I’ve been trading stocks for many years and over those years I’ve used different online brokers. I started with E-Trade which is a good site, but I wasn’t too happy with their customer service as well ad their fees. Of course that was many years ago and they have changed since then. I then moved to TD Ameritrade after it was recommended to me by a good friend who was using them and loved the service he was getting from them. It’s now been several years since I went to TD Ameritrade and I will never go to another broker no matter how much they want to give to me.

When I started with them, they were called TD Waterhouse. Their prices were competitive with their competitors, but their customer service was so much better than anyone else. After a short time of trading stocks with them, I called them up to discuss a few courses they were offering to their clients. When I asked the representative about why I shouldn’t go to another online broker since they keep sending me offers to join them at lower rates than what TD Ameritrade was charging, she asked if I could hold on for a moment to look into something. When she came back on the line, she informed me that she will be lowering my fees per transaction to what I was being offered by the others. The funny thing was that I wasn’t looking for her to do so since I felt that the quality of service they provided me with justified the fee I was being charged.

As for TD Ameritrade’s other services. they have a large selection of courses for their clients can take to improve their trades. Courses that will explain different trading techniques and so forth. These courses are free to any and all clients. They also offer consultations with one of their many representatives, also at no charge. The research they do for their clients is far beyond any other online broker that I’ve used in the past.

A little over a year ago they teamed up with SinkorSwim.com to increase the programs they offer to their clients. Sink or Swim is awesome for those who need to learn more about trading stocks or if you’re looking for some great investment tips. The seasoned investor and trader will also benefit from the program as well.

I don’t know who you are using to make your trades, but I will say that TD Ameritrade is the on stop for all you online stock market trades. No matter what trading style you use or how often you make a trade, they have everything you’ll ever need in an online discount broker.

When choosing an online broker for trading stocks, you must sit down and evaluate all the pros and cons of each company out there. After all, E*TRADE created a trend of other online companies attempting to provide similar services. Therefore E*TRADE must have something that differentiates them from the rest of the pack, besides the fact that they were one of the first companies to provide discount brokerage services. Year after year, E*TRADE continues to get great reviews from SmartMoney and Barron. They continue to expand their online packages, which makes it intriguing for one to go online and create an  etrade account. It only takes a couple of minutes to create a life changing impact that can impact your life in a positive way. 

With a highly competitive market, there are other online brokers that offer cheaper brokerage services around. There are others that offer a cheaper price per trade, an annual fee that is lower, and other monetary dynamics that may effect a person’s decision when evaluating this broker firm. Some say their customer service isn’t the best, it’s difficult to take money or close the account if needed, and the prices are higher in some categories compared to others out there. The process of a trade going through may not be as quick as some people prefer. Their minimum balance on an etrade  account is also higher then other brokers, such as Scott Trade.

However one must look at the value you’re getting rather then the cost your paying when making a decision on whether to go with E*TRADE or another firm for investing online. The good thing about E*TRADE is the diversity of services they offer as they continue their expansion. They are well known for their market analysis, which is probably their greatest strength. With this analysis of the market, it creates credible stock market tips to utilize, especially with the current state of our economy being in a recession. The website and tools that E*TRADE provides is user friendly which allows the account holder to make better and smarter decisions when trading. Mobile etrade applications have also received recognition as our technology in pocket pc smart phones continues to evolve in a market where today’s hottest product will soon be yesterday’s old news.

In conclusion, E*TRADE still stands at the top of the list in online brokers. As they continue to successfully market their products and services, they will maintain their competitive edge against rival companies as long as they continue to strengthen their research and development areas. With all the attractive monetary accounts available, it is easy for a potential client to be in awe of the diversified products that they offer.

Depositing money in your investment account is not difficult – it is just like making an online purchase that is funded directly from your primary checking account. Funds can be added or withdrawn at any time. I usually do my own research on my investments, but ShareBuilder does have some good resources for information on historical stock prices and ratings.

They also have several great walk-throughs to find out which investing plan is right for you based upon the information you give them, such as when you plan to retire, and how much you plan to save per month to your retirement or other investment accounts. These recommendations are extremely helpful for clueless investors like me who don’t know exactly what to do about saving for retirement, but know they want to start now. You can also change and customize any recommended plans, so nothing is set in stone.

I felt comfortable opening an IRA with ShareBuilder, and I derive a sense of glee when I can watch my investments appreciating (or depreciating, but that’s not usually the case) on a regular basis. After just having gone through tax season, I was grateful that ShareBuilder furnished the tax documents on my investments and dividends; otherwise I wouldn’t have had a clue where to start with tax information regarding my ShareBuilder accounts. Also, they email me monthly statements in case I haven’t logged in recently (difficult for me to do personally, but probably a better idea to keep from anal-retentively checking your stocks on a daily basis), and also send notifications and updates through email.

The one thing I wish I would have investigated earlier about ShareBuilder is how to get their advertised $4 trade fees. Normally it is $10 to place a trade with ShareBuilder, and as a new investor, I thought it was because I had a basic account. In fact, the way to get $4 trades is to utilize their Automatic Investing feature. When you set this service up (which is free to all account holders), every trade placed through Automatic Investing will cost $4 per trade, not $10. Apparently $10 is the fee for a real-time (right this second or whenever the markets are open) trade with ShareBuilder.

