Which online broker do you find to be the best and why?
How much you want to spend for trade?
Do you want a broker that provides you with research? Are you an active trader? Is this a retirement account. Post up what you are looking for and I’ll let you know what my experiences have been.
There is no single best broker…there is only most suiteable broker for your needs.
I am not an active trader and I am looking for a combination of lowest costs and best research. I would also find it useful if they have good performance tracking software. I currently use Etrade and the performance tracker keeps turning off for me for whatever reason. When I call them to have them fix it they tell me they can’t provide me with the data retroactively.
I currently use optionshouse as my primary broker. $2.95 equity trades, OCO orders coming soon, but no research is provided. I used to have zecco but the 10 free trades weren’t worth it.
I use interactive brokers, although if I were to do it again (based on the research at the time) I would probably have run with TradeKing. Interactive brokers has very low commissions ($1 per trade for stocks, I can’t remember the others, but they’re pretty good). I’m not 100% sure about the rest of the execution, but I trade fairly small lot sizes (they also can do odd lots fairly easily). However, I don’t have a high turnover strategy, and so they will charge you $10/month if you don’t make at least 10 trades. Plus you need to subscribe to data feeds that (for me) cost about $20/month. Not that that’s so outrageous for simple data, but it adds up over time. My second choice was TradeKing, which has no $4.95 per stock trade with no minimum activity level, and I’m not sure how they do the data. They also do options and FX and bonds. They also let you do mutual funds (which IB doesn’t). For a low turnover account, this probably would have been better for me. It’s not a huge difference in the end, but most PM types are compulsive optimizers, so it bugs me. 
I use TradeKing for one of my accounts and they’re pretty decent. You won’t have a lot of research at your fingertips but it’s pretty cheap and the structure of their website is excellent.
I use Vanguard. It’s convenient, because I can use Vanguard money market funds for my cash balance, and Vanguard money market funds have the lowest expense ratios in the industry and are also run more conservatively. The other money market funds used by brokerage firms have higher expense ratios, and some may even have the risk of breaking the buck. I once used Muriel Siebert but switched to back to Vanguard when it dropped the annual fees that prompted me to close my Vanguard brokerage accounts.
I have interactivebrokers too. I don’t know what kind of fees you’re referring to, I don’t trade often but don’t get charged any inactivity or data feed fees. Definitely low cost but you get what you pay for – sh!tty interface and next to no customer service.
I use IB as well. I’m under 25 so it’s only 3 dollars minimum for the inactivity requirement. I don’t pay for data feeds so its all cheap for me. No complaints yet, fast execution and dirt cheap trades unless you’re buying penny stocks.
i know that charles schwab is pathetic. i have an account with them and i hate them. they take forever to do anything.
I just noticed the IB fine print on fees. I guess I’ve traded enough to not incur the $10 inactivity fee up til now. The other thing I can’t stand about them is the cancellation fees on limit orders. I once hit the “cancel” button by mistake on a day order at 4:02pm and they had the b@lls to charge me for it even though the market was closed. Even with all these stupid fees their commissions are still dirt cheap so I put up with their crap.
Anyone have any comments on the relative merits of the analysis tools for these brokers. Can you implement automatic trades? Mostly interested for trend following. Can you trade futures on them?
I’ve used scottrade since 2004 and haven’t had any complaints.
Muddahudda Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Anyone have any comments on the relative merits of > the analysis tools for these brokers. Can you > implement automatic trades? Mostly interested for > trend following. Can you trade futures on them? Interactive Brokers provide API for various interfaces to do automated trading. They even run some contests.
THINK OR SWIM
Etrade just slapped me with another $40 inactivity fee. I made a trade on June 24 thinking I would not get slapped with the penalty for Q2. Apparently the cutoff was June 23. I am done - $40 is way too much considering I have less than $10,000 in the account. What do you think is the best choice for someone that trades mostly to buy and hold? I only have a few thousand in the account and will maybe make 4-5 trades a year. I am thinking about opening a Scottrade account. Any users out there? Are there any hidden fees? How is the research?
Scottrade - Cheap and simple Research is not as good as Schwab, but it is alright. No hidden fees, $7 a trade for most stocks, pink sheet and penny stocks are more. Shoot me an email if you have more questions quantjockmba at gmail. Also I could give you a referral code for some free trades if you wish.
Scottrade - $7 per trade, no minimum balance or inactivity fees…when I used to trade a lot that is what I used.