RANT e*Trade sucks

[Stifko]

I opened an acc't in 2000 when there was a hot deal thread about them. Back them IIRC the deal was if you put in a grand they add $150 to the account. I never put the thousand in but still got the $150 credit anyway. I picked a loser stock (NasdaqSC:MADGF) and watched the value dwindle away over the past 3 years. Good thing it was not my money.

e*trade has an office here on Madison & 55th street. I go over there to put some money in the account for the first time. Turns out they sold my few shares of MADGE NETWORKS to cover the $25 fee !!! The shares did not even cover the fee, but they called the rest a wash. If you don't make at least 2 trades every 6 months, they hit you with a $25 fee. So I was like "why wasn't I charged this fee before?" The rep did not know why. So I decided not to put any money into the account.

The fee for a trade is $24 (19 plus some 4 dollar fee).

Whats a good and cheap online brokerage service, please ?

Do they all charge a fee if there is no activity ?

What is a good site to research the online trading sites besides Gomez ?
I have not been to Gomez in a while but they seemed to be getting too big time and not very objective anymore.
thanks

 

[Rudee]

The problem is not with eTrade, but with you for not doing your homework first. Shame shame... Here in Canada, I use TD Waterhouse and Royal Bank Action Direct for my Discount Brokerage services. A round trip through the stock market is just short of $60 CDN dollars. ($29.95 in/$29.95 out) I do alot of swing trading, and I'm looking at purchasing Level II software to do my trades.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Do they all charge a fee if there is no activity ?

Yes, all the reputable ones I know of charge an account fee unless you meet a minimum balance, typically $5,000 but as high as $50,000 (Schwab), or are an active trader.

But it's your own fault for not ever reading the terms or paying attention to the account, and it was money that they gave you anyway.

 

[Doggiedog]

LOL!

I used to cover Madge as an analyst. Robert Madge is a total loser. I remember when that stock used to be $45 and token ring was in. That was like 6 years ago.

 

[Stifko]

Originally posted by: Doggiedog
LOL!

I used to cover Madge as an analyst. Robert Madge is a total loser. I remember when that stock used to be $45 and token ring was in. That was like 6 years ago.

I worked for a webcasting company and we did a lot of business w/Madge. He came to out launch bash and he was a obnoxious $hite there too. I was working the door and he gave me a hard time b/c he was not on the list and I would not let him in. We spent over $50K on that party and less than a year later we were insolvent.

Wasn't token ring topology popular more than 6 years ago though ?

 

[Stifko]

But it's your own fault for not ever reading the terms or paying attention to the account, and it was money that they gave you anyway.

BTW yeah, I know it was my own fault.

 

[Doggiedog]

Originally posted by: Stifko

Originally posted by: Doggiedog
LOL!

I used to cover Madge as an analyst. Robert Madge is a total loser. I remember when that stock used to be $45 and token ring was in. That was like 6 years ago.

I worked for a webcasting company and we did a lot of business w/Madge. He came to out launch bash and he was a obnoxious $hite there too. I was working the door and he gave me a hard time b/c he was not on the list and I would not let him in. We spent over $50K on that party and less than a year later we were insolvent.

Wasn't token ring topology popular more than 6 years ago though ?

Being an analyst following his company and writing research reports, we had to talk to him constantly. He was the biggest egomaniac.

One time, we went to his annual meeting. He locked all the analysts in a large room and there was a big red plastic M on each table. All the analysts were looking at it like what's this thing. He walks in and says "I hope you noticed the big M on the table. The reason why it's there is because it represents the size of my ego and because of my ego, I'm not going to lose out to a company like Cisco." I just rolled my eyes.

This was 6 years ago when Token Ring and Novell Netware were still big. I guess you can tell what happens to companies when they take on Cisco.