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Stock broker rankings: compare discount brokerage firms with lowest trading fees.


Market goes up, market goes down - it's not easy to make money investing in or trading stocks. Even when one manages to get a profit, it is often significantly reduced by the trading costs (commissions, fees, margin interest and subscription to market data).


For this reason, it is important to find brokerage firm that offers the lowest fees but is still very reliable and provides excellent customer service. We compared the best discount online stock broker companies on overall customer value. We hope that the brokerage ratings below will be instrumental in your selection of the right broker for you.


 




Scottrade
Trading Fees and Investment Products
  • $7.00 stock trade commission (stocks over $1) for all order types, unlimited shares.
  • Options commission: $7 plus $1.25 per contract for market and limit orders.
  • Mutual Funds: no-load, no-transaction fee funds (NTF program) - free.
    No-load funds (not in NTF program) - $17.00.
    Load funds are free to buy and $17.00 to sell.
  • Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, CDs, munis, Canadian stocks, ETFs.

Scottrade Pros
  • No inactivity or account maintenance fees.
  • No-fee IRAs.
  • Highest customer satisfaction according to JD Power and Associates.
  • 400 local branches.
  • Great support for beginner investors.
  • Margin rates are among lowest of national online brokers.
  • $500 minimum to open.

Scottrade Cons
  • Somewhat higher commissions than we would like.
  • Low rates of return on cash balances.
  • No dividend reinvestment.

Brokerage Summary
Scottrade is one of the veterans of the discount stock trading and it is a solid, well-established firm with flat rate trading commissions. The firm keeps customers happy by not charging any unnecessary fees: IRA setup and maintenance fees, account inactivity fees. Scottrade is also a leader in customer service and investor satisfaction according to JD Power and Associates.

We believe that Scottrade is an excellent choice for beginner investors, those who invest in mutual funds, and long-term, "buy and hold" investors (mainly because of no account inactivity charges). No IRA fees make the firm a very attractive option for an IRA account.

Because Scottrade is a stable, seasoned stock brokerage firm with a very good reputation, it is also a natural choice for people nervous about trusting their money to newer companies but not wanting to pay $10+ for trades and multiple fees.

Open Account With Current Promotion
Scottrade.com




Trading Fees and Investment Products
  • $4.95 stock trade commission (even for broker assisted trades) for stocks over $1.
  • Options commission: $4.95 plus $0.65 per contract.
  • Mutual Funds: $14.95 for no load funds. Load funds: subject to charges from the mutual fund.
  • Bonds: $4.95 per bond with a $14.95 minimum fee. Treasuries: $24.95 per transaction.
  • Certificates of Deposit (CDs): $24.95 per transaction.
  • Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, CDs, ETFs.

TradeKing Pros
  • Low trading costs.
  • No minimums or hidden fees.
  • Award-winning trading tools.
  • Best customer service.
  • Low margin rates.
  • Great community to watch and interact.

TradeKing Cons
  • Extra $0.01 per share on the entire order of stocks priced less than $1.00.
  • Extra $0.015 per share for orders over 1,000 shares.

Brokerage Summary
TradeKing is one of our favorite brokerages - we ranked it #2 among top brokerage firms. It also has a lot of other awards: the highest five star rating in Customer Service and Trading Tools in the June 2009 Barrons Magazine Broker Survey; the highest five star rating in Customer Service in the 2008 Barrons Magazine Brokerage Survey; overall #1 Discount Broker in the 2007 and in the 2006 according to Barrons.

TradeKing has no minimum requirements or hidden fees. Beginners could place broker-assisted trades for the same low price of $4.95 and could learn to trade and get investing ideas in the website's friendly community.

