Let's Settle This... Best Broker Value

[xpiratesxcorex]

Alright.. I know we always talk about brief pros and cons of brokers in the chat so I figured I would make this thread...

Best Broker via Value.


I like how the tools Ameritrade offers in comparison to eTrade. Command Center 2.0 and Strategy Desk are great tools for being FREE. $10 a trade isnt the worst.. it's good because if you don't trade often you receive great services. If you trade often, (like i'm trying to) it eats into your profits. In comparison the only broker with cheaper commissions is Scottrade. Why don't I like Scottrade? They make you walk into an office to open an account and I don't have time to waste on doing that.

That's my 2 cents... I'm interested to see what you guys have to say.

[vthokienj]

If walking into an office is your only reason for not liking Scottrade, I opened my account through the mail, as did a few of my friends.

I have four total accounts with them and have not had any issues. Trades execute quickly and they are very responsive to email if you have questions.

Also I have a Tradeking account and like them. Commissions are $4.95 for stocks and options are $0.65 per contract.

[wallstreetsedge]

i dont think theres a best... everyone has their own problems

from my personal use, trade station has the best tools BUT... they also have a lot of glitches with delays in quotes, problem with time execution, you cant do a an option trade unless you have at least $2,000 minimum in settled cash, if loss exceeds a certain % for the day, you cant put any more buys in. you cant enter symbols for indices. you also have to pay for a bunch of different add ons... and you have to do a certain number of trades per month.. i forget how many shares of stock but for options its only 50 contracts i think or you get charged $100 per month.. stock shares are pennies per share and options are $1 per contract

tradeking has some crappy tools but theyve been doing a lot of improvements on making order execution faster and easier. real time quote system suck - very slow and often freeze up. so you have to use the real time quote bar and do it one by one with refresh. no real time charts. fees are cheap. 4.95 per trade plus .65 per option contract

nexa has a free system to use but no tools. minimum is $25 per trade but your cash is freed up right away. so if you sell stock or options, once the order hits, that cash is free to use. they have 2 other system you can sign up for, i forget the costs there. order execution is extremely fast.

fidelity also has some decent tools but some have delays. i forget the charges for them. order execution is probably the fastest but verifying orders can be time consuming.

[xpiratesxcorex]

I forget to ask if anyone has ever tried those "free brokers" like Zecco Trading? Or have heard any serious reviews?

[netwrangler]

Originally Posted by xpiratesxcorex

I forget to ask if anyone has ever tried those "free brokers" like Zecco Trading? Or have heard any serious reviews?

Barron's reviews brokers every six months.

In the most recent review, Zecco was in last place.

[mthompson]

I used Sogo and didn't like it, very limited tools and options, not worth their low commission of $3/trade. And they provide transaction history/statements only in pdf, so imagine the fun of doing your taxes.

[wallstreetsedge]

i guess its just true, you get what you pay for

ive used bank of america before and they gave me all trades free, only had to pay for option trades and it was horrible.

zecco only chrges for option trades bc they make money off of margin interest

[blaster]

I use Scottrade Elite. I am very happy with it. I did a serious comparison of Fair value while choosing an online trader a year ago.
ACH deposits, Tools, Research, Charts, Execution are few reasons why i choose ST. Elite platform is fully customizable to your own needs. ST servers are pretty fast and reliable most of the times. Downtimes that i have experienced on average is like few hours/ month. 7$ a trade with tools and no minimum required is pretty good. Upgrading to Options trading dont require anything special.
Contracts are 12$ something a contract and + 1.25 on all additional contracts.

Margin account for short sales:
I was told by my local branch office that margin interest rates are like 10% depending on the amount borrowed. I hate to open margin like lets say 10K margin account means 10% interest is 84 dollars a month HUH....is it worthed to have a margin well for real Short Sellers...yeah

Negatives are very few and doesn't bother me much such as Deposit times are longer via ACH like 5 to 7 days.

[ptinsley]

I have accounts at Bank of America and Ameritrade.

You get very little in the areas of tools and information with Bank of America and I have had some problems with trades being slow to execute at times (not on pink/otc). The free trades above a certain size account is a nice feature.

Ameritrade has some great free tools, as well as some nice upgrades for digging deeper and getting more to the second information. The trades are 9.99, anytime I have called them they have been very helpful. Funding happens very rapidly compared to others I have used, if you initiate a transfer by 5:30pm it will be there for use the next day. Moving money from BofA savings to BofA Investment Services took almost a week... while going from BofA savings to TD took a day ?!

With those two as choices TD is a big winner, can't speak for the rest of them.

[tlsurfsupper]

IB no doubt. Unless you are an investor with a only few trades a year and trading in blocks of 1000 or more.