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Want to switch to a new broker

M

manlymatt83

Lifer
I started with Sharebuilder a while back. Then switched to TD Ameritrade. LOVED them until I got sucked into Zecco's free trades. After Zecco started charging and their site locking up my browser, I switched back to sharebuilder when ING bought them - that way I could have everything under one roof (ING = bank, sharebuilder = trading).

But ShareBuilder is starting to become a bit restrictive for my daily trading needs. Automatic investing into my IRA? Sure... I'll leave that there. But trading sucks - they don't have all stocks, their contract prices are $1.50 a piece. I don't do automatic investments enough to make it worth it.

I'd like to go back to a real broker. I really like Schwab's brokerage account + trading account, because that would let me get rid of ING all together (I'm always paranoid they are going to close my account like they close everyone else's for no reason), but schwab is $12.99 unless you do 120 trades/year. I may or may not do that, I can't tell.

TD Ameritrade is nice. They want to offer me $100 + 25 trades to come back to them. Plus, the research and site stability is amazing.

But I know some people here use Think or Swim, tradeking, etc.

What's the recommendation then? I'm looking for something that's good, fast, reasonably priced, etc. I don't need my hand held.
 
I use Ameritrade. Im pretty happy with it. I dont really "trade" though. Their research info is pretty decent and I like the layout and usability better than e-trade. I have only used those two though.
 
Heard good things about think or swim.

Also optionhouse looks promising. Nice if you buy a good number of option contracts and their stock rates are pretty good as well.
 
Scottrade if you want low cost stock orders. Fidelity if you're more interested in mutual funds, as they have a ton of no load / no fee funds, both their own and 3rd party.

If you're trading options, I don't know. I've never tried that.
 
Used Scottrade for 1+ years and extremely happy with them. never experienced more than a couple minutes delay on any money transfer, in or out. Local office (in my area, at least) is a phone call away, and extremely helpful. Their stock charting wizard is great for people like me that are mildly interested in charting but not at all interested in learning how to read them (mostly fundamentals guy).

As good or better than a couple of "full service" brokers I dealt with in the past.

PS-when I joined they rebated the approx. $100 fee my old broker charged to transfer the account. I don't know if that program is still around.
 
Originally posted by: JS80
http://www.optionshouse.com/

What's your bankroll and how often do you trade and what do you trade?
Click to expand...

Account value is about $18K right now.

I trade options and stocks. Right now, I take advantage of sharebuilder's automatic investments, so I do about 40 of those a month (10 trades/wk), but they are only $1 each. On top of that, I do about 20-30 real time trades/month. But without the 40 automatic investments, I'd probably do 10 more, so about 30-40 real time trades/month.

I trade more options than stocks.

EDIT: Thornburg 😛 Or were you the FAS/FAZ guy?
 
Originally posted by: manlymatt83
Originally posted by: JS80
http://www.optionshouse.com/

What's your bankroll and how often do you trade and what do you trade?
Click to expand...

Account value is about $18K right now.

I trade options and stocks. Right now, I take advantage of sharebuilder's automatic investments, so I do about 40 of those a month (10 trades/wk), but they are only $1 each. On top of that, I do about 20-30 real time trades/month. But without the 40 automatic investments, I'd probably do 10 more, so about 30-40 real time trades/month.

I trade more options than stocks.

EDIT: Thornburg 😛 Or were you the FAS/FAZ guy?
Click to expand...

maybe both. check out optionhouse. i'm eyeing them right now. i would have saved $2k commission the last 12 months on option trades.
 
Originally posted by: JS80
Originally posted by: manlymatt83
Originally posted by: JS80
http://www.optionshouse.com/

What's your bankroll and how often do you trade and what do you trade?
Click to expand...

Account value is about $18K right now.

I trade options and stocks. Right now, I take advantage of sharebuilder's automatic investments, so I do about 40 of those a month (10 trades/wk), but they are only $1 each. On top of that, I do about 20-30 real time trades/month. But without the 40 automatic investments, I'd probably do 10 more, so about 30-40 real time trades/month.

I trade more options than stocks.

EDIT: Thornburg 😛 Or were you the FAS/FAZ guy?
Click to expand...

maybe both. check out optionhouse. i'm eyeing them right now. i would have saved $2k commission the last 12 months on option trades.
Click to expand...

It's interesting, but yuck.... if I decide I want to get risky and buy 100,000 shares of a penny stock, their commission would be $1000.

Plus, do they offer non-java based web trading, or is it all java based?
 
Originally posted by: manlymatt83
Originally posted by: JS80
Originally posted by: manlymatt83
Originally posted by: JS80
http://www.optionshouse.com/

What's your bankroll and how often do you trade and what do you trade?
Click to expand...