Link To Current Promotion
Switch to TradeKing and get up to $150 in transfer fees reimbursed: 





Optionshouse account 		Trading Fees and Investment Products
  • $2.95 flat-rate stock trade commission. Same $2.95 commission for broker-assisted trades.
  • 2 plans for options commission rates:
    1. first up to 5 contracts for $5.
    2. $8.50 + 0.15/contract rate (great if you are trading over 10 contracts).
  • Mutual Funds commission: $9.95 flat-rate to buy/sell mutual funds.
  • Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, U.S. treasury bonds and listed corporate bonds, ETFs.

OptionsHouse Pros
  • Lowest trading fees in the industry.
  • Efficient trading tools.
  • No account minimums. Minimum initial funding size is $1,000 for a cash account and $2,000 for a margin account.
  • No IRA fees.
  • No volume requirements and inactivity fees.
  • Free check-writing privileges.

OptionsHouse Cons
  • Might not be the best for beginner investors.

Brokerage Summary
We gave OptionsHouse the third position in "Best Discount Stock Broker" rankings. The firm offers $2.95 flat rate commission for stocks and two great plas for options trading. OptionsHouse has no account balance minimums, no minimum number of trades and no volume requirements to get these trade commissions.

Barron's magazine gave OptionsHouse 4.5 stars (out of 5) in 2009 online stock broker survey and named them #1 in "Trade Experience".

If you are transferring your account to OptionsHouse from other firm, you can get up to $100 in account transfer (ACAT) fee rebate. Promotional code for this offer is ACAT100REFUND.

Link To Current Promotion
Get 100 commission-free trades:  optionhouse.com





Trading Fees and Investment Products
  • 10 free trades each month with $25,000 minimum account balance requirement or 25 stock trades per month.
  • $4.50 stock trade commission if does not meet $25,000 account balance requirement or 25 stock trades per month.
  • Options commission: $4.50 plus $0.50 per contract.
  • Mutual Funds: $10.00 for no load funds.
  • Bonds: $4.50 per bond, with $22.50 minimum per transaction. $24.50 per Treasury transaction.
  • Investment products: stocks, options, no-load mutual funds, bonds, ETFs.

Zecco Pros
  • Cheap and maybe even free commissions.
  • No account minimum or inactivity fees.
  • Virtual trading environment.
  • Forex trading.
  • Free dividend reinvestment.
  • Great investing community.

Zecco Cons
  • Few mutual funds choices.

Brokerage Summary
Zecco.com brokerage offers... 10 free trades a month! If you got at least $25,000 or make at least 25 trades a month. Only $4.50 trade commission if account balance is below $25,000 or make less than 25 trades a month.

Virtual trading feature provides safe environment to test and improve trading skills and strategies. Zecco.com is one of the few discount online brokerages that offers Forex trading. No account minimum, no inactivity fees and free dividend reinvestment are great too.

Zecco.com is the CHEAPEST discount stock broker firm if you have $25,000 account balance and make 25 or less stock trades in a month. You could open account with no money down and no commitment in minutes and see if Zecco works for you.

Open Account With Current Promotion
Zecco.com




Trading Fees and Investment Products
  • $7.50 stock trade commission for all order types, unlimited shares.
  • Options commission: $0.50 per contract, with a minimum commission of $12.50 for single leg orders and $7.50 per leg for multi-leg orders.
  • Mutual Funds: purchase - $15.00 per trade, sale - free.
  • Bonds: $15.00 commission for municipal, corporate, agency and treasury.
  • Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, ETFs.

tradeMONSTER Pros
  • Free to sell mutual funds.
  • No inactivity or account maintenance fees.
  • No-fee IRAs.
  • No hidden fees.
  • Free stock simulator - practice paper trading.
  • Lots of learning materials for a beginner.

tradeMONSTER Cons
  • $2,000 minimum to open cash account.
  • Additional 1½ cents per share for extended hours trades.
  • No dividend reinvestment.

Brokerage Summary
tradeMONSTER offers excellent trading tools and great price for investing in mutual funds. Barron’s magazine rated tradeMONSTER a 4.5 star (out of 5) on their Trading Platform, Usability, Research and Educational Resources, Portfolio Analysis and Reporting Tools.

