The Story of the Stock Brokers
Want to know which stock broker is the best? Find out in the following article where I talk about the more popular options out there. Hopefully, you can find the one you are looking for below.
Etrade is one of the earlier players in the discount brokerage and practically invented online brokerages. The user interface is amazing and the commissions are on the higher side in this day and age.
TD Waterhouse acquired Ameritrade to make TD Ameritrade. They also changed it to green but that’s about all the changes they made. The online user interface still looks like it’s from the 1990s when everything was based on command lines. I would recommend other options over this one any day.
Charles Schwab have been cleaning up in the last year or so, especially with the troubles of Etrade. Honestly, I’ve been thinking about moving my money to Charles Schwab as well since they offer everything you’d want.
TradeKing is a deep discount broker and trades are only $4.95 (half of the higher end ones). It offers a great trading community where you can find out what others are trading and executions are quite. In fact, it’s won many awards and it’s highly recommended.
Zecco used to offer everyone free stock trades but if you don’t have $25,000 or trade 25 or more times a month, you need to pay $4.50 per trade. Options are $0.50 per contract which is a good price though, and it also has Zecco Forex where you can trade currencies.
Sogotrade is a relatively new player and it plays the angle of cheap trades. With $3 per trade, it’s hard to beat unless everything is just free. Sogotrade also ensures trading accounts for up to $5 million.
WellsTrade is Wells Fargo’s self trading platform offering. The user interface is lacking and the logistics of trading is a little weird but if you have $25k with them, trading is free (actually, up to 100 trades a year). It’s not for the frequent trader but for retail investors, it’s a great option (who can say no to free?).
Bank of America came to the self trading platform a few years ago when it offered free stock trades for its clients who have more than $25,000 in assets with them (it could be savings, checking among others). A few years later, you don’t hear much about them but I’m sure some of their customers are using them since it’s free.
OptionsXpress is less known in the retail investor realm but it’s very popular for frequent traders who love options. They have the best tools for options trading and they also charge three different prices for options commissions (as opposed to pricing based on the exact number of contracts).