LooseSuits

I'm curious to hear as well who people are going with as I am looking to get back into the stock market game shortly. Gotta get them penny stocks right?!

Hey friends,
My broker is Scottrade. I would recommend them to anyone. Great price and all the options that I need. Quick customer service. The only complaint that I have about Scottrade is that recently (a couple months ago) they decided to do away with the option of being able to transfer money in and out of my account via a wire transfers that hooked up directly to my checking account. This means in order to fund my account I have make a trip to the bank and do a wire transfer that way and that costs an extra $11 dollars plus gas and time I didn't use to have to waste. Of course if you have a Scottrade in your area you can go and just give them a check and fund your account this way. Other than this, I would highly recommend Scottrade.
Chad (22Dollars.com)

I use E*Trade but haven't used it long enough to form an opinion. Had HarrisDirect before that and it was great, but they sold their business to E*Trade. Before HarrisDirect, I used Morgan Stanley Online but they sold their online brokerage business to HarrisDirect. Before MS Online, I used Discover Brokerage but they changed the name to Morgan Stanley Online. Do you see a trend? ;-)

I use E*Trade. A while ago I sold my car and dumped all of the proceeds from it into the stock market on a day-trading spree, so I got to use E*Trade's functionality a lot. They upgraded my account to the cheapest trade fees, etc. because I had been trading so much in a week.

Their research tools are great, but I wasn't fond of their real-time Java thing. It was slow and kind of wonky a few years ago. I've largely gotten out of the trading game but will probably jump back into it within the next year or so.

I use Thinkorswim, mostly because of their fantastic trading platform and quick order execution. They specialize in options, but trading stocks and futures is just as easy.

Commissions are comparable (you can literally opt for whatever rates E*Trade or TD or others are offering).

I have used Interactive Brokers for many years because I need instant access. When I click a buy or sell button I have trade confirmation in one to two seconds. Of course most people don't really need that.

Cost for stocks is 1 cent a share, for futures under $5 a contract.
They are excellent *unless* you need to speak to a real person. That is a problem.

Lowell

Sharebuilder is the bomb!

I use Scottrade. I am not happy with the slippage I get with modest size market orders. How is it they will execute a trade in 10, 50, 100 shares? My understanding was that the market maker was willing to buy 1000 shares on his bid and sell 1000 on his offer, or has that changed? Frequently, many of these piece meal trades will trade as much as ten cents or more away from the bid/ask. Is there a discount broker that will work a trade so there are not these lousy executions?