One really cool feature offered by tradeMONSTER.com, is the ability to practice trading stocks or options with paper money, using all of the tools available.

My favorite tradeMONSTER tool is Exit Plan. With it you can create exit strategies for your trades by focusing on profit targets and by monitoring your stop loss and exit points. This is big!

tradeMONSTER is a great choice for people investing in mutual funds, beginners or, since there are no fees, for an IRA account.

Link To Current Promotion
Switch to tradeMONSTER and get up to $250 in transfer fees reimbursed:  tradeMONSTER™





optionsXpress 		Trading Fees and Investment Products
  • $9.95 per stock trade, if over 8 trades/quarter.
  • $14.95 per stock trade, if 0-8 trades/quarter (extra $0.01 per share for each share over 1,000).>
  • Options commission: if 0-34 trades/quarter $14.95 (1 contract), $14.95 (5 contracts), $15.00 (10 contracts), $30.00 (20 contracts).
  • Mutual Funds: $14.95.
  • Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, ETFs.

OptionsXpress Pros
  • Best customer service.
  • Great trading tools.
  • No hidden fees.
  • Free IRAs.
  • Paper trading.
  • Free account transfers.
  • No extra charges for broker-assistance on trades.

OptionsXpress Cons
  • High trading costs for stocks and options.

Brokerage Summary
optionsXpress offers great customer service, professional trading tools and it is rated at the top in Trade Experience, Technical Trading Tools, Usability, Research and Customer Service Access in all investor surveys. But trading stocks and options is expensive with them.

If you are looking for the best service and don't mind paying a bit more in stock commissions, then optionsXpress is the way to go. Because mutual fund commission is a very reasonable $14.95 and there are no IRA fees, optionsXpress is a very good option for mutual fund investors and for IRA account. You could open optionsXpress account with no money commitment and see if you like it as much as we do.

Link To Current Promotion
$100 when you open a new account:  optionsXpress





ChoiceTrade Review
Trading Fees and Investment Products
  • $5.00 per trade, unlimited shares.
  • Options commission: $0.99 per contract, $8.95 minimum per trade.
  • Mutual funds: $25.00 per trade.
  • Direct Access trading: $0.005 per share and lower. $1 minimum per trade.
  • Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, ETFs.

ChoiceTrade Pros
  • Very low commissions and fees.
  • No account minimum or inactivity fees.
  • No extra charges for large-sized orders, stocks below $1 or cancelled orders.
  • Direct access trading with very low commissions.
  • Very good customer service.
  • Paper/virtual trading.
  • Investor community.

ChoiceTrade Cons
  • High mutual fund commission.
  • Annual custodial IRA fee: $30.00.

Brokerage Summary
ChoiceTrade brokerage was awarded 4-stars (highest rating is 4.5 stars) by Barron's magazine for 5 years in a row. In 2009 it got top scores in Trade Experience, Trading Technology, Usability and Research Amenities. ChoiceTrade offers some of the cheapest commissions in the industry.

ChoiceTrade offers Direct Access trading with $0.005 per share and lower and $1 minimum per trade. This means that all orders of up to 200 shares will cost you just $1! Orders up to 500 shares will cost $2.50 or less.

If you plan to invest primarily in mutual funds then ChoiceTrade is not a firm for you. There are better choices, like Scottrade.com or .

You could open account with ChoiceTrade.com with no money down in just a few minutes and try their virtual trading and other services to see how you like it.

Link To Current Promotion
Get $50 if you fund your non-retirement, margin account with at least $2,000:   ChoiceTrade.com

optionsXpress




ShareBuilder- Welcome page 		Trading Fees and Investment Products
  • Automatic Investments: Basic plan - $4 per investment.
  • Standard plan - $12/month, you get 6 automatic investments and each additional is $2.
  • Advantage plan - $20/month, you get 20 automatic investments and each additional is $1.
  • Options commission: Early Exercise - $30 per early exercise, no trade commission; Automatic Exercise - $20 per automatic exercise, no trade commission.
  • Mutual funds: 70 free funds including the ING Mutual Funds. 170 no-load funds from leading no-load mutual fund families.
  • Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, ETFs.

