My journey through the land of learning about on-line trade and stocks is continuing. I must admit, at this time, I'm not getting much writing accomplished. I am expanding my brain cells though.
What I've learned so far is that I really like the Virtual Trading on OptionsXpress and it is teaching me a lot. I was pretty much ready to commit to them as my on-line broker, when I started mentioning to people they are a branch of Charles Schwab. That led to a rant from my mother of how they cost her money many years ago in a land branch. Another friend then confirmed their reputation. I went on-line, and what one finds is enough to scare one completely off of trading. Of course, all the on-line companies had lots of customer complaints.
So, then I started digging into TradeKing further. I really don't like the way their website looks. I wasn't really able to check out anything without completely signing up for an account. Even then I was locked out of many places since I hadn't deposited any funds yet. Then I found out they charge a $50 fee if you don't do anything with the account in a year. Since my plan is to buy stocks and sit on them until retirement (or they go way up and it would be crazy not to sell), I don't see myself necessarily buying or selling stocks every single year. They also had many complaints on-line. The most attractive fact about TradeKing was they only charge $4.99 a buy or sell.
Thus I started looking over Scottrade. I did have some trouble setting up the account, but even late a night I was able to get someone at the company on the phone that determined the issue was in the browser I was on and that changing browsers fixed the issue. The site looked more pleasing than TradeKing. I liked the fact that when I signed up they gave me an actual account number. Neither of the others did so.
When I arrived home today, I had a phone message from an employee at Scottrade offering services if I needed any help or had any questions. Not only did she leave a phone number, but a first and last name. That made me feel valued, and that I would easily be able to get help if I needed it.
Scottrade charges a $7 a trade. The only real drawback I've found so far is you need to start with a deposit of $500. OptionsXpress and TradeKing don't have a minimum deposit to start.
That's my appraisal of three of the on-line trading websites. I didn't look at some of the others because they charge monthly or annual fees or require huge sums of money to begin with. My plan is to buy $100-$200 of stock a month and slowly build up a portfolio. After all, I'm in the working class, and that's all my budget can afford.
What I've learned so far is that I really like the Virtual Trading on OptionsXpress and it is teaching me a lot. I was pretty much ready to commit to them as my on-line broker, when I started mentioning to people they are a branch of Charles Schwab. That led to a rant from my mother of how they cost her money many years ago in a land branch. Another friend then confirmed their reputation. I went on-line, and what one finds is enough to scare one completely off of trading. Of course, all the on-line companies had lots of customer complaints.
So, then I started digging into TradeKing further. I really don't like the way their website looks. I wasn't really able to check out anything without completely signing up for an account. Even then I was locked out of many places since I hadn't deposited any funds yet. Then I found out they charge a $50 fee if you don't do anything with the account in a year. Since my plan is to buy stocks and sit on them until retirement (or they go way up and it would be crazy not to sell), I don't see myself necessarily buying or selling stocks every single year. They also had many complaints on-line. The most attractive fact about TradeKing was they only charge $4.99 a buy or sell.
Thus I started looking over Scottrade. I did have some trouble setting up the account, but even late a night I was able to get someone at the company on the phone that determined the issue was in the browser I was on and that changing browsers fixed the issue. The site looked more pleasing than TradeKing. I liked the fact that when I signed up they gave me an actual account number. Neither of the others did so.
When I arrived home today, I had a phone message from an employee at Scottrade offering services if I needed any help or had any questions. Not only did she leave a phone number, but a first and last name. That made me feel valued, and that I would easily be able to get help if I needed it.
Scottrade charges a $7 a trade. The only real drawback I've found so far is you need to start with a deposit of $500. OptionsXpress and TradeKing don't have a minimum deposit to start.
That's my appraisal of three of the on-line trading websites. I didn't look at some of the others because they charge monthly or annual fees or require huge sums of money to begin with. My plan is to buy $100-$200 of stock a month and slowly build up a portfolio. After all, I'm in the working class, and that's all my budget can afford.
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