Online Trading Broker

What is a good online trading company?

I'm a new investor and I would like to learn -- any books to suggest? What online trading company (like ameritrade) is best? Thanks!

Public Comments

1. I use Sharebuilder, its $4 per trade and you can do all your researching there too.
2. scottrade with $7 trades, and no maintanence fee
3. E-Trade, Ameritrade, Sharebuilder, Fidelity are all good. Some charge more for commissions, but may offer more "value" enhancing services like stock research reports, online customer support etc... Also check out Bank of America. You can trade for free with them if you hold $25,000 in one of their bank accounts! As for books, I recommend "A random walk down Wall Street" , "Security Analysis" and "Intelligent Investor" by Ben Graham - Classic Investing Books. Also I like some of Peter Lynch books, such as "One up on Wall Street" For technical analysis, I would visit Clearstation's webpage. Overall, I would read as much as you can first, and start by investing in a "mock" portfolio on Yahoo Finance or another financial website. Pretty much, Invest using fake money.
4. Check out Morningstar investing classrooms. Choose from 172 different courses on stocks, funds, bonds, and portfolio building and monitoring. Earn credit rewards that you can use to purchase books, workbooks, etc.... I'm using sharebuilder. Very easy to use and understand. Some on-line trading companies are just too hard for us new guys to understand.
5. you can as well try etrade. analyst Earn $5 instantly on registration http://www.inboxdollars.com/?r=mogili... http://moneytipz.blogspot.com
6. Congratulations on getting started. It’ll help you more than you know! You should start by getting educated on investing. You don't have to train to trade them professionally, but we are talking about your future here. So the more you learn, the more it'll help you! So let's start there. You ask a very broad question, so be prepared for a pretty long answer. Just take it in chunks! How to invest depends on what you already know. We'll assume that you're beginning since you say you're a new investor. A good primer is How to Make Money in Stocks by William O'Neil. You can get it cheap just about anywhere. It’s widely available new or used. Another good one is one of Jim Cramer's books. But books will only get you so far. At some point, you'll also want to get at least a little training. There are some great education companies if you want to make the investment. Investools.com or optionetics.com are both very good companies as is tmitchell.com For free, you can start by visiting thestreet.com and investopedia.com. That'll get you a pretty good primer so at least you'll understand what the markets are and what a stock is, etc. If you get a chance, watch Mad Money on CNBC. Don't trade any of his picks until you track many of them over time. Just use the show to get you to understand some basics and get a feel for the market itself. Next, subscribe to something like investorsbusiness daily or something like that that can help you identify good stocks. Once you understand stocks, go to 888options.com. It's a website that'll help you understand options (what they do, how they work, etc). You don't need to trade them, but the more you know, the more you'll see how options can really be the safest way to invest (once you're educated). For discipline (which is crucial to successful trading), probably Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas or Mastering the Trade by John Carter I know that’s a LOT to absorb. Just take it one step at a time for now. Start with a book or two to give you an idea of where to begin. Take your time, and let it seep in. As you get up to speed, you should papertrade to practice (highly recommended). This should help reduce your losses in the beginning as you get used to buying/selling. You can practice for free on almost any reputable broker site (optionsxpress, scottrade, thinkorswim, etc). Speaking of which, there's lots of good online brokers. The main five I'd look look at for you are scottrade, ameritrade, E*trade, optionsxpress, thinkorswim). Barrons has an annual article you can look at to evaluate them as well (usually in march). Start slow, then as you figure things out, you can buy more shares. Congrats again on getting started. If you have any questions, please let me know. Hope this helps!