Hello all, I am just starting in the stock world and have been confused from day one. I am at the age of 41 and feel it is time, well past time to take control of my financial future. I first started with an online bank account that offers me 4.55 % yield on my savings. better than what I get locally. Then I opened up an account with ShareBuilder. I have been with this firm for about 3 months now but but have been uneducated in their fees and services. I have been making open market trades and just found out that that is a no-no. Sharebuilder never indulged this info and probably for good reason. After reviewing most of the companies offering on-line trading accounts, and there are a few, I noticed ShareBuilder is not one of them. Is there a reason for this? Are they just that bad? Or just that new? The information I got from this site was very good and I liked what thinkorswim had to offer in regards to fees and comission rates. Can I get an opinion from someone who has been doing this for awhile as to what would be the best firm for me to pluck down my future retirement money with? The shares I have are minimal at best. With 5 shares or less per company, I have maybe 350 wrapped up in the account. Would it be worth my while to go with a cheaper firm like thinkorswim who charges $1 per trade as opposed to ShareBuilders 19.95 per Market Order Trade? Patiently waiting a reply. Thanks and God Bless.
quite obvious innit, just do the math. ib is even cheaper than tos and maybe more stocks oriented; still, both are good brokers.
I just looked at ib and their minimum starting balance is a bit high for me. I am just starting out and my capitol is below 1000.00. Any other suggestions?
didnt u say u already have 350shares? that+your 1k would meet the deposit requitrements cuz u can always transfer your existin' holdings: call ib up and ask 'em how to do it.
"The information I got from this site was very good and I liked what thinkorswim had to offer in regards to fees and comission rates. Can I get an opinion from someone who has been doing this for awhile as to what would be the best firm for me to pluck down my future retirement money with?" Surely you are not going to use your retirement money to trade shares at your level of incompetence:eek: Stick most of it in a savings vehicle. If you must play in a market of 95% losers then save up some cash you can afford to lose and then try your "luck" in the market. There are plenty of sharks on this board who will happily take your money. Let caution be your keyword and greed your enemy to be wary of. Sorry if I sound as if I am preaching but hard earned money is so easily lost in moments of rashness.
Thanks Toby for those words of wisdom. I have a savings vehicle I am putting my money into and will not use those funds for my market purchasing. With Sharebuilder, there is no minimum amount to open an account and I can get partial shares on a date that I choose. This makes it easy to get started in the market while I do research on investing. I am very cautious to what people tell me and take it with a grain of salt until I can find out for myself what is what. My idea, hope or dream, whichever you may tend to look at it as, is top continue with my savings, get involved with my companies 401K, crank up a Roth IRA, and have some stock options that have a good paying dividend. This way, I can continue to invest in those dividend paying companies, maybe participating in a drip plan or 2 to ensure some sort of income in those retirement years. The idea of trading seems fruitful and am just looking for some opinions on what companies offer the best services at the cheapest comissions. Does this sound realistic or is it far fetched?
Toby is 100% correct. I would stick that money is a diversified exchange traded fund like IWM or MDY (or a little of both) and forget about it for 10 years.
I have been looking at and researching etf's and it seems this is a somewhat safe investing vehicle to start out in. How long has etf's been in exsistence and are there etf's that offer dividend payments or direct re-investment plans? Sorry about the ignorence but I wont know if I dont ask.
You are in the USA so much of what you talk about is not known to me re-vehicles, IRA etc but your idea sounds good. Interactive Brokers are used by vast numbers of traders in the USA and UK. If you have a small fund then you can experiment. I also believe IB has a Demo trading account facility ( You have to open a real account first) so you can practice to your hearts content. DEF on Elite trader is an IB employee, you could email him and seek more info about IB and demo trading. Good luck
Thanks toby for the quick reply. I belong to a virtual stock exchange where I can practice to my hearts content. With this and all the research and studying I have done, I am not so skiddish to jump into the stock market but it seems that there are so many sheep in wolves clothing so to speak that it is difficult to see what is right and what is wrong with information that people are willing to give you. The one thing I have learned is to never give up and this wont be in my vocabulary. Any opinion on James Cramer and his points of view?