2/10    My online broker (suretrade) just merged with another broker.
        From what I've seen, Datek seems like a nice one to switch
        over too (I'm a small time trader and Datek's cheap). Which
        online broker have people had good experiences with?
        \_ Avoid E-Trade, American Express.  I have Schwab out of
           laziness/inertia.  At least you can go hassle someone in person
           when they screw up.  --oj
           laziness/inertia.  At least you can go hassle someone in
           person when they screw up.  --oj [reformatted]

                \_ I have Morgan Stanley (ex-Discover, Lombard) for the
                        same reason. Had them for years w/o any probs.
                \_ I second avoiding E-Trade.
           \_ What's bad about E*TRADE?  I have both Schwab and E*TRADE but
              I don't touch my accounts that often.  I think E*TRADE charges
              less than Schwab for trading stocks.  (I also have PaineWebber,
              but last I checked it's not on-line.)
        \_ I've used Datek for years and have no complaints
           \_ I started with Datek, but then switched over to SmithBarney.
              They have a nice option that gives you free trades for the whole
              year, in return for like .5% of portfolio value.  I think the
              listed % is around 1.2%, but if you talk to an individual broker,
              they will discount it to around .5%.  Oh, and you can do partial
              buys into mutual funds, which is nice, if you want to get in on
              some of the hotter ones which have minimum buy-in amounts.  oh,
              also you can talk to your broker about getting in on the more
              limited mutual funds which just open for initial investment for
              a couple days or so, before the fund fills up.
              \_ I have SmithBarney because of Options and ESPP. They are
                 okay, but I wouldn't use them unless you have 200K+ in
                 assets. Its a hassle for small investors.
        \_ I've been using National Discount Brokers (ndb.com) for
           almost 5 years without any problems. ----ranga
           \_ Gotta love the duck quack option on their 1-800 number, too.
              \_ Yeah. I've been told its quite funny. This has never
                 affected my service or my opinion of NDB. They are
                 reasonably priced, friendly and efficient. ----ranga
        \_ I stuff all my money under the matress.  Never had a problem
           *and* I didn't lose my ass in 2000.
           \_ where do you live?  what room is your mattress in?
                \_ It's the house with the guns in it.  You're welcome by
                   anytime, friend.
           \_ You too? WOW I though I was the only one. Did you stock
              up on ammo and rice also? I did. 7.65mm and .45s along
              with 100 kgs of rice. I'm ready to weather the storm.
           \_ Money market account would have been fine, you know.
                \_ You trust the government to insure your life savings???
                   \_ That's treasury bonds, not money markets.
        \_ If you're investing and not "trading" (i.e. you aren't trying to
           hit specific price targets, but rather trying to build up
           positions in good stocks), consider a dollar-value investing
           company like Buy&Hold (my fave), Sharebuilder, or FolioFn.  Trades
           are dirt cheap, but infrequent.  For example, Sharebuilder charges
           $2.00/trade, and does the trades in agregate on Tuesdays.  Buy&Hold
           charges $2.99/trade and does them twice a day. -brian