Which Discount Brokerage is Going to Survive
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 Financial really messed up with its mortgage division. During the past 2 years, the brokerage have been posting consecutive quarters of losses and it doesn’t even have anything to do with its brokerage firm. It’s really letting Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade take its share and it’s just going downhill slowly.
I don’t really like TD Ameritrade because it’s user interface is really bad. However, the commercials obviously is working because many people use them to trade stocks. The one price trading fee makes things less confusing though which is welcomed when everyone else has a ton of different pricing structure.
Charles Schwab has been taking share ever since Etrade blew up with its mortgage business. It’s sad to see Etrade doing so bad but at least they came up with the Etrade baby. Charles Schwab also has a neat 2% reward credit card which is great if you use them as your brokerage.
TradeKing is a smaller player in the space but it’s solid. In fact, it’s won many awards from the likes of Barons and Smart Money for its interface, customer support and fast execution.
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.
Wells Fargo offers a trading platform in its WellsTrade as well. It’s free for people with over $25,000 of combined assets with them so it’s worth a look (if you have the money). My personal experience is that the platform is lacking but for retirement accounts and/or investors who don’t trade often, free trades are a good alternative.
Bank of America also offers free trades and the details are almost exactly the same as WellsTrade. To me, it’s essentially the same but since BofA acquired Merrill Lynch, there may be a better future path when your net worth increases.
OptionsXpress has a weird name because it’s not just a options house. It’s not the cheapest and it’s not the bigger. Everything is just middle of the pack but then if you are into options, they have the most comprehensive tools.