Question : What is the best online stock trading service to use for starters?
I been looking at Ameritrade, Scottrade, E-trade, etc. I do not no much bought stock trading but I do watch Crammer on Mad Money alot. What's your opinion?
- asked by ruffrider
All Answers:
Answer #1
E-trade is pretty simple to use. I suggest goingwith someone live though, like you local EdwardJones office. You son't pay too much incommission, and the advice can be invaluable,espcially since you are new to this sort of thing.
- answered by rubberducky75
Answer #2
Scottrade. Max of $7/trade, unlimited number ofshares. No fees for inactivity. Great reports andstatements.
- answered by new england
Answer #3
Rookies should not own individual stocks. Isuggest you read anything by John Bogle ofVanguard. Stick with mutual funds or ETFs. If youhave small dollars to invest, that is, less than$50,000 you are better off with low cost indexedmutual funds as the trading costs of ETFs willkill you.If you own fewer than ~50 stocks in equaldollar amounts you are inefficiently diversified.Go with mutual funds or ETFs, buy and hold.
- answered by hb
Answer #4
Cramer will help you to achieve a million dollars- assuming you start with $10 million. Do yourown research. Also, the poster who suggestedETF's was right on. Start with those and you willgain experiance while not losing everything.
- answered by fsfa
Answer #5
I was in your position with a couple of k in mycollege student pocket and not a lot ofexperience.I followed some 'theories' but everystock trade just resulted in me paying out aminimum of 1% in fees just to buy it. My returnswere crippled. THEN Etrade & Ameritrade startedtheir "account maintenance fees" of 15 - 20dollars every 3 months. That was 1-2% percent ofall the money I had! It was awful.If I had to doit over again, I'd go with no fee DRIPS (dividendreinstment plans). I'd pick a strong company withgood dividend returns (I've done well withSouthern Company (SO)) and let the money sitthere. Why? It's not a glamorous investment..it's not going to get me 10% in a month but withinvesting.. you need to have something that willgive you solid, predictable gains. That way youhave backup when you do riskier ones... it'scalled diversification.If I didn't want somethingthat safe.. I'd go with an EFT. EFT stands forexchange traded funds. They're a select group ofstocks that are bought.. and then rarely soldunless necessary. In other words, they'repassively managed. This saves you money in twoways - for one, you don't have to pay a big shotgroup of people for their continual oversight andtrading of your basket of stocks.. and two.. itminimizes your tax burden. During the stockmarket crash in 99-00, mutual fund holders werenot only paying high fee loads while the value oftheir mutual fund plummeted.. they also hadcapital gain tax to pay. That sucks. You can paytax on a mutual fund that decreases in value ifyour manager sells funds that have increased invalue (thus earning money and making you pay taxon it) while not selling stocks that are losingmoney (and therefore not offsetting the gain)So insummary.. consider two things. DRIP plans and EFTfunds. Ishares is a company that trades in a lotof EFT funds.. there's also one I've been eyeingfor awhile.. symbol EEM. Developing countriesEFT.. unbelievable performance w/in the lastyear.Anyway food for thought. Just pay attentionto your costs of trading - whether it be mutualfund expenses or stock trading expenses.
- answered by GoddessofCoughSyrup
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