I鈥檓 seeking an online broker?

I live in Atlanta and I have about 5k and I鈥檓 wanting to do some online trading. I鈥檓 really not looking for a lot of suggestions of what or when to buy. I will be buying (stock/ mutual funds) pretty much for the mid to long term (holding at lease 1 to 5 years) and maybe only making 2 to 5 trades (if any) a month. I鈥檓 looking for a company were when I place an order, the order is place and doesn鈥榯 have a lot of fees. I think I heard someplace that some places can take their time in posting your order (is that true?).

Basically if there something I want to buy I just want to be able to log on and buy it. No song, no dance just buy and monitor what I have and what I鈥檓 thinking about buying. Easy, a?
Or id it?

Other then not going to E-Trade, does anyone have any ideas, suggestion or what to look out for when dealing w/a Real, reliable online broker?

And if it鈥檚 not asking too much I鈥檓 also interested in investing on foreign exchanges as well.
(FYI: sometimes I see a nice little pattern in the US markets following the foreign markets but of course if you are answering my questions I鈥檓 sure you already know that).

I bank w/BOA and their needs don鈥檛 fit mine.

Who do you use and why? And if I may ask how much did you start trading with?

I enjoy trading with http://www.sogoinvest.com
Sogo offers stocks at $3 and the reason i choose them as i can also do fractional share trading with them.

I use Charles Schwab
Ameritrade is another

I use mbtrading because it's $1/trade for anything under 100 shares. Also I've seen ads for zecco.com being pretty cheap too, I think they even may give you 10 or 20 free trades a month, so check them out too.

These both are for trading stocks and ETFs on line, not mutual funds. I think you can buy mutual funds through these brokers, but it's probably pretty expensive to do so. What I would suggest is to look for an ETF alternative to the MF and buy that instead. For examply, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund, VTSMX, is the same thing as the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, ticker VTI.

ETFs are also good for buying foreign markets. If you like China, you can buy FXI, for example.

I personally use Scottrade http://scottrade.com/ and have used them for over 10 years now. I have never had any issues with them. If you are only going to do a few trades a month then they would be perfect. The commissions are $7 a trade for market or limit orders and that is pretty good. Don't let the low commissions at some of these other places fool you because they often have ridiculous trade requirements or inactivity fees or some other unnecessary fee so be sure to read that fine print.

One last plug for Scottrade is if for any reason you need to go to them they have offices all around so they are convenient in case you need to ask them something or deposit more cash into your account.

As for foreign trading I would recommend ETF's to get this exposure or maybe some of the ADR's listed on the NYSE. You can find all kinds of specialized foreign investment vehicles to hedge your U.S. exposure. I also believe some of these ETFS launched currency ETFS so if you want to play that EURO trade you have a cheaper and less risky method than holding the currency outright.

Good luck with your trading and whoever you go with!

I use sharebuider.com, and must say they have great service, and commisions are cheap. I have a portfolio of 5 ETF's at the moment, and I pay 12 dollars a month for standard service, which gives me 6 free trades a month. I could go with free basic service, and pay 4 dollars a trade, but the standard service gives you some nice advantages. When I started I had $200 a month taken automatically out of my bank account, since then it has increased dramatically. Also remember alot of brokers require minnimums, but sharebuilder doesn't. If you have any other questions feel free to email me, but at the very least check them out.

I opened my account at Thinkorswim with $3000, however as a Investools student; I'm not required to keep a minimum balance. There is no better trading platform out there than theirs. Their tools are superior to anyone else. Professional traders don't even have access to these types of tools. When a better system enters the market they (Thinkorswim) buy it! They have two types of commission fees.

Flat Fee: offers unlimited (up to 5000 shares) market or limit stock orders for a single flat commission of $9.95

Per Share Commission: is slightly more expensive than the flat fee commission but generally offers better execution prices and quicker fills. Commission is $.015 per share, minimum $5.00

Additionally, Thinkorswim doesn't limit your trading like the others do. If you want to play options, just place your order. There is no approval needed by ANYONE.

If you make 40 or more trades in a month Thinkorswim will send you a check for $39.95 to help pay for your broad band connection. I've received two.

www.5minutetrader.com

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