Comments on: How to Evaluate Which Online Broker Is For You?

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:17:12 +0000

Tee, Zecco and most discount broker offer a wide variety of mutual funds. I’m not sure which (if any) discount brokers offer commodities. However, you may find they offer ETFs or mutual funds based on commodities.

By: Tee

Tee — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:09:43 +0000

Hey Ryan, I wanted to find out if you know any good online broker that can be used to buy commodities (oil, cocoa, etc). And does Zecco trade mutual funds. Thank for the great website.

By: Rajeev Singh

Rajeev Singh — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:50:46 +0000

I think there are few more points which can help one evaluate the services of a broker. They are
1. His research reports/support and its accuracy history.
2. The feedback about its services from the existing customers.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:35:32 +0000

Thanks for the tips, Wojciech! I haven’t checked out Consumer Reports for brokerages yet, but I did some online research on blogs and forums. I curerntly use Zecco and TradeKing, but prefer TradeKing overall.

By: Wojciech @ Fiscal Fizzle

Wojciech @ Fiscal Fizzle — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:40:22 +0000

I use Schwab almost exclusively now, although I’ve had accounts at most of the other brokerages at some point in the last 10 years. I invest primarily in no-fee funds, so costs were not that much of an issue for me – the choice of funds was.

One thing I found particularly helpful when deciding on a brokerage were Consumer Reports ratings. They were pretty much in line with my own experience of the various companies.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:21:08 +0000

I am a buy/hold investor for the most part, and I have accounts with TradeKing and Zecco. I opened the account at Zecco when the trades were free for everyone. Now I primarily invest with TradeKing because I prefer their site layout and user interface, as well as a few other features such as free tax tracking (Zecco charges for this). The trades cost about $.50 more, but the added features are worth it for my situation. Zecco may be a better option for people who trade more frequently or have a large portfolio because they offer free trades under certain circumstances. The articles explaining the differences are linked in the article above if anyone is interested in the details.

By: Manshu

Manshu — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:10:18 +0000

Thanks Ryan for letting me guest post of your site!

@DFDD — I am a buy and hold kind of guy so the 10 bucks that Sharebuilder charge me per trade doesn’t really bother me. But I do feel that I should look for something else for trading options. May even try out Tradeking.

By: My Journey

My Journey — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:53:15 +0000

I used to use SogoTrade cause they were the cheapest and allowed for Dividend Reinvestment and Fractional shares….and boom they decided to stop so now I have everything at TradeKing.

Make sure of the features a site has in conjunction with the price per trade.