ricojes Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 First of all, I am not a big stock market player. I only own some shares of the company for which I work. And my wife and I have some stock through her broker, but he charges quite a bit for a transaction. Anyway, I have an itch to jump on some stock that I have been following lately. It's up $2 in the past couple days, so I need to get the ball rolling. I checked out scottrade and etrade, but am not sure which, if any, would be better. There are a lot of sites out there, but a lot of them sound pretty much the same. Does anyone have any suggestions for trading sites? I am sure there are a few on-line traders on this board. Much appreciated, Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zevo Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 i use scottrade! its good and i wire money from my bank account Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 The first question I have is can you afford to lose 100% of the money you're itching to invest in this stock? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magox Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 First of all, I am not a big stock market player. I only own some shares of the company for which I work. And my wife and I have some stock through her broker, but he charges quite a bit for a transaction. Anyway, I have an itch to jump on some stock that I have been following lately. It's up $2 in the past couple days, so I need to get the ball rolling. I checked out scottrade and etrade, but am not sure which, if any, would be better. There are a lot of sites out there, but a lot of them sound pretty much the same. Does anyone have any suggestions for trading sites? I am sure there are a few on-line traders on this board. Much appreciated, Thanks! I like Scottrade, good charts and customer support. If I could say something about what your possible stock purchase. Just remember, the S&P and DOW have had a tremendous run up, and usually when a market makes such a parabolic move to the upside a correction is in order. If you really like the company or stock, I would suggest patience and prudence and wait for a pull back. Now of course, I don't know what company you are talking about and what it has done recently, but I just say that as a general rule of thumb. Anyway, good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Please do not listen to anyone here telling you whether or not to purchase the stock. They have no idea (and that includes me) of what your situation is so their opinions on whether to buy or not are meaningless. Nothing personal Magox. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricojes Posted July 22, 2009 Author Share Posted July 22, 2009 I like Scottrade, good charts and customer support. If I could say something about what your possible stock purchase. Just remember, the S&P and DOW have had a tremendous run up, and usually when a market makes such a parabolic move to the upside a correction is in order. If you really like the company or stock, I would suggest patience and prudence and wait for a pull back. Now of course, I don't know what company you are talking about and what it has done recently, but I just say that as a general rule of thumb. Anyway, good luck! Thanks, I appreciate your input. I am not looking for a get rich quick stock (although I'd take it), I would be in it for the long haul. I'm only looking to invest around 7 or 8 hundred bucks, nothing that's going to break the bank. Just something to get me started in investing and see what happens. And this is a stock that hasn't done much lately, but I think it has potential... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magox Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Please do not listen to anyone here telling you whether or not to purchase the stock. They have no idea (and that includes me) of what your situation is so their opinions on whether to buy or not are meaningless. Nothing personal Magox. No offense taken, I agree with what you said. I've seen it 1000 times before, it use to be a running joke at the firm I worked for, and that is that people love to chase after a market. You tell them over and over to buy it when it's down, and they don't want to touch it, but when that market is climbing to new highs, and the pundits you see pushing a stock that you are considering on CNBC telling you that xyz stock is going to so and so price, all the euphoria sets in and you go out and buy that stock after making new highs or after a tremendous rally, and next thing you know, BAM!! Correction in price and you are stuck holding it for longer than what you'd like. But you're right, usually listening to other people, specially people you don't know isn't a wise thing to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 No offense taken, I agree with what you said. I've seen it 1000 times before, it use to be a running joke at the firm I worked for, and that is that people love to chase after a market. You tell them over and over to buy it when it's down, and they don't want to touch it, but when that market is climbing to new highs, and the pundits you see pushing a stock that you are considering on CNBC telling you that xyz stock is going to so and so price, all the euphoria sets in and you go out and buy that stock after making new highs or after a tremendous rally, and next thing you know, BAM!! Correction in price and you are stuck holding it for longer than what you'd like. But you're right, usually listening to other people, specially people you don't know isn't a wise thing to do. Oh I understand people chase all sorts of markets. Look at all the people that bought rental properties at the absolute peak. However if he plans I buying and holding long term who cares. But seeing it's less than $1,000 I say go to Vegas and put it all on green. