How many of you keep an E*Trade, Scotttrade...etc account?

before you go setting up an etrade acct. , check out this article to help you decide which provider is suitable for you.

http://www.moneybluebook.com/reviews-of-the-best-online-discount-broker…

thanks General Thade! do you use an online brokerage? and if you do what type of strategy do you use to invest?...mutual funds, etf's, etc...

i have a few different accounts, one of which is an online etrade acct. I have no complaints. I'm not a fund guy, i prefer to pick individual stocks, but etrade does offer tools and research for a variety of different investment vehicles.

I definitely trade for my own account, and did during my time in banking also. You have to be very careful about compliance and not using any insider information.

FYI - I use TradeKing.

How much are you guys playing with?

Also, do any of you have accounts outside of your firm? I declared them with my firm when hired FT, but I really want to invest in an IRA outside of my bank. It's just a pain dealing with them, especially when I feel like I can handle it on my own.

Ok then, perfect timing CaptK.

I still feel hesitant in opening an account and not declaring it with the firm. Like you said, I'm sure it's not really an issue until you start using inside information, but I'm still cautious.

I'm sure this has been already addressed several times on the forum before, but I just saw the thread and figured I would ask it here.

General Thade's link is an old review. For the latest and greatest in online brokers, check out Barrons' annual broker review:

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB126844973242861545.html#articleTabs…

I have two accounts - Sogotrade and Optionshouse. Sogo was the first one I opened, its cheap and got the job done, but sometimes trades were slow to execute. Also really barebones - practically no advanced features at all, and very limited features.

Optionshouse does better in many ways.

At your stage, pay attention to costs, esp if you're starting with a small bankroll. If you plan on trading often, consider using Lightspeed. Hope this helps.

strategies anyone?

and would trying to find undervalued small cap stocks be worthwhile or should i just stick with funds, or etf's?

keep in mind im probably starting with around $1,000

I use Options House for equities Oanda for FX TD Amertitrade for Mutual Funds Sogo for Pennies

Since $1000 isn't all that much, fee management is probably going to be a big consideration for you.

I'd recommend Zecco. Though they aren't the greatest, and won't let you reinvest dividends, they have cheap (4.50) commissions, which I assume you care about with such a small portfolio. I started out with Zecco about 2 years ago, with $700, and they've seen me through to this day when I'm leaving for thinkorswim (better for options) with almost $20k.

What Zecco does well: Low fees, easy to set up an account and fund it, really easy to use and navigate their interface, and they have some solid tutorial videos for basics on stocks, options, technical vs fundamental analysis etc. Best part is, the tutorials are done by hot women, amen.

Another cool feature that they just added but I haven't used is their new ZapTrade-you can actually tell them what site you use for your info (Yahoo! Finance, Bloomberg, etc.), and when you're on that site, there's a little box in the corner so that you don't have to go back to Zecco.com to make a trade. Sounds convenient.

What Zecco doesn't do well: No dividend reinvestment (which probably wouldn't be a problem for you considering the asset class you're looking at), the customer service is done via their own instant messenger system (which is cool but slow), and I'm sure their execution isn't perfect (although I'm sure a couple of cents per share won't make a significant impact on trades as small as yours).

Hope that helps and happy trading!

If your going to invest in small cap value be able to stomach huge swings on no news! You should also just put that 1,000 in an index because its not worth picking individual stocks with that little money due to costs......unless you only purchase one company that you felt good about

If you plan to eventually invest alot than use a reputable broker like Fidelity or at least scottrade. Zecco is garbage. poor customer service poor execution.

if your looking to jump into the game asap and trade options scottrade will get you up fastest.

I would use Scottrade for stocks. They have great execution, and whenever I enter a limit order it is exactly what I enter. Comission is only 7 bucks. I've traded options a bit, but don't trust the options as much as I do stocks.

I'm playing with 20 g's (10 in personal 10 in IRA), and have definitely had a good experience with it.

thanks for all the input!

my only issue is, that with such a small bankroll, $7 per trade is a large portion of the portfolio. from what i have read, Zecco is the cheapest, but unreliable? how do you mean unreliable? as in the timing of the order going through....?

at a number of banks (BAC, WFC, etc.) once you have a certain amount you get free trades...

I've read a lot of good things about Zecco and I've read a lot of bad things about Zecco. The good things have typically been written by the web or blog author, while the bad things have come from people commenting on those posts. I, personally, have never had an issue that these people talk about (things like trying to sell at a profit but winding up with a loss, etc), nor have my friends whom I referred to Zecco. The biggest error I was confronted with was one day, my balance was stated to be $1000 higher than it should have been, but if you're half-intelligent then you should know where you're at and where you're not. That being said, it is possible that other people HAVE had real issues, I'm just saying that I've never been one of them.

If people's horror stories seem to be getting to you, an alternative is Trade King. They have almost as low commissions as Zecco (4.95 compared to 4.50), and have been ranked #1 in customer service by Smart Money several times. They also offer dividend reinvestment and pre-market/after hours trading (two services that Zecco does not offer).

Hope that helps get you closer.

awesome, thanks again!

i have both zecco and tradeking. I would go with tradeking

I use TD Ameritrade. They have one of the lowest per-contract fees for trading options amongst the mainstream brokers (0.75/car vs 1.25 at schwab, scotttrade, etc). They're not amazing (I would assume quality-wise all of the major ones are about the same), but it works, and it's reasonably priced.

for those of you who trade for yourself, what strategies do you use?

Glad i read this, i was about to start and go with Zecco.

As my first attempt in trading myself I was planning on picking up thestreet.com's Stocks under $10 newsletter as a guidance since im only starting with $5k i figure smaller stock moves would be good.

Ideas?

if you bought $400 worth a stock at $10 a share and it moved 20% you would have the same return as if you bought 1 share for $400 that moved 20% Don't base what stocks you choose on their price for purposes other than the companies valuation.

it just seems that smaller stocks move to that % quicker than larger stocks. my whole mentality going in is get my 10% and walk away with each trade.