Find out why optionsXpress has been voted the #1 online broker for the past 4 years by Barron's.
www.optionsXpress.com
Save
My Rating
Broker comparison chart featuring the most popular online stock brokers. Compare by cost and features.
www.StocksAndMutualFunds.com
Save
My Rating
Real Time News & In-Depth Research. $7 Trades. Open an Account Today!
www.Scottrade.com
Online platform for investors to invest in stocks, index funds, and closed-end bond funds. No account or investment minimums and no inactivity fee.
Buy stocks for $4
www.sharebuilder.com
Save
My Rating
Commission free trades for 30 days. No maintenance fees. Sign up now.
TDAMERITRADE.com
100 free trades, up to $100 back for transfer costs, $500 minimum
www.sogotrade.com
Trade Like A Wall Street Pro Free Power Trading Course. Sign Up!
www.TradingAcademy.com
A wholly owned subsidiary of 1st Internet Financial Services, Inc. (1IFS), 1db.com provides full service and discount brokerage services to individuals and institutions.
www.1st-discount.com
Full service brokerage firm and member of NASD, SIPC and MSRB.
www.aftrader.com
A special discount broker. Registered personnel average over 10 years experience and each one is a registered options principal and margin expert.
www.andrewpeck.com
ANZ, one of Australia’s banking and financial services groups, formed a strategic alliance with E*TRADE Australia in 1999 to develop this Australian online investment service.
www.anz.com
Internet trading for orders up to 2,000 shares, real time quotes, research for established customers, margin trades.
www.calesinvestments.com
Online platform for individual trading, real-time quotes and research investment information. Division of Citigroup.
www.cititrade.com
Trade options and futures in the same online trading account. We offer all of our clients professional trading support at no additional cost.
www.clarkfinancial.com
Provider of financial services over the World Wide Web including brokerage investments, checking and financial service software. Services are provided to multiple industries. This company was capitalized by private investment.
www.datek.com
Discount broker for individual investors. Also provides online trading services.
www.discountbroker.com
Provider of online stock and options execution. The site also offers financial planning education and advice.
www.empirenow.com
Full-service financial services company, offering investment guidance, trading and brokerage services and a full range of investment and financial products.
www.eschwab.com
Division of Emmett A. Larkin Company that offers discount online brokerage services for individual investors.
www.internettrading.com
With InvestEXpress On-Line clients can place trades, obtain quotes, view positions, money balances and executed orders.
www.investexpress.com
A discount brokerage service offering online trading, mutual funds, stocks, options, quotes, charts, and news.
www.investorline.com
Users can trade equities online, choose bonds and CDs from a large fixed-income inventory and choose Mutual Funds from many well-known fund families and use online tools to help make investment decisions.
www.mldirect.ml.com
The site contains information on brokers who are or have been registered with the NASD and remained active during the past two years.
pdpi.nasdr.com
Online stock brokerage that allows clients to buy and sell bonds, stocks and mutual funds. Also offers individuals the ability to invest in private first round and IPO opportunities.
www.obroker.com
Brokerage that gives investors the ability to purchase securities previously unavailable to the retail investor, such as private first-round and IPO opportunities.
onlinestockmarket.com
Find out why optionsXpress has been voted the #1 online broker for the past 4 years by Barron's.
www.optionsXpress.com
Provider of e-commerce services that allows consumers to trade stock and see live stock quotes ontheir website. Services are provided to multiple industries.
www.preferredtrade.com
Online brokerage arm of Citigroup's investment bank.
www.salomonsmithbarney.com
Online trading site of Scottsdale Securities, Inc. offering investment services in stocks, options, mutual funds, listed coporate bonds, treasury issues, and retirement accounts.
www.scottrade.com
Provider of discount brokerage services online, by automated telephone system or by talking to an investment representative.
www.sdbi.com
Online platform for investors to invest in stocks, index funds, and closed-end bond funds. No account or investment minimums and no inactivity fee.
