On-line trading platform

[ronn38]

After spending a silly amount of money on commissions to my flesh and blood broker, I'm ready to make the jump to an on-line discount broker. May trading strategy is fairly simple; I buy Blue chip or growth dividend stocks on the cheap, DRIP the dividends, and re-balance twice a year.
I’m most interested in current pricing and trades going through when I place them, not hours later (and ease of funding) More advance options would be great, as long as there is good tools to learn how to use them.
As of now, I’m leaning towards TD Ameritrade and TradeKing.

Which ones do you all use, and why?

Thanks,

Ronn

[ChadR]

I was in the same boat spending way too much on commissions to a flesh and blood broker. And to top it off, he had me in some very poor performing and expensive mutual funds.

I use ETrade. I like their fast trades, DRIPing of dividends, easy to fund, their research is very good, when I have to call them I never wait on hold and the people know what they are doing, lots of commission free ETFs and mutual funds, their income estimator is a nice bonus, website is really easy to navigate, and they have pretty good bonuses for transferring accounts to them.

The biggest downside is that their commissions are $9.99, but since I don't trade heavily, it's not that bad. I don't mind paying a few extra dollars per trade. The benefits make up for to me.

[hendi_alex]

IMO one on line broker is about as good as another. I have occasionally heard isolated complaints, but not to the extent that should indicate any significant problem at any of the better known online brokers.

I've been with TDA for at least ten years and am quite happy. Customer service calls are always answered promptly by U.S. reps. There hasn't been one mistake, in a ton of trading, during the entire period. During the few occasions when something happened that I didn't like, they always adjusted to my satisfaction, even though TDA was usually not at fault. When unhappy about the commissions, I called and complained and they moved my rate down to $7 where it has been for the past several years. That is one thing to understand, every price at TDA is negotiable depending upon portfolio size and trading habits.

I also had an account with Etrade and was very happy, except their trading price was a bit high. Platform and service was always very good.

I don't think that you can likely go wrong, but even if you do, changing from one brokerage to another is pretty painless, plus you get those free trades or other incentives again.

[Robandcindy2]

If you want a platform with bells and whistles then eTrade and TDAmeritrade might be good choices.

There are lots of online resources for free (or little money). Depending on your portfolio value you can also negotiate a lower trade commission at some firms. My employer just shut off and handed us a part of our retirement package which when rolled over to Vanguard qualified us for $2.00 trades (Vanguard is normally $7.00). Months later, Fidelity ($7.95 trades) was offering to cut that commission if we moved our assets....

"Ya just never know unless you ask...." :-)

[fiveoh]

I use sharebuilder and tdameritrade. Sharebuilder is a LOT easier to use and has less options but I like it that way. They also have cheaper trades(6.95 for instant trades or $4.00 if you use their automatic investment option).

Another reason I prefer sharebuilder is they let you pick and choose which stocks you want div reinvestment in. TDameritrade its all or nothing.

Also the funding was easy to setup and if you have a ingdirect(capitalone360 now) account the funding is instant.

[Dividend Watcher]

(01-06-2014, 10:54 AM)fiveoh Wrote: Another reason I prefer sharebuilder is they let you pick and choose which stocks you want div reinvestment in. TDameritrade its all or nothing.

fiveoh, is that true with an account you have at TDA? I know in my past you have always been able to turn dividend reinvestment on and off for any individual security. I believe the default is no reinvestment -- as happened with my mother-in-law's account. You can also set it so that any security you buy is automatically reinvested or you can call up and specify which securities you want to reinvest. I think you can do it with their internal messaging system also. I've been "reinvest all" since I starting dividend growth investing so I don't forget.

Also, you have to make that election before the ex-div date or else wait until the next quarter.

ronn38,

I think most of the big name online brokers are pretty much the same. Fidelity is a little cheaper ($7.95 vs. $9.95 at TDA). I think Vanguard is a little lower also. Scottrade, I think, has that program you can co-mingle your divs and reinvest in one or more securities which appeals to some. Not sure how that works.

If I had small, incremental purchases I wanted to make, I'd look at the Sharebuilder plans.

I have had TDA for over 20 years from back when it was Waterhouse Securities and agree with alex above. TDA has always been good to me. I can always reach a rep any time day or night. I've been known to call at 3:00 am and the middle of a Sunday afternoon and never had a problem with the rep. I'm going to see if I can finagle those cheaper commissions alex talked about.

The one thing I think is expensive is TDA's option commissions -- $10.74 to purchase/sell the option and $20.74 to settle the transaction if filled. Don't know what others are but it cuts into your profit for only one or two contract trades.

I guess the differentiators for me would be how many free trades I get for transferring (and how long is that good for), charges for ACH deposits or withdrawals, can you transfer shares and/or cash from a regular to Roth IRA (and back, if needed) and are there any fees -- same from IRA to a taxable account.

Confused yet? Good luck.

[fiveoh]

Yes I have a Roth IRA with TDA and the default is no reinvestment. I had to go thru a process to get div reinvestment turned on(not hard, it was just a form) and there is no options for individual securities. It's the whole account reinvest or none reinvested.

Also I have a SEP account with them that my employer contributes to and even though the accounts are linked div reinvestment is NOT turned on for that one. I would have to fill out the same form again. I choose to manually reinvest divs on that account but still it's kind of a pita the way they have it setup.

[ronn38]

Thanks everyone-- this has been very helpful.

I opened an account with TradeKing for a test drive, andy whereas I like the educational secrions- funding requires physical copies of certain documents sent. And with the current weather in the Midwester, anything that cant be done " on-line" is same as cant be done.

In addition, I really didn't see anything in research "whistles" that my morning premium acount didn't cover.

I have a sharebuilder account I set up sometime ago- but I haven't been back since (I believe something about them bothered me, but now I don't recall what).

I like Scottrade's idea of moving your dividend reinvestment around....seems very appealing.

Ronn

[Dividend Watcher]

(01-06-2014, 02:56 PM)fiveoh Wrote: Yes I have a Roth IRA with TDA and the default is no reinvestment. I had to go thru a process to get div reinvestment turned on(not hard, it was just a form) and there is no options for individual securities. It's the whole account reinvest or none reinvested.

Also I have a SEP account with them that my employer contributes to and even though the accounts are linked div reinvestment is NOT turned on for that one. I would have to fill out the same form again. I choose to manually reinvest divs on that account but still it's kind of a pita the way they have it setup.

Now that stinks. I guess if I decide to change any reinvestment choices, I'm going to be looking for a new online brokerage myself.

---

(01-06-2014, 03:18 PM)ronn38 Wrote: Thanks everyone-- this has been very helpful.

I opened an account with TradeKing for a test drive, andy whereas I like the educational secrions- funding requires physical copies of certain documents sent. And with the current weather in the Midwester, anything that cant be done " on-line" is same as cant be done.

In addition, I really didn't see anything in research "whistles" that my morning premium acount didn't cover.

I have a sharebuilder account I set up sometime ago- but I haven't been back since (I believe something about them bothered me, but now I don't recall what).

I scottrade idea of moving your dividend reinvestment around seems very appealing.

Ronn

Ron, can you give any more details on just what they offer in research info? S&P, CreditSuisse or ValueLine reports? A screener that has more than a few options? I don't use the TDA trading tool any more since they switched platforms. It's definitely geared for frequent traders.

Keep warm, it's moving our way.