All in all, as a newbie investor, ShareBuilder has been a great online broker for me to become familiar with investing, and I would certainly recommend it to anyone interested.

The key is having some investment knowledge and the ability to perform the research required to select a stock that (hopefully) will go up in value. For some, this is a difficult task and they have a hard time understanding the stock market. Yet for many people, those who like to research stocks and watch trends in the world, the selection of a stock and the investment of hard earned money into it can be as simple as one, two, three.

First, do your homework. This is not a time to open the financial pages and throw a dart to pick the stock you want to own. No, it requires you to research the company and its industry. Second, once you are sure of your selection, decide on the amount of money you want to invest. There once was a time when you had to purchase a minimum of 100 shares or be charged more for buying an “odd lot.” No more, you can by stock in smaller increments, and, with some companies you can even purchase stock in fractions. Third, you should select a low cost online stock broker to complete the trade.

Why pay a full service broker when you do nearly all the work and can complete the trade cheaper? To do so you must open an account with the online broker, which is a relatively easy task to do. The beauty of working with such a broker is the cost. Most full service brokers charge significantly higher commissions than online brokers such as E-Trade, Schwab, Fidelity or ING Direct.

The Charles Schwab Company has offered online brokerage services for years. Its web site is simple and easy to use, and trades are accomplished in seconds for a low commission. The Schwab web site is easy to navigate and information is presented in a logical manner. Schwab also offers extensive online research and stock reports to make your stock picking objective easier. With Schwab your investment account is insured and your account is viewable 24/7 on the internet. It has a secure site which requires the appropriate credentials to enter. Schwab’s site has everything from your trading history, account statements to quality third party research. And trades made on the site are significantly less expensive than a full service broker. Similar performance has been observed a numerous other online brokers.

So, while you are reviewing what stocks to pick, make sure you take a look at online brokers and pick the one which fits your needs. These companies will do all you need in the investment arena at a fair and reasonable cost.

One of the online brokers out there is ShareBuilder.com from ING Direct. A registered broker-dealer and Member FINRA/SIPC. ING Direct has a lot to offer within the financial world, but now that they are a broker-dealer, you can now trade stocks with them.

You don’t have to have a boat-load of money to open an account with ShareBuilder. There is no minimum requirement to get one with them. To Open an account takes only a few minutes and once you fund your account you can start trading.

After you choose the program you want to determine your investment costs, or even to set up your investing plan. You can get access to some great tools as well.

You also have the option to set up automatic investing to make your purchases easier and doing so will get you their best price on fees. With automatic investing each trade will only cost you $4. That’s the lowest price I’ve seen on any of the other online brokers. The catch with that is that you have to have the money in the account prior to the date of the trade (which makes sense), but if for some reason you don’t have the discretionary money you expected to have to put into the account, you will have other fees that will apply.

ShareBuilder doesn’t give you a lot of information unless you open an account with them first which leads me to think that there are things like hidden fees or minimum shares purchase. To really find out about them you will have to dig a little deeper than I did.

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.

With the growth of the internet over the last ten years, many different people are becoming an entrepreneur and while they are creating their website for marketing, selling or any of the many other ways to make it big, they are also taking control of their future.

The way they’re doing that is by opening up an account many of the online brokers that are available to them to invest their money. Entrepreneurs don’t have the luxury of having a 401K plan or even a pension plan. They have to invest on their own with whatever money they can. Who knows how long any of us will be able to work and this class of workers are no different. Just because they’re running their own business doesn’t mean that they have it made for the rest of their lives. Quite the opposite, it may end for them even quicker.

So to help them prepare for those times that may bring financial woes they invest in the stock market through online discount brokers. I myself have taken control of two 401K rollover plans that I had with companies that I worked for by transferring the funds to one of these brokers. Since then I’ve made better returns in my portfolio than they did combined.

Part of the reason for my success is that I have the resources of my broker at my fingertips without the extra fees and charges, all of that is included. The stock market has been around longer than I have and will continue long after. There are things that I don’t know, but with the help of these brokers I don’t really need to know it all and they can help me in how to pick the best stocks.

If you’re looking to take charge of your future I suggest you look into moving your money out of the 401K plan and into one of the top online discount brokers out there.

TD Ameritrade is a company that I highly recommend for people looking to buy and sell stocks online. Why do I say that? It’s because they are the one that I’ve been using for some time now and I have never had a bad experience with them.

They can help you with many of your financial planning needs. You can have several accounts with them that will assist you with your current and your retirement needs.

If you want to trade stocks to help with creating more of a monthly income, just open an account with them with as little as $100 and start trading right away. Starting with $2000 or more they will give you 50 free trades to start with. If you do open an account with more than $2000, you can ask for what is referred to as a margin account. A margin account is one that they will let you use some of their money to increase your your trades (I will explain more of that in another post).

If you have an 401K account with a former employer you an have that money transferred into an IRA account with TD Ameritrade. This way you have control of how your money is diversified to better suit your retirement needs. With an IRA you won’t be allowed to have a margin account.

If it’s annuities that your look to set up to help subsidize your income, one of their many qualified associates can help you. They will also help go over you needs to see how they can best fit your needs.

Each trade that you make with TD Amertrade will cost you $9.95, no matter how big or small the trade is. If your one of the many people who trade quite a bit, you may qualify for a reduction in the amount they charge you per trade.

So check out TD Ameritade and see what they can do for you.