Which on-line brokerage do you use?
 

Why that one? What else, besides fees, did you consider when you made your decision? Thanks.

I can wholeheartedly recommend against E*Trade. They sent a book of my checks to an address I had not lived at for 6 years, and was no longer in the system (at least the screens I could get to).

An ex-con, out of prison for 6 weeks, stole the checks, had himself a CA driver's license made up in my name, and started buying things, beginning with a $7000 car. By the time they got around to freezing the account (after I reported the fraud), he had taken over $12000.

He was caught in the act by an undercover cop, writing my checks at Target, arrested, and convicted on his third strike. Life in prison.

You'd think all this evidence would get me off the hook with E*Trade. Not so - I have spent 7 months trying to get E*Trade to refund my money. Two police reports filed. Affidavits notorized, etc. Every time I called, I got a different rep, and it was like starting from scratch. I escallated to a manager, who then tossed my case to another manager, then another, etc.

It ended with my threatening to sue them. I finally did get a refund (less about $500 in fines that they never credited back). I decided to chalk it up to life's lessons learned, pull out my money, and forget about it.

Except, now I'm going to be that one customer who had a bad experience, and who tells 100 of his friends. I hope I can get a few people to keep their assets away from what I believe to be a horribly run company. Market forces at work. :)

So, caveat emptor with E*Trade.

Thanks for the advice, Colin. No E-Trade for me.

Hi Chris - how are the upgrades on the car coming along? Are we going to see you out at the track next year?

I signed up with E*Trade a couple years ago because of low fees and sign up cash. I don't know if I would again today. All the trades have been trouble free, but the fees have gone up and I'm sure I could get a better deal.

All we have is two basic cash IRA accounts - not a lot of activity. Given that, it seems like more time to make a switch now than it's worth.

Hi Ross,

Vash replaced my shocks for me last week when I was laid up with back problems. I feel better now so I'll be working on the turbo tie-rods, brake lines and sway bar bushings next. But I'm on this new kick right now that's taking up a lot of my free time.

Ever since I attended a stock investing class, equities and options are all I think about. Gotta work some OT to raise start-up investing capital. Wish me luck.

You will see me on the track though. I'm going to attend a ground school next year so I haven't given up my P-car passion.

Chris

I'd stay away from E-trade, Ameritrade, and M. Lynch.

Here are some highly recommended online brokers:
Muriel Siebert
Scottrade
Fidelity
Brown
Harris

Hi Eric,

Who rates on-line brokers? What criteria is used? Thanks.

Chris

My sceptical view is stay away from anything involving the ability to transfer large amounts of money via the internet, mainly because it seems to be an old problem that the gov/banks set up wrong to begin with, and have been slow to act on.

Unfortunately name, address, ss# is all that's needed to obtain enough goods/credit to put any individual in a few years of hurt... and that info is floating around in the data bases of schools/credit companies/auto insurance agencies etc.... and even when bio-metrics/genetic verification go into place, any of that can be copied and used just as easily.
No easy solution.

We're not really "traders", but you might check out all of Vanguard's offerings.

Most "money" or "investor" type publications/sites have brokerage ratings, as do most consumer advocacy groups (JD Power, etc.). Criteria usually includes transaction fees, execution speeds, commission structure, available resources/research, phone/email support, site navigation, etc. Lots of info out there, just do your homework.

E Traders...Day Traders....all the same thing they are = to money losers....My question is how many of you would tear down your Porsche motor and put it back together yourself...with just the book "How to Rebuild your Porsche Motor for Dummys" ....thats just about sizes it up...So why would you presume to understand how to make a dollar on Wall Street...Even the people who sit and watch the screen all day everyday for a Living have trouble at it...and there are some very sly people out there....

Now I don't trust the the majority of Brokers out there either..most are just spouting the party (corporate) lline... and don't know a dam thing...they might as well be selling vacume cleaners for what they know...

So how do you get started investing your money...start slowly...cheap trade doesn't mean good trade...find someone in the middle.. and before you buy ask...what is the trading range of the stock...how much cash do they have, hoiw much debt do they have, have revenues been increasing, what is the sentiment among the pros (analysts) not that they are right....are the big blocks of stock being sold on the upside or the downside...what is the Beta....what is the P&E ratio... and then you think what am I buying this for...short term, long term..Oh and does your Brokerage house have a bunch of this stuff they are peddling off to their clients.. Oh he11 I'm tired of this allready...I just let Mother figure all this stuff out..it makes my head hurt....

Anyway what it comes down to is that the Broker you want to talk to doesn't take walkins...