I have $1,500 laying around that I am looking to invest. Which online brokerage is the best? edit: and this should be in the regular hangout
I have been using E*TRADE, which also operates an online bank. I just cancelled my BOA accounts because E*TRADE reimburses about 5 ATM fees per month so that I can use whichever ATM i want to withdraw money. Deposit checks is not convenient. My mutual funds are in Fidelity.
$1500? Save a bit more and stick it in a Vanguard S&P 500 fund. Any brokerage will charge you a base amount for commissions and with that little amount of money, the commissions will be a strong percentage of any position thereby eliminating any benefit.
I use both Fidelity and Vanguard as my online brokers. I invest mostly in open and closed mutual funds plus ETFs. I do buy my owns bonds though. I am not a heavy trader. I balanced what I got once a year.
I'm a professional investment/money manager, and all my personal accounts are with Interactive Brokers(IB). So are most other hedge fund managers I know. I've used Etrade and Ameritrade in the past. You can't beat IB's commission rates. Plus they have this nice software platform for you to use for free. They also have an online, browser based trading platform as well. They charge one cent per share. So in your case, since you will be buying smaller lots, you will save quite a bit on commissions. This is compared to the industry norm of $7-$20. But I do think that most US online brokerages have an account minimum on 2K. So save up some cash.
If you are looking to invest and not trade, then I would consider Fidelity. Their fees are a bit high on small accounts, but this won't be such an issue if you aren't trading every other day. The tools for research that they have online are top notch, and my personal dealings with them over the phone or face to face have always left me satisfied.
I'm curious as to why this is a D&D topic. I never knew people were so passionate about their brokerage house BTW, don't you talk crap about Sharebuilder. My $4 trades every Tuesday will kick Ameritrade's arse to the curb
I'm pretty happy with Ameritrade myself. One rule of thumb in investing is to make sure you have all your loans paid off before investing, I am assuming you have done so.
Anybody had any experience with Scottrade? Seems they have won 6 customer satisfaction award from the past 6 years. Also the commission rates look like the lowest in the industry?
Scottrade is decent. Ameritrade is better. IB is the best. Problem with Scottrade is that alot of their features aren't online. For example you have to call an branch office to get withdrawals, and even to setup an account. All other places have the convenience of doing these functions online. That is how it was about 2 years ago. They might have changed, but I didn't like their luddite stance.
