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Low cost stock broker company turns normal

M

manlymatt83

Lifer
Dear Zecco Trading client,

I'm writing to tell you that as of March 1st, 2009, we're increasing the minimum level of assets needed to earn 10 free
trades per month to $25,000. We're also adding a new way to get free trades: customers who make at least 25 total trades
per month will also qualify for 10 free stock trades per month.

Additionally, as of March 1st, 2009, you'll be able to earn $75 for each friend referred to Zecco Trading through our
Zecco Friends program. You can use that cash to offset trade commissions or make new investments.

Why was this necessary now? Anyone who?s read a newspaper lately knows that the US and world economies have been hit hard
over the past 4 months. As a result, some of the largest corporations in the world have had to cut costs and adjust to
new business realities. With reduced retail trading volumes and lower interest rates, we at Zecco Trading simply could no
longer provide free trades to as many people as we would like.

Many customers will not be affected by this change. For those of you who are impacted, I want you to know that I
understand this is disappointing news. Since our founding, our goal has always been to provide a great value to online
investors, and we've always made free stock trading part of that. And while we continue to provide some of the lowest
trade commissions of all leading online brokerages at $4.50 each, we understand that nobody likes to pay for something
that was previously free.
Click to expand...


Looks like its no longer going to be a stand out...
 
Still darn cheap at $4.50 a trade. How is the fill at Zecco? I've always been suspicious of free or cheap trading sites. They have to be screwing you on the fill rate.
 
Originally posted by: Naustica
Still darn cheap at $4.50 a trade. How is the fill at Zecco? I've always been suspicious of free or cheap trading sites. They have to be screwing you on the fill rate.
Click to expand...

I use sharebuilder and am pretty happy...
 
$25k min is not normal. The other brokers dont require that. I have ST, ET & TDA.

ST is the cheapest, but their options contracts or 1.25 each! Best inventory of shortable securities. Local offices available for gripes / margin calls.

ET has the best trading tools and investment vehicles, but their CS bites. Option contracts are .75. Usually can only borrow S&P names to short, which sucks. I did qualify for 7.99 trades, and had "super elite platinum" personal CS rep, but they still didnt know their head from their rears most of time.

TDA fees match ETs, CS bites somtimes, roughly same names as ET shortable. Options .75 each. The worst thing about TDA is their stupid "concentrated positions" margin requirement. If you have all your money in one name for a short term trade and are using margin, the min equity in most names jumps from 50% normal to 60 or 70%, requiring you to sell before the close or deposit more funds.

I mostly trade options anyway (for now). Thats why the contract fees are important, because when you buy/sell 500 at a time you are looking $3500 commissions per trade!
 
Originally posted by: FelixDeKat
$25k min is not normal. The other brokers dont require that. I have ST, ET & TDA.

ST is the cheapest, but their options contracts or 1.25 each! Best inventory of shortable securities. Local offices available for gripes / margin calls.

ET has the best trading tools and investment vehicles, but their CS bites. Option contracts are .75. Usually can only borrow S&P names to short, which sucks. I did qualify for 7.99 trades, and had "super elite platinum" personal CS rep, but they still didnt know their head from their rears most of time.

TDA fees match ETs, CS bites somtimes, roughly same names as ET shortable. Options .75 each. The worst thing about TDA is their stupid "concentrated positions" margin requirement. If you have all your money in one name for a short term trade and are using margin, the min equity in most names jumps from 50% normal to 60 or 70%, requiring you to sell before the close or deposit more funds.

I mostly trade options anyway (for now). Thats why the contract fees are important, because when you buy/sell 500 at a time you are looking $3500 commissions per trade!
Click to expand...

I like sharebuilder EXCEPT for their large order surcharge.

What's your DRYS position holding?
 
Originally posted by: manlymatt83
Originally posted by: FelixDeKat
$25k min is not normal. The other brokers dont require that. I have ST, ET & TDA.

ST is the cheapest, but their options contracts or 1.25 each! Best inventory of shortable securities. Local offices available for gripes / margin calls.

ET has the best trading tools and investment vehicles, but their CS bites. Option contracts are .75. Usually can only borrow S&P names to short, which sucks. I did qualify for 7.99 trades, and had "super elite platinum" personal CS rep, but they still didnt know their head from their rears most of time.

TDA fees match ETs, CS bites somtimes, roughly same names as ET shortable. Options .75 each. The worst thing about TDA is their stupid "concentrated positions" margin requirement. If you have all your money in one name for a short term trade and are using margin, the min equity in most names jumps from 50% normal to 60 or 70%, requiring you to sell before the close or deposit more funds.

