I have some money I can afford to lose, and I want to (carefully) get some stocks before the economy picks back up again. Which brokerage is good? I’ve been recommended Scottrade, but looking at reviews it seems like their online features aren’t the best. I’ve also been recommended E*trade, but they also seem to have a lot of downsides. Ameritrade?
Is there a reason you want to buy individual stocks rather than the broad market (i.e. via an inexpensive index mutual fund)?
I do some of both, but if you’re just starting out and don’t have too much to invest, I’d recommend index funds. FWIW, you can buy index funds, in ETF form, via a brokerage account, but if all you want is index funds, it’s probably simpler, and possibly cheaper, to just go directly to the fund provider.
I use ShareBuilder and they’ve been a dream to work with. Also, they now offer a decent set of mutual/index funds now that ING has bought them.
If you plan to purchase stocks and just let them sit, then Scottrade is fine. There are only 2 or 3 features I need to stay on top of my stock performance and Scottrade does it with relative ease.
This may have changed recently, but the only way to add or remove money from Scottrade it to either do a wire transfer or write a check to them (of they write a check to you). This may be common among all online brokerages, I don’t know. I just find it annoying whenever I want to take money out I have to wait for the check to come to me, rather than the money transfering to my bank.
Again, it’s not that big of a deal if you plan to buy and let them sit.
I’ve used TD Ameritrade for my Roth IRA for the last 8 years. I’m happy with them. It’s easy to set orders & check on the status of them, orders have been reliably executed, the commissions are reasonable ($10 per stock order), & the company doesn’t seem to sell your e-mail information, since I rarely get financial ads in my e-mails.
That said, I don’t do anything fancy, & I don’t know enough about other online brokerages to know if Ameritrade is competitive.
This may have changed recently, but the only way to add or remove money from Scottrade it to either do a wire transfer or write a check to them (of they write a check to you). This may be common among all online brokerages, I don’t know. I just find it annoying whenever I want to take money out I have to wait for the check to come to me, rather than the money transfering to my bank.
FYI, ShareBuilder can hook into your regular bank account and just transfer back and forth easily. It takes 2 business days but it’s still faster than writing checks.