Scottrade is $7 per trade regardless of size (sometimes it's a few cents more). Is there anywhere cheaper? I've seen some places that are between $0.99 and $5 per trade but they have inactivity fees. Sometimes I go a few months without trading. I'm very happy with Scottrade's service but if I can save a few bucks per trade I'd be very happy with that, too. I found Options House which has $3.95 commission per stock trade but I've read some things on this forum that make me a bit hesitant (like stop orders always being filled a few cents too low, granted I think they were talking about options and I barely ever trade options, and poor availability of stocks for shorting, difficulty canceling and modifying orders).
In for this. I use Scottrade and usually trade pretty small size so if I could get less than $7 per trade that would be cool.
Interactive Brokers is the cheapest 2.50$ per trip...5$ for both ways...gets alot cheaper if you do more volume. They charge 10$/month for data feed....if you trade more than 30$ in commissions a month...the data fee is waived.
IB also has a monthly min activity fee (its generally $10/mo based on your status). Not a great place to have your money if you go months at a time not trading. You will generally get hit with the min activity fee and the data fee every month that you are not active. "As IB caters to active professional traders and investors, we require that each account generate a minimum of commissions per month. Accounts generating commissions less than the minimum as stated below in any given month will be assessed the difference as a monthly activity fee. Please note that the monthly activity fee is based on commissions only, and does not include fees related to third-party assessments such as market data subscriptions or order modification/cancellation fees."
Seems a company called Sogotrade has $3 per trades if you buy them ahead of time. You can buy them in groups of 5, 10, 15, or 20, and they are good for one year. Otherwise it's $5 per trade. That's a weird payment structure but still seems pretty decent.
They have inactivity fees for stocks and options. Source: http://www.stockbrokers.com/review/mbtrading
Here is a comparison of some. There are some extra fees for some of them, though, like an extra fee for afterhours trading. On April 11, 2013, Just2Trade was issued a temporary cease-and-desist from FINRA. Source: http://www.finra.org/Newsroom/NewsReleases/2013/P239716