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| 2008/1/17-23 [Finance/Investment] UID:48964 Activity:nil |
1/17 So, I'm thinking about starting up a post-tax investment account
with individual stocks. (In other words, I'd like to get into
small-time stock trading to try it out.) What's the best/cheapest
way to do this? E-trade? Fidelity?
\_ Any broker is fine. I use my bank (Wells Fargo) because they
make it easy to transfer money from checking to savings to
brokerage account and the fees are about average.
\_ Fun answer: http://thinkorswim.com has a very powerful software program
to trade options, futures, and stocks. They have a "paper money"
feature where you can place virtual trades and track how you are
doing. Tell us how you do! http://tinyurl.com/yrurvv
Boring answer: Scottrade
\_ If you are looking for cheapest, Scottrade is pretty
hassle-free. Another option is Sharebuilder, which is a bit
different in that you buy a dollar amount worth of stocks
instead of whole stocks. I think it can theoretically be
used to purchase those with high per-share prices, but I have
no experience with it. -Scottrade customer
\_ Supposedly tradeking is all right, and $5 is reasonably
cheap for trades. MB trading is okay and has quite cheap
trades, but don't have a web trading interface (you have
to use this windows program). Zecco gives you a certain
amount of "free" trades, which would theoretically be great
for DCA into ETFs or something, but I must warn you that
their customer service is the worst I've ever seen (or more
like non-existent, I guess). They dinged me with invalid
"margin interest" debits, and I don't even have a margin
account. Granted, these debits were less than the several
dollars worth of trades I've done there, but when I emailed
their customer service, I got one bullshit email response,
and then they just ignored the rest of them. |
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| tinyurl.com/yrurvv -> www.thinkorswim.com/tos/displayPage.tos?webpage=paperMoney Want to safely explore our trading applications or experiment with a new trading strategy before putting real money on the line? With paperMoney every thinkorswim user has access a virtual margin account and a virtual IRA account each funded with $100,000 of "play money". It doesn't require a seperate download, special code or even a different username and password. Web-based Trading > Instructions for thinkDesktop paperMoney Download, install and launch thinkDesktop. Choose "paperMoney" from the "Connect to" selection box on the thinkDesktop logon screen. Email Us The risk of loss in trading securities, options, futures and forex can be substantial. Customers must consider all relevant risk factors including their own personal financial situation before trading. Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. |
| thinkorswim.com -> www.thinkorswim.com/tos/client/index.jsp IN A NUTSHELL When we formed thinkorswim , we had an ambitious goal - to transform the way self-directed investors trade stocks, options, mutual funds, futures and forex. Thanks to unprecedented client-side technology and the delivery of practical investor education by industry veterans, the plan has worked. Every day we challenge our clients to learn more, to get smarter and to make better investments. learn more > * thinkorswim rated highest software-based online broker and "best for options traders" in Barron's ranking of online brokers, 3/6/2006 and 3/5/2007. Barron's is a registered trademark of Dow Jones & Company 2007. Provided your IRA application is approved by thinkorswim, you can trade any complex option strategy you like as long as the resulting position has defined risk. We do not allow for short stock, naked short calls or futures. Although we're waiting for the final settlement price of the SPX on Friday morning, the experiment's Jan 1410/1415/1565/1570 iron condor would require something like a 90 point markup to save it. Email Us The risk of loss in trading securities, options, futures and forex can be substantial. Customers must consider all relevant risk factors including their own personal financial situation before trading. Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. |