Cheap Stocks and Cheap Brokers
So I’ve been thinking about stepping back into the stock market, and I’m looking at cheap online brokers with low or no minimum account requirements. I’ll be starting small, so both points are important. A $5 commission on a $500 investment is a 1% front load, and I’d like to avoid anything higher than that.
TradeKing looks interesting. No minimum account balance and $4.95 trades. TradeKing also does well in the financial magazine rankings.
Another option is SoGoTrade, with $3.00 trades and a $500 minimum.
And there’s Zecco, with no minimum and $4.50 trades.
In the past, I’ve traded with Firstrade ($6.95 trades, no account minimum) and BuyAndHold.com (a non-traditional broker similar to ShareBuilder, allowing fractional share purchases – 2 trades a month for $6.99, no account minimum). I was happy with both brokers. However, I’m currently interested in rock bottom pricing (sorry Firstrade) and traditional executions (sorry BuyAndHold).
I’m leaning towards TradeKing, but Zecco and SoGoTrade are also in the running. I’ll post an update if/when I decide.