Account value is about $18K right now.

I trade options and stocks. Right now, I take advantage of sharebuilder's automatic investments, so I do about 40 of those a month (10 trades/wk), but they are only $1 each. On top of that, I do about 20-30 real time trades/month. But without the 40 automatic investments, I'd probably do 10 more, so about 30-40 real time trades/month.

I trade more options than stocks.

EDIT: Thornburg 😛 Or were you the FAS/FAZ guy?
Click to expand...

maybe both. check out optionhouse. i'm eyeing them right now. i would have saved $2k commission the last 12 months on option trades.
Click to expand...

It's interesting, but yuck.... if I decide I want to get risky and buy 100,000 shares of a penny stock, their commission would be $1000.

Plus, do they offer non-java based web trading, or is it all java based?
Click to expand...

No idea. Most sites have some java, but not sure if this one is entirely java based.
 
Originally posted by: JS80
Originally posted by: manlymatt83
Originally posted by: JS80
Originally posted by: manlymatt83
Originally posted by: JS80
http://www.optionshouse.com/

What's your bankroll and how often do you trade and what do you trade?
Click to expand...

Account value is about $18K right now.

I trade options and stocks. Right now, I take advantage of sharebuilder's automatic investments, so I do about 40 of those a month (10 trades/wk), but they are only $1 each. On top of that, I do about 20-30 real time trades/month. But without the 40 automatic investments, I'd probably do 10 more, so about 30-40 real time trades/month.

I trade more options than stocks.

EDIT: Thornburg 😛 Or were you the FAS/FAZ guy?
Click to expand...

maybe both. check out optionhouse. i'm eyeing them right now. i would have saved $2k commission the last 12 months on option trades.
Click to expand...

It's interesting, but yuck.... if I decide I want to get risky and buy 100,000 shares of a penny stock, their commission would be $1000.

Plus, do they offer non-java based web trading, or is it all java based?
Click to expand...

No idea. Most sites have some java, but not sure if this one is entirely java based.
Click to expand...

Java won't work for me. TD Ameritrade is nice because they have a strictly HTML based platform, and so does Sharebuilder.

Honestly, I'm trying to decide now between:

TD Ameritrade
Schwab
Options House
FirstTrade

Both optionshouse and firsttrade have large order surcharges even if they don't admit it.

JS80: What broker do you use now?
 
Originally posted by: manlymatt83
Originally posted by: dr150
http://www.firstrade.com/publi...cing/brokercomparison/
Click to expand...

Do you use them?
Click to expand...

Yes. Been using them for 8 years. To this day, I can get a LIVE person to handle my needs after a couple of rings. Unprecedented. Never had a problem with them.

I also use Ameritrade to take advantage of an offer, but Firstrade's product/pricing is compelling over others (even Scottrade). They've gotten a lot of kudos in the press as being tops in recent years....
 
Originally posted by: dr150
Originally posted by: manlymatt83
Originally posted by: dr150
http://www.firstrade.com/publi...cing/brokercomparison/
Click to expand...

Do you use them?
Click to expand...

Yes. Been using them for 8 years. To this day, I can get a LIVE person to handle my needs after a couple of rings. Unprecedented. Never had a problem with them.

I also use Ameritrade to take advantage of an offer, but Firstrade's product/pricing is compelling over others (even Scottrade). They've gotten a lot of kudos in the press as being tops in recent years....
Click to expand...

Any maintenance fees? How are money deposit times? Seems they hold deposits for a while.... They have an HTML trading interface?
 
Power Etrade, Scottrade.

How come java doesn't work? I thought most pro sites have some java component in the html.
 
Originally posted by: manlymatt83
Originally posted by: dr150
Originally posted by: manlymatt83
Originally posted by: dr150
http://www.firstrade.com/publi...cing/brokercomparison/
Click to expand...

Do you use them?
Click to expand...

Yes. Been using them for 8 years. To this day, I can get a LIVE person to handle my needs after a couple of rings. Unprecedented. Never had a problem with them.

I also use Ameritrade to take advantage of an offer, but Firstrade's product/pricing is compelling over others (even Scottrade). They've gotten a lot of kudos in the press as being tops in recent years....
Click to expand...

Any maintenance fees? How are money deposit times? Seems they hold deposits for a while.... They have an HTML trading interface?
Click to expand...


The previous link I sent you shows they don't have maintenance fees.

Deposit times are good enough with me. Call them for more detailed info on this if you want the nitty gritty.

Demo the software:
http://www.firstrade.com/publi..._us/welcome/takeatour/
 
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