Comments on: Sharebuilder Review

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 12 May 2009 11:12:59 +0000

PEr transaction is per trade is $10 total, $5 for each trade. not per share…only in some penny stock transactions with thousands of shares do you get a per share fee, and that is usually micro-cents on the dollar.

By: Cap

Cap — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 03:10:57 +0000

@Glenn: uh jim’s phrasing may make it more confusing but what jim means when he says “one for each company” is one transaction for each company you bought. so yeah, you’d owe the brokerage $10 – $5 for each transaction.

By: jim

jim — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:17:20 +0000

@Glenn: You’d owe them $10, one for each company.

By: Eric J. Nisall

Eric J. Nisall — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:30:40 +0000

I peronally feel that Sharebuilder is the biggest waste of time and money. Yes, it is easy and cheap, but purchasing stocks takes research and informed decision-making which cannot be done with the site on its own. If an investor happens to have access to other tools as well, that may be fine but the fact that trades only occur on certain days in order to take advantage of group purchases is ridiculous. When investing there should be clearly defined entry and exit points-established by each investor based on their own preferences or comfort levels-and that simply cannot be accomplished with this company. In order to do that, you would need to place real-time trades, which put the pricing level on par with most other discount brokers who have much more in-depth research which can be invaluable. And, if the investor is inexperienced and just trying to get a feel, most feature-full discount brokers do not charge anything for no-load no-transaction-fee mutual funds, which would beat Sharebuilder hands down. Plus, if you are only worried about Dollar Cost Averaging, then this Tuesday-only trading really is of no benefit, since there is literally no control over the price point. Just my opinion, but I would much rather pay a little more and go with an E*Trade or TD Ameritrade and get much more research and info (not to mention value) for my invested money.

By: Miss M

Miss M — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:08:05 +0000

Sharebuilder isn’t the best but they do offer sign up bonuses (like the one for costco members) and you can occassionally get free trade promotions. Between the two I’d say they are OK for the casual investor, someone who only buys/sells once or twice a year. I dollar cost average into no-load mutual funds, why pay any commission, especially when you are investing small amounts. Even $4 is a lot compared to the $50/month investments I make.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:47:11 +0000

While Dollar-Cost Averaging is a part of the appeal, I find ShareBuilder to be best suited for the first-time investor interested in a buy-and-hold strategy. The site design is much more user friendly than TradeKing, Zecco, and OptionsXpress (the others I have used), and the lack of maintenance fees and minimum investment requirements reduce the risk of getting started.
Also, ShareBuilder can link to your ING Direct savings account. Having the accounts linked allows me to instantly transfer funds from my savings into my investment account so I don’t have to wait for the funds to arrive (as much as 3-4 days with my other accounts). This way, I can take advantage of the higher interest rates of my savings account without sacrificing the ability to capitalize on the buying opportunities that are so abundant right now.
As an update: ShareBuilder has just recently (in the past few days) added Real Time quotes to their website.

By: Donny Gamble

Donny Gamble — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:57:36 +0000

The best feature that I like about sharebuilder is the option to buy a stock with express funding. If you don’t have any money in your sharebuilder account, for an extra $5 you can purchase the stock any way and they will automatically take the money out of your checking account

By: Evan

Evan — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:01:20 +0000

Sogoinvest / Sogotrade used to have a better deal where it was 3 buck trades when you did it on your own OR 10/month for 10 auto trades and the auto trades were done on the day you chose. But I guess they found it unprofitable…cause they stopped it!

There has to be a better option than Sharebuilder?

By: Jillian

Jillian — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:52:16 +0000

Sharebuilder actually does do limit orders for “real time” trades (the ones that cost $9.95) – I set one up the other day!

By: Glenn Lasher

Glenn Lasher — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:35:28 +0000

Jim, I have a naïve question about brokerages in general, which I haven’t been able to find a clean answer to. . . When they say $x.xx per trade, I assume that they are talking about everything that takes place in a single transaction, and not per share?

Let me give an example: Suppose I go to a brokerage that wants $5/trade. I go in and buy 3 shares of Acme and 2 of Apex. Do I owe them $5 for one transaction, $10 for two transactions (one for each stock) or $25 for five transactions (1 per share)? I have always assumed it to be $5.

Again, I realize this question is wicked naïve, but it is one of the questions to which the answer always seems to be assumed, and “trade”, as a noun, specifically as a unit of stock market activity, has not been defined anywhere that I have seen.