I mostly trade options anyway (for now). Thats why the contract fees are important, because when you buy/sell 500 at a time you are looking $3500 commissions per trade!
Click to expand...

I like sharebuilder EXCEPT for their large order surcharge.

What's your DRYS position holding?
Click to expand...


I have a few Feb 7.50 calls. Nothing big. Options are very hard to trade because they expire eventually and tend to be very overpriced if you dont know what you are doing. But the leverage is attractive because you can make "crazy" money if your educated guesses are correct.

On Thursday, DRYS fell $12 to $9 on news that they were in violation of certain debt convenents (which could eventually mean bankruptcy for certain companies). I bought in the money $10 puts on Thursday for $2.10, again nothing big. The stock fell two more dollars on Friday, I sold those puts for $3.60 for a 71% overnight gain.

Now I think its due for pop back over $7.50 back to perhaps even $10. I bought a few FEB $7.50 calls for $1.15 (that are now worth .90). I think DRYS will secure debt waivers from its creditors (which usually causes explosive short term pops). And since this was the last business day of January, I think the announcement may come next week. I could be wrong thats why I took a small position. These options expire on 2/20/09.
 
I have no problems paying $0 or $5/trade at Bank of America, or $7/trade at Scottrade.

That said, I don't care much about commission/transaction fees since I'm not an active trader.
As long as the fee is less than or equal to $10 per transaction, I really don't care.

There's no need for me to open a Zeeco account to save only a few pennies to $10/year.
I never jumped on the Zeeco bandwagon because I heard their customer service sucks.
 
Originally posted by: FelixDeKat
$25k min is not normal. The other brokers dont require that. I have ST, ET & TDA.

ST is the cheapest, but their options contracts or 1.25 each! Best inventory of shortable securities. Local offices available for gripes / margin calls.

ET has the best trading tools and investment vehicles, but their CS bites. Option contracts are .75. Usually can only borrow S&P names to short, which sucks. I did qualify for 7.99 trades, and had "super elite platinum" personal CS rep, but they still didnt know their head from their rears most of time.

TDA fees match ETs, CS bites somtimes, roughly same names as ET shortable. Options .75 each. The worst thing about TDA is their stupid "concentrated positions" margin requirement. If you have all your money in one name for a short term trade and are using margin, the min equity in most names jumps from 50% normal to 60 or 70%, requiring you to sell before the close or deposit more funds.

I mostly trade options anyway (for now). Thats why the contract fees are important, because when you buy/sell 500 at a time you are looking $3500 commissions per trade!
Click to expand...

BALLER!

Why don't you just use Interactive Brokers if you trade so much and in such large quantities?

I use TDA as my main brokerage and I get $7 internet trades. There was a promo a while back to get people to sign up so I just called to complain. Also people are reporting if you call and complain about the commissions elsewhere being cheaper they'll give you $8 or $7 trades, depending if you trade enough to reach Apex status or not.
 
Originally posted by: gotsmack
Originally posted by: FelixDeKat
$25k min is not normal. The other brokers dont require that. I have ST, ET & TDA.

ST is the cheapest, but their options contracts or 1.25 each! Best inventory of shortable securities. Local offices available for gripes / margin calls.

ET has the best trading tools and investment vehicles, but their CS bites. Option contracts are .75. Usually can only borrow S&P names to short, which sucks. I did qualify for 7.99 trades, and had "super elite platinum" personal CS rep, but they still didnt know their head from their rears most of time.

TDA fees match ETs, CS bites somtimes, roughly same names as ET shortable. Options .75 each. The worst thing about TDA is their stupid "concentrated positions" margin requirement. If you have all your money in one name for a short term trade and are using margin, the min equity in most names jumps from 50% normal to 60 or 70%, requiring you to sell before the close or deposit more funds.

I mostly trade options anyway (for now). Thats why the contract fees are important, because when you buy/sell 500 at a time you are looking $3500 commissions per trade!
Click to expand...

BALLER!

Why don't you just use Interactive Brokers if you trade so much and in such large quantities?

I use TDA as my main brokerage and I get $7 internet trades. There was a promo a while back to get people to sign up so I just called to complain. Also people are reporting if you call and complain about the commissions elsewhere being cheaper they'll give you $8 or $7 trades, depending if you trade enough to reach Apex status or not.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the tip!
 
Zecco isn't bad. You certinaly want to use other tools for DD and other stuff, but for executing trades I see no difference in the quality compared to other brokers. My orders get filled instantly and usually at the exact price I specify or something better.