Buy stocks for $4
www.sharebuilder.com
Provides the services of a traditional brokerage firm, and Sloan Online Self-Directed Pension Plans, Sloan Online Institutional Trading Services, IPO's, private placements and unique fixed income securities.
www.sloansecurities.com
Broker comparison chart featuring the most popular online stock brokers. Compare by cost and features.
www.StocksAndMutualFunds.com
Online trading, portfolio analysis, stock, options and mutual fund quotes, graphs, charts, tickers and company news. Does not offer brokerage services to residents of New Hampshire and Puerto Rico.
www.supertradeusa.com
Full service discount brokerage firm and an affiliate of Josephthal & Co., Inc.
www.trade-well.com
Online broker serving Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Arizona, California.
www.trade4less.com
Online futures and commodities trading platforms for independent traders. Day trade or trade commodities longer term with the right platform.
www.tradersplatform.com
Brokerage accounts are offered through USACapital, Inc. a registered broker-dealer and member of NASD, Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board and SIPC. Members receive investment tips, news, research, S&P data, glossary, free IRAs and charts.
www.usaforce.com
Online stock brokerage that allows clients to buy and sell stocks, bonds, mutual funds and options. Also offers individuals the ability to invest in private placement opportunities.
vipo.com
Servicing the needs of global investors, independent financial advisors, brokers, banks. All positions and funds in the client accounts are held in custody by Herzog Heine Geduld.
www.wallstreete.com
Online trading and advanced discount investment resources for its clients.
www.waterfordcapital.com
Located in New York, New York. Strives to offer premium brokerage services at discount prices for the sophisticated trader and believe premium service means great executions.
www.wsaccess.com
Internet-based futures brokerage with providing self-directed futures traders with high-speed Internet trading services, market data, trading tools, and up-to-the-minute account information. The main office is located in the Chicago Mercantile E...
www.xpresstrade.com
|
|
|
Guide to Online Brokers
To trade stocks online, you need an online broker |
 | |
Online Brokers 101
|
||
 |
 |
Online brokers come in many varieties. In fact, every brokerage firm offers online capabilities, including the full-service firms that offer advice, proprietary research and other services for a fee. There are also discount and deep-discount firms with per-trade costs as low as $5.
It's all a matter of personal fit. What are you comfortable with? Do you want a live person to deal with if needed, and the (relative) safety of a major brokerage firm name (Merrill Lynch comes to mind)? Or is a firm offering basic online trading tools at the lowest possible price what you're after? Maybe it's something in-between -- an online brokerage firm with discount prices, but which also provides a wide range of other account services and stock research, too.
Yet another choice is to establish an investment account with online stock trading capabilities through a bank (maybe your current bank), allowing you to keep your money all in one convenient location. It's your choice. Here's how to get it done:
Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done
Compare online brokers and brokerage services
These days, with online trading prices at rock bottom, the real battle is over additional services the online brokers can offer.
I recommend:
Investing Online Resources Center (IORC), an independent, non-commercial investor education organization, has links to independent rankings, service comparisons and features of online brokerage firms from places such as Smart Money magazine and JD Power. Take IORC's quiz to find out if online investing is right for you. Or see their tutorial on signing up for an online broker account.
Pick your online broker account and sign up
Check prices, features and available research at several different online stock trading firms.
I recommend:
To keep your finances in one place, try online broker accounts and services at your bank. Not all banks offer online brokerage account services. A few that do include majors like Citibank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase, Wachovia and others. Discount or 'premium discount' brokers, including Charles Schwab, Ameritrade, Scottrade, TradeKing, FirstTrade and eTrade can all provide the online trading accounts and tools you need to buy and sell stocks with low commissions. Full service firms for online stock trading include big names like Merrill Lynch, Edward Jones, Morgan Stanley and A.G. Edwards.
Inform yourself with online stock trading advice
The more knowledge you acquire about online stock trading, the better your chances of success.
I recommend:
Market information sites such as CNBC, MarketWatch and Yahoo! Finance have a broad range of helpful information and tools helpful for online stock trading. Morningstar is an 'A-List' provider of independent research for individual investors (as well as financial advisors and institutions), including a variety of stock and mutual fund publications, websites and software. Brokerage firm customers get access to stock research and tools that vary greatly by firm. Leading discount broker Charles Schwab, for example, functions more like a full-service firm by providing stock research and trading recommendations. Their 'Active Trader' service offers a series of advanced stock trading tools, including software, data, proprietary research and specialized support. TechniTrader and Investools are among the independent firms offering stock trading education, tools and strategies. Value Line is also an excellent source of stock trading information, as are Better Investing and PowerRatings.
See our other stock investing How-To Guides
How-To Guides on Work.com and Business.com can help you locate all the tools and resources you need to be successful at investing in stocks.
I recommend:
Other top-rated How-To Guides on successful stock market investing include: Stock Trading: Success in both bull and bear markets; Stock Quotes: Free online stock quote services abound. And add-ons can dazzle; and Stocks (Equities) and Stock Investing.
