 per trade
etrade - $9.99 per trade

also, as sign up bonus, ameritrade gives you 25 free trades for the first month, whereas etrade gives you $99 in you account (equals 10 free trades). i like etrade here too because at the most i will make 4 trades in my first month.

 

[gotsmack]

wow , e-trade has changed a lot. It used to be $20 trades.

 

[toant103]

datek/ameritrade

 

[DaveSimmons]

Only semi-related, but I've had no problems with eTradeBank since they were acquired by eTrade (was Telebank).

I just buy and hold mutual funds and my brokerage is Schwab, so no idea about the brokerage part of etrade.

 

[StormRider]

My current brokerage charges a quarterly "fee" for account "inactivity". They will waive this if you have a certain amount in the account but because of the way the stock market has been, I haven't been trading much lately and my total account value is less than this minimal amount. Because of this, I'm thinking of going with another brokerage. Does Ameritrade charge a similar fee?

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: StormRider
My current brokerage charges a quarterly "fee" for account "inactivity". They will waive this if you have a certain amount in the account but because of the way the stock market has been, I haven't been trading much lately and my total account value is less than this minimal amount. Because of this, I'm thinking of going with another brokerage. Does Ameritrade charge a similar fee?

yes, it's like 15 bucks or something.

 

[PCMarine]

Ameritrade, I use it and it's pretty good so far.

 

[Pyramix]

Originally posted by: gopunk

Originally posted by: StormRider
My current brokerage charges a quarterly "fee" for account "inactivity". They will waive this if you have a certain amount in the account but because of the way the stock market has been, I haven't been trading much lately and my total account value is less than this minimal amount. Because of this, I'm thinking of going with another brokerage. Does Ameritrade charge a similar fee?

yes, it's like 15 bucks or something.

does etrade charge something similar?

 

[Pyramix]

wow, i am surprised that ameritrade is overwhelmingly popular and the clear favorite (the only vote for etrade was by me)
yet, i don't see any reason why it would be so much more popular than ameritrade. their rates and guarantees are better. are there some strings attached to it? am i missing something? or is it just that nobody here's ever used etrade?

 

[Pyramix]

bump

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: Pyramix
yet, i don't see any reason why it would be so much more popular than ameritrade. their rates and guarantees are better. are there some strings attached to it? am i missing something? or is it just that nobody here's ever used etrade?

(a) Ameritrade / datek used to be cheaper, and most people won't bother to change brokerages.
(b) I use Schwab but they only make sense if you have a big 401k rollover to meet the account minimums.
(c) Some other buy-and-holders use Vanguard's own fund / brokerage operation, especially if they are just buying Vanguard mutual funds.

 

[xuanman]

neither one. go with scottrade for cheapest fees and trades.

 

[XZeroII]

Originally posted by: Pyramix

Originally posted by: gopunk

Originally posted by: StormRider
My current brokerage charges a quarterly "fee" for account "inactivity". They will waive this if you have a certain amount in the account but because of the way the stock market has been, I haven't been trading much lately and my total account value is less than this minimal amount. Because of this, I'm thinking of going with another brokerage. Does Ameritrade charge a similar fee?

yes, it's like 15 bucks or something.

does etrade charge something similar?

No. I have had an account with etrade for the past 5 years or so and have had no trouble with them at all. There are no charges for inactivity. I love it and would recommend it to anyone.

 

[wQuay]

Uh, better check on the pricing. All of my trades on etrade for the past few months were ~ $23.

 

[Oakenfold]

Thanks for the info.
I have an account with suretrade/now quick and reilly, they started charging me 25.00 a qtr for balances under 25k...

Does suretrade or Ameritrade charge for low balances?

 

[Doggiedog]

I use Ameritrade and Fidelity.

I personally don't like Ameritrade. The interface is not very good, their streamer is very lame and they charge you $$ if you want a paper confirmation. I don't like Fidelity because they charge you $20/trade but otherwise, it is ok.

If you want a really good streaming quote system, try money.net. It is very good.

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: Doggiedog
I use Ameritrade and Fidelity.

I personally don't like Ameritrade. The interface is not very good, their streamer is very lame and they charge you $$ if you want a paper confirmation. I don't like Fidelity because they charge you $20/trade but otherwise, it is ok.

If you want a really good streaming quote system, try money.net. It is very good.

how come you don't use another service then?

 

[AbsolutZero]

Originally posted by: xuanman
neither one. go with scottrade for cheapest fees and trades.

I've been with Waterhouse for years, Schwab before that. Now I'm mad as hell at Waterhouse with their inactivity fees ($25/quarter) and ridiculous minimum equity levels to avoid the inactivity fees. Even IRA's have inactivity fees. Scottrade looks like the only major online broker that has no inactivity fees and big enough to survive any crisis. Plus they're in St Louis instead of NY or LA or FL, which means happier employees who work for a little less money.

Here's a chart that compare fees, albeit one from Scottrade. Anyone hear any horror stories from Scottrade? I haven't.

 

[Aceshigh]

Here's another vote for Scottrade. I moved to them when Etrade started nickle and diming me with fees. I could not be happier. Fast executions, really really cheap trades, and having a local office to make deposits at and local people to talk to is really nice.

 

[Doggiedog]

Originally posted by: gopunk

Originally posted by: Doggiedog
I use Ameritrade and Fidelity.

I personally don't like Ameritrade. The interface is not very good, their streamer is very lame and they charge you $$ if you want a paper confirmation. I don't like Fidelity because they charge you $20/trade but otherwise, it is ok.

If you want a really good streaming quote system, try money.net. It is very good.

how come you don't use another service then?

There are many reasons but I initially went with Fido because of convenience. Then I opened a small Ameritrade account just to see how good the system was. I'll probably close it and go somewhere else. I will eventually close the Fido acct too and go somewhere else too. Right now, I am buying a house and I can't be opening accounts left and right because of a huge paper trail I will leave.

 

[stebesplace]

I used Datek for some years, but now its with ameritrade since the merger. Runs good yet, so I can only recommend ameritrade.

-Steve

 

[stev0]

bridge station, rediplus, protrader.