I just crossed the $25,000 threshold so I'm cool with the free trades for now. Now, they're offering free trades if you make more than 25 trades a month. That's still 15 trades you'd have to pay $4.50 each for, though. Still, for people without a lot of money to start investing, zecco's 4.50/trade is still the best in the industry really. $9 for a complete transaction isn't that bad. Does anyone remember the days before online brokerage firms? It's hard to complain about $4.50 trade fees when it wasn't that long ago that you had to call your broker and hope that your orders got filled before the big run or selloff depending. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: nerp
Zecco isn't bad. You certinaly want to use other tools for DD and other stuff, but for executing trades I see no difference in the quality compared to other brokers. My orders get filled instantly and usually at the exact price I specify or something better.

I just crossed the $25,000 threshold so I'm cool with the free trades for now. Now, they're offering free trades if you make more than 25 trades a month. That's still 15 trades you'd have to pay $4.50 each for, though. Still, for people without a lot of money to start investing, zecco's 4.50/trade is still the best in the industry really. $9 for a complete transaction isn't that bad. Does anyone remember the days before online brokerage firms? It's hard to complain about $4.50 trade fees when it wasn't that long ago that you had to call your broker and hope that your orders got filled before the big run or selloff depending. 🙂
Click to expand...

When I first started 16 years ago, there was no internet and only like 2 discount brokerages. The rest were full commission brokers. I remember going to the public library to read like 2 year old annual report from companies and getting stock closing price from day old newspapers. If you wanted to buy a stock, you had to pick up the phone and talk to a broker to place the order for you. Commission cost was around $50. But that was a steal compared to hundreds of dollars charged by the full commission brokers. I remember when they finally came out with automated phone system where you could get quotes and trade via touchpad and not have to talk to a broker. That was a huge leap in convenience. Then came the internet trading and that changed the game forever. You have so much information and instant access to everything. Trades are ridiculously cheap. We're almost at parity with the pros for the fraction of the price.
 
Originally posted by: JMapleton
If you don't have at least 25k to invest it's not worth the time.
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While I get what you are saying, I do have one caveat. I currently don't have enough $$$ to play with individual stocks and have most of my money sitting in index funds. However, when it is time to test individual stocks, I could see getting my feet wet with $5k-$10k in cash.

Playing with funny money just isn't the same.
 
I always laugh when letters start with "I'm writing to tell you that". I know you are writing to me, that's why I'm reading a letter that comes from you!

I had a teacher in college who could not stand this so whenever I see it I think of her and how she would go on about it. Haha.
 
If you use all the free trades right away you're going to be labeled as a daytrader anyways, which will automatically require 25k minimum to open positions per a stupid SEC rule.

gotsmack is right...Interactive Brokers is irrefutably the best for active traders. Last year I paid them $32k in commissions alone. Not only are they the cheapest in most cases, they are absolutely the most reliable and robust execution platform available to individuals, while at the same time its tailored for professionals.
 
Originally posted by: jjsole
If you use all the free trades right away you're going to be labeled as a daytrader anyways, which will automatically require 25k minimum to open positions per a stupid SEC rule.

gotsmack is right...Interactive Brokers is irrefutably the best for active traders. Last year I paid them $32k in commissions alone. Not only are they the cheapest in most cases, they are absolutely the most reliable and robust execution platform available to individuals, while at the same time its tailored for professionals.
Click to expand...

What kind of size are you doing?
 
Originally posted by: jjsole
If you use all the free trades right away you're going to be labeled as a daytrader anyways, which will automatically require 25k minimum to open positions per a stupid SEC rule.

gotsmack is right...Interactive Brokers is irrefutably the best for active traders. Last year I paid them $32k in commissions alone. Not only are they the cheapest in most cases, they are absolutely the most reliable and robust execution platform available to individuals, while at the same time its tailored for professionals.
Click to expand...

You paid them $32,000 in COMMISSIONS?
 
Originally posted by: manlymatt83
Originally posted by: jjsole
If you use all the free trades right away you're going to be labeled as a daytrader anyways, which will automatically require 25k minimum to open positions per a stupid SEC rule.

gotsmack is right...Interactive Brokers is irrefutably the best for active traders. Last year I paid them $32k in commissions alone. Not only are they the cheapest in most cases, they are absolutely the most reliable and robust execution platform available to individuals, while at the same time its tailored for professionals.
Click to expand...

You paid them $32,000 in COMMISSIONS?
Click to expand...

Which is why I asked how much size he's doing.... with a REAL broker who offers competitive commissions for professionally licensed traders you would be able to do 6 million+ shares for $32k in commissions.
 
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