My parents want to do some trading with a few thousand dollars. I know that a lot of brokers will charge a monthly or quarterly fee if your account value is less than a certain amount, or if you place less than a certain amount of trades. Are there any online brokers that do not have such fees?
MB offers a money market sweep on cash balances, as well as significantly cheaper commissions than most mainstream brokers, such as Scottrade, Ameritrade, etc.
I've had an account at Scottrade for about 8 years. I haven't placed a trade in about 5 years - I've got less than $10 in the account. It's still open (and I've never been charged anything), and every once in a while I'll login to browse the DowJones news feeds (not like the $95 DJN, but ok). If I were interested in moderate web-based trading, I'd probably use them more. They are really good, and you've got to give them credit for turning down every offer to be bought out (and there have been plenty of offers!)
Fidelity offers free paper statements and confirmations, charges no low balance or low activity fees, and places excess funds in a tax free money market fund.