Tuesday, September 1, 2009

The Cheapest Stock Discount Trading Fees

By Charles Benedict

Stock broker commissions are becoming cheaper and cheaper. The choices are also expanding so look for competition to continually bring prices down. This is good for us, but there are so many choices to choose from. Here are a few you might want to look into.

OptionsHouse made a splash with their less than three dollars stock trade. If there is a cost that's as close to nothing as possible, this is the broker that you should choose.

Zecco came out with free stock trades, but then it changed its rules again and again. These days, you only get 10 free trades if you have more than $25,000 in assets or if you trade 25 times or more a month.

OptionsXpress must be making a lot of money off customers because their trading commissions are highest of the bunch. It's $14.95 for most people and $12.95 for high volume traders. Pretty expensive right?

Wells Trade is totally integrated with Wells Fargo so it's easy if you are a Wells Fargo customer. If you have $25,000, you get 100 free trades. Otherwise, it's $19.95 so only use this option if you have the funds.

The highest rated deep discount stock broker is TradeKing. The commission is $4.95 a trade and continues to be one of the cheapest per trade price out there.

I love Etrade because of their user interface. Even though the stock commission is $9.99 and $12.99 in some cases, it is still at the top of my list of recommended stock brokers.

Scottrade thrives on their customer support, and it also has the most branches. The stock commission is $7 a trade and it's middle of the road in terms of prices.

TradeMonster is relatively new but they are endorsed by Guy Adami and the Najarian Boys on Fast Money. People love OptionsMonster (which they also own) so I would check it out just based on that alone.

The highest end stock broker in this list is Charles Schwab. While stock trades are $12.99, they do offer a 2% cash back credit card which makes up for some of the stock commissions.

TD Ameritrade isn't that great but it works. The less than ten dollar trade was a first of its kind. They also advertise no hidden fees although there's a fee if you transfer your account away from them. - 23309

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