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Schwab offers 250 free trades on ETFS. Being that you're starting with 500 dollars you have to think about trade fees. You should pick the brokerage that has the lowest trade fees based because you have to think in terms of net returns. As far as an investing platform is concerned, TD Ameritrade is probably the best. If you go with Scottrade, you will have a broker that will provide you advice/consultancy at times, which is nice.
Citi is a buy imo. For you starting with 500, this is a long term play. I personally do believe that they are pairing back their business and getting more into boring banking, which is a good thing. More importantly, they are receiving more revenue outside the US and are transitioning towards this model. The near-term concern is the downward pressure the stock price will experience with the gov't selling their stake.
I wouldn't touch C... but i guess im biased cause i believe theyre full of shit and when TSHTF theyre gonna be one of the first to crumble.
If you're starting out with 500 bones, I wouldn't touch Citi.
put it in IRE and let it ride.
TD has $10 commissions. I think Scottrade is only $7...
To answer your question, it really depends on how actively you plan on trading. Are you going to invest and let it ride or are you planning on making more frequent trades etc? You can stomach some MODEST fees if you intend to buy and hold since you won't be taking the 2 -4 dollar hit per trade very often...
500 means you're probably only investing in one stock. Transaction fees rape around 3-4% of your value so really do your research before getting into a position.
bought some citi, hoping it will get on that cyclical time and hop up to round 7-8 before i sell.
I like etrade, but $10 comission fee.
so to answer my question.. which broker should i use for investing a little amount of moolah
I plan on holding... Arent trading fees more like $9-10?
Yea, sorry but I have no idea at the 500 dollar level what your fees would be. (Thats less than a single share of GOOG by the way.) You should probably wait and save a bit more. Do paper trading for now
dude save your 500 wait till u get at least 2k
Agree with that... need to diversify. Fidelity has 8 dollar trades.
Wanna do your first LBO? I'll give you $2K on top of your $500 and you give me 50% of the profits, but you take first loss on the investment and I can get my cash back if you drawdown 20%.
check pm
Broker: choicetrade (not sure if I can put links here, just google it).
$5 per trade and I've never had any problem with them (opened my account in 2006). Now, keep in mind that they do not have the fanciest charting package, but I solved that by opening a free demo acct from thinkorswim (again, google it). Thinkorswim has a very cool software that allows you to look at all the charts you want and add a bunch of indicators, all for free.
As far as stock to buy, if you have only $500.00 for now, then I would definitely put it in Citi and leave it there: if it moves up you have higher chances to make a good profit (being a $4 stock), and if it moves down, well worst case scenario (world has to collapse) you lose most of it, but things have to really be bad for this to happen, and regardless a $500 loss won't kill you.
Citi gives you the advantages of having basically a penny stock, without the worries typically associated with a penny stock company (usually new, unknown companies).
If you buy a more expensive stock, any appreciation in value will be too small to even notice on $500.00. And no matter what people say, mark my words, a few years from now Citi will be at least double its price now. Remember what Buffet says: be greedy when others are fearful, and be fearful when others are greedy. This is the perfect time to buy Citi, when no one else wants it.
Good luck !
I dont mean to be an ass but, you would probably be better off buying $500 worth of fireworks and setting them all off at once. Thats what you would be doing with $500 if you plan to "trade" it. The truth is you would be so much better off taking that $500 and spending it on investing in your market education.
Alternatively you could get 500 $1 bills and light them on fire but i think fireworks is probably a little more exciting... atleast your getting a little bang for your buck.
Just Sayin
Oh, gotta love the usual grumpy party pooper. C'mon man, give the guy a break, let him dream and let him get his feet wet in the market, we all went through that, no need to put the guy down.
Best advice on WSO that any prospective trader could receive.
SB'd.
Honestly I was given the same advice. I remember turning 18 thinking I knew everything and opening and optionsxpress account. This was after paper trading 100k into 500k over a 18 month period using a active investing approach. Was holding things anywhere from 3 weeks to 6 months selling when I had big gains and looking for names with limited risk and the same potential to explode to the upside. I got lucky that small caps followed large caps in 2003 for the most part.
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