What is the best online discount broker?
454883
Whoever answers this question, will give you the broker that they have settled on and now use. But their criteria are different than yours, and you don't tell us what yours are.\n\nAre you trading stocks, commodities, futures, options, or all of these? If the latter, TerraNova is the only one that you can trade everything, real time, online, direct access. A lot of online brokerages claim to give you direct access, but if they take more than a second to execute your trade, it aint direct.\n\nFind the articles online that have evaluated and compared online brokerages. I found a good one online in Barron's, but you'll find others in the trading magazines. \n\nThis is worth putting a little time and effort into, because it's a pain to switch, so once you choose, you're kinda stuck with it. \n\nTownsend Electronics, the Parent company of TerraNova, is the one that digitized and electronified the Nasdaq. They are technological industry leaders and have a powerful and well built trading system. \n\nI use RealTick at TerraNovaOnline, but it costs $275/mo, even though it is unlimited what you can do with it. I think the Investor package is free to use, and just uses one screen. \n\nWhat you should try is a free trial of their Investor platform, which is free. You only get one window to trade from, but hey, with $5,000-how many stocks are you going to watch? Their rates are good also, but of course, it depends on how often you trade. It will take you months to learn all the bells and whistles of what this program can do.\n\nThe other top-of-the line program is TradeStation, but it costs big bucks to join and operate. Some people consider it the Cadillac of trading and technical analysis. \n\nTerraNova is the home of the Day Trader, so they think nothing of you making several hundred trades a day. You don't have to do that, but it's okay here if you do.
209789
http://www.discountgolf.com\n\nHave a Great Day
810393
There are a lot of good brokererages depending on what you like and how you trade.\n\nBarron's Online has a great article on brokerages that they publish each year. (I'll try to find you the link for the March 6,2006 article)\n\nFor basic stuff, E*Trade, Ameritrade, and Scottrade are sufficient. For more complex trades, I'd recommend Optionsxpress, ThinkorSwim, or interactivebrokers. \n\nBased on what you put in your question, I'd recommend one of the first three, but all are very good. Cheapest probably is scottrade (of the larger online firms). Yes there are cheaper like interactivebrokers, but you'll have to get used to their software based platform (which is doable). They're only about $1/contract on options!\n\nBrokerages like Fidelity are horrible for anyone with any decent experience. \n\nSo, decide what's important to you as a trader and compare the brokers! You can use the article, or go to each website as they all seem to have comparison charts! \n\nAnd if there are particular things that you want to mention as being most important to you (such as executions, cust svc, cheapest trade - which you mentioned, flexibility on allowing you to do certain types of trades, stop and stop limit orders, contingent orders, great graphing, what if scenarios, training, etc), I'll be glad to help discuss this with you too!\n\nIf you have any questions, let me know.\n\nHope that helps!
96498
http://www.municipalbonds.com/\n\na good place to check out state by state current trades with yields and prices. use this to compare offerings from various discount brokerage firms. i prefer to buy new issues only. many discounters have an email service that lets you know what is coming out.
835626
deep discount brokerage...like scottrade, e-trade....\n\nyou don't want commissions eating up much of your $500\n\nstart with something relatively safe...\nI would recommend a high dividend paying stock....so that you are getting something while you save up for your next investment\n\nwhat to try???\nUSA, ASG, IAF, GIM \nCNE, PGH, PDS, ENT, BTE\n\nThese are relatively inexpensive and pay a nice dividend....\n\ngood hunting
102431
Barrons.com is free access this weekend, check them as they usually compare brokers...\n\nalso Money Magazine, Smart Money, Kiplingers
1123717
Lack of competition; there are only a handful of discount brokers in Canada, most of which are owned by the major banks.\n\nThe one I use now is Questrade.  They charge $9.95 a trade.  The only problem with them is that their site is very no-frills.
91490
for convience sake, find the nearest discount broker with an office.\n\nSchwab, Fidelity, Ameritrade or Scottrade ... for a few stock sales any of them would work. Scottrade being the cheapest. If you are going to leave the money in your account, then Fidelity would be best as they have a higher paying sweep money market.
50871
Go with scottrade. I have an account and you can't beat $7/trade. They also have offices all over the US.\n\nSharebuilder charges about $15.95 for real time trades. They also have a program where you can "dollar cost" average into a stock. Say you want to invest $50/month into Apple, $25/month into ebay, and $10/month into Starbucks. It'll cost you $4/month/"automatic transaction". You can also subscribe to their package deals where they give you 20 automatic transactions for $20. 6 trades/month for $12. The trick though is..you have to invest the same day every month and they execute the trade. You have no control over when (morning/afternoon or time). This is fine if you want to accumulate stock.\n\nI do like eTrade for their interface but their trades are $15 unless you do X trades a month and the price goes down...but for a small investor, it's cheaper to go with the $7 trades at Scottrade
824323
I've been with Scottrade for about ten years now... and I believe they are the best discount brokerage available.  You'll pay just $7 a trade.  You'll have resources to explore.  You can even get advice from one of their brokers, which will result in a small fee.  Bottom line: Take it from a retired stock broker... if I could invest at a better company, I'd do it!
449366
Personally, I like pricegrabber.com because it has a wide variety of items, it lays it out nicely and lets you sort however you wish, and gives estimated costs with shipping when comparing.
210426
bobbrinker.com\nvanguard.com\nschwab.com\nfidelity.com\nameritrade.com\nscottrade.com\netrade.com\ntradeking.com   cheapest
219016
streetsmart pro @ schwab.com is excellent\n\nfidelity.com also has a good program\n\nclearstation is good, except i don't like etrades market executions.
603244
http://www.IBOPlus.com/40393114\nhttp://www.MyBenefitsPlus.com/40393114\nhttp://www.DeliveringOnThePromise.com/40393114\nhttp://www.EveryoneBenefits.com/40393114\nhttp://www.MyHomeBusinessPays.com/40393114\n\nAre all good places to start if you would like to own your own business and make alot of money. This is also a good place for discounts.
1145550
http://www.froogle.com\n\nIt's a site run by Google that searches for the best price on-line for ANYTHING!\n\nTry it.\n\nYou'll like it!
1054185
Scottrade.com $7 per trade dude..   Optionsexpress is good as well when you get a set of balls... ... You do know it is highly likely u will lose money right...  Some of us do this for a living and still get smoked - so dont give up right away .
970543
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/\nOne of the bigest international brokers.