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricojes Posted July 22, 2009 Author Share Posted July 22, 2009 However if he plans I buying and holding long term who cares. Exactly! Which is why I really only asked for a trust worthy site in which to invest. If the stock does end up tanking, I'd rather lose to the market than to a hacker.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fezmid Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 I use Scottrade and recommend them. I do NOT recommend ETrade. I used to use them, but then they changed their terms of service to charge an "inactivity fee" if you don't make a certain number of transactions every quarter. They never actually told me about the change until I started getting billed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 What stock? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBill Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 I use TDAmeritrade - started long ago - they have left me neither impressed nor unimpressed. Your choice depends a bit on what you do or plan to do long term - if you are just buying a few hundred in stock go with the cheapest trades and leave it at that. BTW - I agree with Chef - be very careful about listening to buy (or sell) recommendations. My suggestion is that if you are really looking to get serious take the time to learn - I started by reading a pile of books and then taking just a slice of my available funds to learn - I don't care what stock you are looking at - even if it is a "good" stock if you buy at the wrong time especially relative to your investment horizon it will be a "bad" buy for you. Two people in the same conversation about the same stock can both legitimately say it was a "great" or "lousy" investment - timing, your investment expectations, and the general direction of the market all play into this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 I use Scottrade and recommend them. I do NOT recommend ETrade. I used to use them, but then they changed their terms of service to charge an "inactivity fee" if you don't make a certain number of transactions every quarter. I never actually read the change in terms they sent me until I started getting billed. I fixed your last sentence there for you. But actually I got this from their website: No Inactivity Fees E*TRADE Securities will not charge fees when your account is inactive for a period of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fezmid Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 I fixed your last sentence there for you. But actually I got this from their website: No Inactivity Fees E*TRADE Securities will not charge fees when your account is inactive for a period of time. No, I actually do read all of the fine print that banks send me.... I'm anal that way (I keep perfect tabs on all of our finances -- I can tell you how much I spent eating out dinner over the past 8 years, or how much my wife spent on magazines). They even said that they sent a separate mailing that just talked about that change. Either the post office lost it, or they screwed up. That said, ETrade must've changed their policy in the past few years. I think I left them about 5-6 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 No, I actually do read all of the fine print that banks send me.... I'm anal that way (I keep perfect tabs on all of our finances -- I can tell you how much I spent eating out dinner over the past 8 years, or how much my wife spent on magazines). They even said that they sent a separate mailing that just talked about that change. Either the post office lost it, or they screwed up. That said, ETrade must've changed their policy in the past few years. I think I left them about 5-6 years ago. Really? They don't charge me that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 No, I actually do read all of the fine print that banks send me.... I'm anal that way (I keep perfect tabs on all of our finances -- I can tell you how much I spent eating out dinner over the past 8 years, or how much my wife spent on magazines). They even said that they sent a separate mailing that just talked about that change. Either the post office lost it, or they screwed up. That said, ETrade must've changed their policy in the past few years. I think I left them about 5-6 years ago. Or you somehow missed it in the mail and threw it away by mistake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magox Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 (I keep perfect tabs on all of our finances -- I can tell you how much I spent eating out dinner over the past 8 years, or how much my wife spent on magazines). Your wife must be thrilled... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stl Bills Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 I use Scottrade too but I've heard great things about TD Ameritrade.....Scottrade has pissed me off more than a few times but that has only been with penny stocks.......if you are not messing with penny stocks, then I would recommend Scottrade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBill Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Your wife must be thrilled... I was wondering if her subscription list included playgirl .... do you suppose he keeps tabs on that too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fezmid Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Really? They don't charge me that. Not sure if there's different classes of accounts, but a quick search shows that I'm not alone. A couple of the many links I found: http://consumerist.com/5057127/ http://a-loonie-saved.blogspot.com/2009/02...ivity-fees.html I also only had ~2k in the account, so it may be a "no activity in a quarter and less than $10k" or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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