Website to buy and sell stocks for beginners?

im looking to make a small investment of less than $1,000 probably less than $500 to start. i dont want to have to pay a monthly fee. Where can i trade stocks where i dont have to have much money to open an account and wont cost me a lot of money to keep it open? maybe 5 or 10 trades a year max. probably more like 2 or 3

I have a 401k which is funded through a money manager. i just want to dabble a little just for fun. my main concern is that i can open an account with a fairly low minimum maybe even $1000 but buy and sell a few trades per year and just pay one low fee per trade and not have to worry about monthly fees

$500 or more is a minimum for many brokers. I've read somewhere that a firm called "Online Brokerage Services" requires less, but I don't know anything about them so not sure if that's a valid referral or not.

I recommend you consider an alternative - investing in stocks through a mutual fund rather than directly. The minimum is often the same, but there are funds that will allow you to invest for less than $500. For example, T Rowe Price (troweprice.com) has a program where you can invest for as little as $50 a month - no monthly fees, that $50 goes completely to your account. (However, you will be committing to invest $50 per month.) A benefit of this is that you are investing in many stocks, not just one or two. Another benefit is you have a professional manager working for you picking those stocks.

If you really have your heart set on picking individual stocks, then you may want to wait to do so until you have gathered enough to meet the minimums and/or are comfortable with those minimums.

scottrade requires a minimum balance of 500 dollars.


http://www.scottrade.com