Buy Stocks Online

Buy Stocks Online: Scottrade

Please note: This is a review of the online brokerage firm, Scottrade and their website. It was written by B. Wayland, one of our new readers.

Scottrade is one of the many available companies through which individual investors can invest in the stock market online. The Scottrade platform offers a number of advantages for investors including the opportunity to invest not just in stocks but also, mutual funds, options, bonds, and certificates of deposit. Additionally, their research tools offer comprehensive reviews of the stocks, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, CDs, and bonds. Furthermore, their $7 flat fee for all trades presents a low entry fee compared to other investment fees.

Upon login, the investor’s homepage shows a summary of buying power depending on whether your account is a margin or non-margin account. This is followed by the total money balance available, equivalent to cash that can be withdrawn and the total account value, equivalent to the value of stocks and cash combined. Other available information include open and completed orders, positions, and a watchlist. Across the top of the homepage are tabs which allow the investor to quickly switch to trading, account details, quotes and research, and Scottrade’s Knowledge Center. The Knowledge Center provides investment education, information about Scottrade live events, and even a dictionary of investment terms.

Actually buying stocks is a simple process with additional options as to the type of order, including market, limit, stop, stop limit, and trailing stop orders. International investors also have access to a number of foreign markets. For newer investors, Scottrade offers links to investment basics based on the type of security to be invested in. Furthermore, a quick stock quote and an overview of the three US indices is always available no matter which page the investor is on. Scottrade’s stock research platform provides comprehensive information on any publicly listed company. An initial search for a stock will pull up a summary of the stock, including price to earnings ratios, earnings per share, volatility, and betas. More detailed information is further divided into additional tabs that include the most recent news, charts, options being traded for that stock, fundamentals such as profitability, valuation, and financial strength, trades made by company insiders, earnings, financial reports, and any SEC filings the company makes.

For those who are unsure of where to start when it comes to choosing stocks to buy, the stock screener provides matches based on market segment, price performance, fundamentals, and earnings and dividends. One of Scottrade’s strong points is its low price point for trading. With a flat fee of $7 for each trade, the cost of trading is greatly reduced. This is particularly beneficial for those investors looking to diversify without a ton of money to invest. The minimum initial deposit of $500 also offers cash poor investors a chance to get their feet wet.

Depositing money into a Scottrade account can be done easily through the Money Direct option in which an ACH transfer can be made directly from a bank account. Withdrawing the money is simple enough as well. By calling one of Scottrade’s 483 local offices, a withdrawal can be made with a check sent out in the mail within one business day.

Overall, Scottrade is an excellent trading platform for new and experienced investors. It provides a simple interface with detailed information when necessary. All research can be done in one location with a tremendous amount of investment information available to the investor. Scottrade’s low cost point offers an attractive investment portal for any current or would-be investor.

© 2010 Buy Stocks Online
Get Your Free Stock Market Tips

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Buy Stocks Online – Zecco

With all the places to buy stocks online, it’s hard to choose one of them. I’m sure you’ve heard of many of them, but there are a few that you haven’t. One of the ones that you might not be familiar with is Zecco.com

Zecco.com is on of the smaller discount online brokers that is becoming a major player in the world of online trading. They’ve been around for sometime and from the looks of it, they won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. They have a lot to offer the average trader when it comes to tools and education toward stock trading.

What kind of tools do they offer? Performance tracking and tax planning tools as well as their streaming quotes are just few of the many. Of course as with many of the online brokers, they basically all offer the same thing, some better than others. They have a section for education that seems to be quite in depth.

Investing basics, fundamental analysis along with technical analysis will help you catch on to the things that are needed to make it in any type of market. Learning to make money in wither a bull or a bear market is very important to understand. Want to learn how to trade oil? they have the resources to help you in that area too.

They offer a section titled “Community” that can point you in the direction of blog, forums and other place to go for support and ideas. That’s one thing that many of the other discount online brokers don’t offer as of yet.

What do they charge for trades? well, to start of with, they will give you ten free trades every month if you have over $2500 in your account. As for trading options, it’s $4.50 per leg plus $0.50 per contract. If you want to set up a margin account, the charge ranges from 4.70% to 7.20% depending on your balance in your account.

As with any of the many discount online brokers, you need to look around to see which one is right for you.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Buying Stocks Online – Scottrade

When looking to buy stocks online, you need to take your time and find the right one for you. Scottrade is the leader in online discount brokers. They have been around since the beginning of online stock trading, so it stands to reason to take a hard look at them.

No matter how you’re looking to trade Scottrade can help. If its Stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds or even fixed income investments, these well trained associates are there for you. Scottrade offers many other ways that they can assist you in whatever your financial needs may be.

Scottrade charges $7 a trade (for stocks valued more than $1) no matter the size of the order or how often you trade. Of course that is for trades that are handled on the internet. For trades on the phone with broker assistance, they will charge you $27 per trade. Stocks that are traded on the pink sheet or foreign stocks, they must be done with a broker. So if you’re one of the many people who trade penny stocks, Scottrade may not be the broker for you.

If you don’t trade all that much, Scottrade doesn’t charge for inactivity on any of their accounts. The is never a maintenance charge either. To trade options, Scottrade will charge you $7 per trade plus $1.25 per contract on limit or market orders.

They also have a great support team in place to help you with any questions that you may have. Their associates are in early and stay late to be there when you’ll need them. They also have over 300 branches to assist you if you want to have a face to face with one of their associates.

Scottrade also has what only a few do. A community board where you can talk with other traders like yourself to discuss and collaborate about the stock market. As for taking tips from anyone from the community, I don’t recommend it. No one really knows what will happen to a particular stock.

To open an account with Scottrade, it requires a minimal balance of $500 ($2000 if you want a margin account) along with a completed application to do so.

© 2010 Buy Stocks Online
Get Your Free Stock Market Tips

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

keep looking »
Content Protected Using Blog Protector By: PcDrome.