So if I wanted to buy a couple hundred bucks worth of stock and then keep it for at least ~9 months...

[legoman666]

Like the title says, I want to buy a little bit of stock and keep it for a while. What's the best site to do this with? IE, minimal fees, easy interface for a stock nub, etc.

 

[oznerol]

Couple hundred dollars?

For that little amount, I would suggest against the market and go with a high yield savings account. The risk/reward for a few hundred is not worth it. It will cost you ~$10-20 per buy. If you invest $500, $20 down is already a 4% loss.

If you're bent on testing the waters, I enjoy Fidelity, though it is $20/trade in your account with them is under $50,000.

 

[bonkers325]

tradeking has very low fees and seems fairly reputable

i agree with ducci a few hundred bucks isnt a lot when u want to invest in short term. you want to keep stocks for at least a year for tax reasons anyway.

 

[legoman666]

Originally posted by: ducci
Couple hundred dollars?

For that little amount, I would suggest against the market and go with a high yield savings account. The risk/reward for a few hundred is not worth it. It will cost you ~$10-20 per buy. If you invest $500, $20 down is already a 4% loss.

If you're bent on testing the waters, I enjoy Fidelity, though it is $20/trade in your account with them is under $50,000.

Good point. I do have a high interest savings account already with GE Interest Plus with a whopping 3.04% rate

 

[mugs]

If you have a Costco membership, I think they have a deal with Sharebuilder where it's only $4.

But when you consider that
1. You need to buy multiple stocks to have a diversified portfolio
2. You need to both buy and sell those stocks
You're looking at a minimum of $40 spent. You're already down ~10%.

 

[Uppsala9496]

Originally posted by: mugs
If you have a Costco membership, I think they have a deal with Sharebuilder where it's only $4.

But when you consider that
1. You need to buy multiple stocks to have a diversified portfolio
2. You need to both buy and sell those stocks
You're looking at a minimum of $40 spent. You're already down ~10%.

It's still $9.95 a trade (both buy and sell) with Sharebuilder. The $4 is for auto purchases you set up.
Costco does have a $55 bonus that shows up in your account within 35 days.

 

[Bryophyte]

Originally posted by: mugs
If you have a Costco membership, I think they have a deal with Sharebuilder where it's only $4.

But when you consider that
1. You need to buy multiple stocks to have a diversified portfolio
2. You need to both buy and sell those stocks
You're looking at a minimum of $40 spent. You're already down ~10%.

With only a couple hundred dollars to invest, he's not going to buy multiple stocks. More likely he'd be out $8 (four each to buy and sell. )

The Costco deal isn't $4 trades, everyone gets that (unless it's changed very recently.) The reason you want to go through Costco is that you get paid to get a Sharebuilder account through them.

Current deal is that Executive members get a $90 account bonus, Goldstar/Business members get a $70 account bonus after they fund and execute their first trade. For a $200 investment, that's a killer deal, expecially considering that they put your uninvested cash into a money market account that gives you a pretty good return all by itself.

Edit:You go to www.sharebuilder.com/passport08 and put in your Costco membership number to get this offer. It's good from June 2-August 24, 2008.

 

[Uppsala9496]

I went through Costco for my sharebuilder account. The bonus was only $55 when I did it (still not bad).
It is $9.95 a trade though. The $4 trade is if you set up automatic transactions.

 

[Bryophyte]

Originally posted by: Uppsala9496
I went through Costco for my sharebuilder account. The bonus was only $55 when I did it (still not bad).
It is $9.95 a trade though. The $4 trade is if you set up automatic transactions.

When you're only investing a couple hundred bucks, it's stupid to spend twenty dollars (2 x $9.95)in fees when you could set up a one-time trade to be executed on a tuesday and only spend eight bucks (2 x $4.) The ability to make instant trades isn't worth the extra twelve bucks for such a small and short-term investment.

 

[Bryophyte]

Quote isn't edit.

 

[wedi42]

free stock trades at zecco.com

 

[Uppsala9496]

I think sharebuilder still charges you the $9.95 real time fee for sales.
So, it will cost $14 for the purchase/sale at the cheapest.

Regardless, if you are only investing a couple hundred and don't plan on holding onto it for a long time, it seems like a losing proposition.

 

[RightIsWrong]

Originally posted by: johngute
free stock trades at zecco.com

This one.

 

[legoman666]

The thing is, I'll be co-oping this summer, so I'll be making decent money. And I don't want to spend it all. If I don't do something with the money, I probably will just end up spending it on needless crap. However, if it's invested and slightly harder to get to, I won't have that problem.

I'll give zecco a look. Maybe I'll wait to buy any until I have 2-3k to put in instead of just $300. Thanks for the advice people.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: legoman666
The thing is, I'll be co-oping this summer, so I'll be making decent money. And I don't want to spend it all. If I don't do something with the money, I probably will just end up spending it on needless crap. However, if it's invested and slightly harder to get to, I won't have that problem.

I'll give zecco a look. Maybe I'll wait to buy any until I have 2-3k to put in instead of just $300. Thanks for the advice people.

If you have such a strong urge to spend money, just buy some CD's or something similar, pay off loans if you have them, whatever it takes. Gambling with the stock market isn't the right way to solve a spending issue - if you want to learn about the stock market, by all means, spend a few hundred and give it a shot, but if you aren't in it for learning alone, then consider this to be like going to a casino with your paychecks.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

couple hundred bucks? goto the casino bet on black and be done with it.

 

[legoman666]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo

Originally posted by: legoman666
The thing is, I'll be co-oping this summer, so I'll be making decent money. And I don't want to spend it all. If I don't do something with the money, I probably will just end up spending it on needless crap. However, if it's invested and slightly harder to get to, I won't have that problem.

I'll give zecco a look. Maybe I'll wait to buy any until I have 2-3k to put in instead of just $300. Thanks for the advice people.

If you have such a strong urge to spend money, just buy some CD's or something similar, pay off loans if you have them, whatever it takes. Gambling with the stock market isn't the right way to solve a spending issue - if you want to learn about the stock market, by all means, spend a few hundred and give it a shot, but if you aren't in it for learning alone, then consider this to be like going to a casino with your paychecks.

I have no debts and almost no expenses. Car is completely paid for. My rent is $425/mo and my mother gives me $200/mo for food (I have Celiac disease so it's expensive for me to eat). Parents also pay 50% of my tuition.

Breaks down like this per year:
Income:
from co-op after tax: $2200/mo 6of 12 months per year = $13,200
from parents for food: $200/mo = $2,400

Expenses:
rent: $425/mo x 12 = $5,100
tuition: $3,300 per quarter, I pay half, 2 of 4 quarters per year = $3,300
random crap (food) $200/mo = $2,400
Insurance: $950/yr

Which means I have $3,850 left over at the end to do something with. And instead of constantly upgrading my computer, I might as well do something useful with it.