ShareBuilder Pros
  • Very low Automatic Investing Plans trading costs.
  • Free dividend and capital gains reinvestment.
  • No account minimum.
  • No-fee IRA and ESA accounts.
  • No inactivity or maintenance fees.
  • Ability to buy fractions of a stock.

ShareBuilder Cons
  • Real-time trades at $9.95 are somewhat expensive.
  • You don't know at what price you are buying investments with Automatic Investing Plans.
  • Weak trading tools.
  • Few mutual funds choices.

Brokerage Summary
ShareBuilder, which was bought by banking giant ING, is known for its automatic investing plans, which allow investors to take advantage of dollar-cost-averaging by arranging to have a set amount invested daily, weekly, biweekly or monthly. It also offers a unique ability to by fractional shares, which could be beneficial to those investors looking to invest in very high-priced stocks, like Berkshire Hathaway.

ShareBuilder has no minimum balance requirements, no inactivity or maintenance fees, unless you subscribe to one of the monthly plans with a fee. You could open account with $0 and see if you like it.

Open Account With Current Promotion
Get $50 when you open a new account:   ShareBuilder





Trading Fees and Investment Products
  • $6.95 stock trade commission. For stocks at or under $2.00 and trades over 5,000 shares, add 1/2 cent per share for the entire order.
  • Options commission: $6.95 plus $0.75 per contract for market and limit orders.
  • Mutual funds: $9.95 no-load funds, $0 load funds.
  • Bonds: net yield basis.
  • CDs: $30 for primary market CDs, net yield basis for secondary market CDs.
  • Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, CDs, ETFs.

Firstrade Pros
  • $0 minimum to open account.
  • 10,000 mutual funds and fixed income investments.
  • No inactivity or account maintenance fees.
  • No annual, setup or termination fees for IRA accounts.
  • No volume requirements.
  • Free dividend reinvestment.

Firstrade Cons
  • Expensive trading commissions for stocks under $2.00 or orders of over 5,000.
  • Customer service complains.
  • Limited trading tools.
  • Short Term Redemption Fee of $19.95 will be applied to redemptions of No-Load Fund shares held less than 180 days.

Brokerage Summary
Firstrades' $6.95 per trade commission is high comparing to some other stock brokers, especially for stocks under $2.00 or orders of over 5,000.

Firstrade.com has an impressive choice of mutual funds to invest in. The firm has no IRA setup and maintenance fees, no volume requirements and no inactivity or account maintenance fees. Firstrades also offers free dividend reinvestment.

Open Account With Current Promotion
Firstrade





Trading Fees and Investment Products
  • $9.99 flat commission per trade for any amount of stocks.
  • Options commission: $9.99 plus $0.75 per contract.
  • Investment products: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options, ETFs.

TDAmeritrade Pros
  • No extra charges for stocks under $1.
  • Flat fee regardless of number of shares.
  • Large, well known, established company with many branches.
  • 13 trading tools to choose from.
  • No monthly inactivity fees.

TDAmeritrade Cons
  • $9.99 trade fee for stocks is somewhat high.
  • Occasional very bad execution times.
  • The website is sometimes very slow or even down on the most crucial days.
  • No way to enter multiple orders for the same money.

Brokerage Summary
TD Ameritrade is one of the best known stock trading houses and is one of the largest discount online stock brokers right now. But it's definitely not the cheapest: $9.99 per stock trade was very cheap in 2000, but it is considered high in 2010.

Occasionally, TDAmeritrade.com website becomes slow or goes down, or orders take forever to execute. Because of no IRA or inactivity fees, you might consider TDAmeritrade as an option for an IRA account.

Open Account With Current Promotion
TD Ameritrade

Zecco
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