Comments on: SmartMoney’s 2008 Best Discount Brokers

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 03:11:10 +0000

I have several accounts opened with different brokerage firms.
1. Scottrade: Platform good, easy to use, good customer service. But,less short stocks. Never let you short uder $5 stocks. If stock drop 30%, they think that is the problem stocks, you have to call in to place an order. Waste time, and I don’t feel it is necessary.
2. TD-ameritrade: Screening tools, Streamer are easy to used. News and research system are weak. After put into orders, have to go to another screen to cancel/change it, it take time. But the major wait problem is when stock sell off to cover incerficient fund, they probably not to call you. They will do what ever you want to sell the stock. Last year Mar 16, when Bear Stern announced bankrupcy, overnight the stock was down from around $50 to $2, Scottrade kept the stocks, ever the assets was negtive. But TdAmeritade sold it already right after market opened. In the claim, Td-ameritrade says ” To best protect your and the Firm interest”, they have the right to do any sell off. If stock was down to $2 already, what is the best interest for the firm? —The stock will go to Zero?
3. Fidelity– Research system is good. But Active trading Pro is not for Active traders. You bought a stock today, you cannot see it in the Position screen which I feel ridiculous, it won be showed the stock price/price change right away. You ahve to wait until tomorrow.Scheme design for trading is not good. Screening for stocks is never worked for me. International account offer no margin, plus with comfirmation mail in letter form. I don’t understand why they don’t want to change to E-mail form of comfrmation.Why waste money and time to mail it?

By: Etrade no good no more

Etrade no good no more — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:14:01 +0000

I am looking to move away from etrade after nearly 10 years. I have tried THREE times to have several securities moved to them. It has been a nightmare…each time the answer is the same (”sir I will personally followup”). The last time they actually did only to tell me “you need to fill out another form and do the transfer again”.

By: JK Campbell

JK Campbell — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:27:45 +0000

Interesting (and horrible) experience that you have had with eTrade.

I have an account with them, too, and it seemed to take forever to get them to okay the funds, despite my having sent them a cashier’s bank check. Their website is more difficult to navigate and to understand than TD Ameritrade’s, too. Since their research appears to be a little better than TD Ameritrade’s, I just keep a small account with 3 stocks with eTrade so as to keep better informed. The majority of my money is with Ameritrade and UBS although I am phasing out the UBS one – they have become arrogant, difficult people and I say this after having had an account with them since the early 1980’s! The Ameritrade people treat me like “gold”. I do wish that I could have received all of my 100 free trades but still, at less than $10 per trade, their prices are reasonable enough. One thing that I have noticed is that sometimes their quotes are a LOT different than the eTrade quotes for the same stocks – differences by 20 cents or more! However, whenever I have a question, no matter how “stupid” they may think it is, they always show a lot of patience in answering me until I fully understand what they are saying or writing. While I am still thinking about opening another account so as not to have all of my money at the whims of some incompetent customer service rep as described in your article, I am very satisfied with Ameritrade…less so with eTrade, despite all of their good ratings that I keep reading about.

By: zecco sucks

zecco sucks — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:15:53 +0000

IMHO, Zecco sucks bad. Like the old saying goes, you get what you paid for. And Zecco is proof of that. My story is way to long to post here. Just search for “zecco sucks” and you’ll see what I mean.

By: jr1185

jr1185 — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:30:14 +0000

I am to my wits end with E*Trade. To sum it up, about 3 months ago, I opened up an account with etrade, and set up online transfer to transfer funds from my bank account. Made the transfer, and waited. After a week of no money in my account, and no word from E*Trade, I contacted customer service. They told me the funds should clear within 7 business days. 7 business days passed, and still no funds, so I called back, and they said the funds were returned and there was a “hold” on my account, and I needed to lift the hold by faxing them a form of government picture ID. I faxed them the ID, and tried to make a deposit again. Again, the funds were returned after 2 weeks, and I was charged a $25 fund return fee. I called customer service, and they said that because of the hold, I needed to sent a personal check, and they couldn’t give me any reason as to why my direct deposit wasn’t going through. I had the correct account number, and info for the account, but E*Trade wasn’t accepting it. I’ve set up multiple direct transfers before with other companies, and E*Trade is the only one I have had a problem with. I even “verified” the account with E*Trade before attempting the transfer, and it was shown as “verified” under my etrade account. Frustrated, I sent E*Trade a check to start up a new account. After they received it, it took 2 WEEKS to clear. In short, it took me almost 2 months just to get funds in to my account. I should have withdrawn my money and closed my account, but I decided to give them another chance. I optimistically thought that once I got the funds in to my account, E*Trade would function properly. I was wrong. I made a few trades (never got the “100 free trades” etrade was offering with a new account because they said it was only valid for the first 30 days the account is active. They had a “hold” on my account for the first 2 months!) and things were going fine, until last week when I checked my E*Trade account, and my net assets have completely vanished! $0.00 . I called customer service immediately, and they said they were just having technical issues with their online account, and to give it “24-48 hrs”. At this point I am fed up with the “24-48 hrs” line. I give it a WEEK and my net assets are still at $0.00, so I call them back today, and I’m informed that there is a “hold” on my account. I asked to speak with a supervisor, waited on hold for 20 minutes, and the same lady came back on and told me that the supervisor told her to send an email to one of their different accounts, and it would take “24-48 hours”. She said they would either lift the hold, or they would need me to fax in a form of government picture ID. I asked her what I could do with my existing portfolio, and the answer was “NOTHING”. I have thousands of dollars in a portfolio that I cant even see. I can’t buy, sell, or even check my balance. I can’t close the account, I can request a stock certificate and cut my losses, I can’t do a thing. I’m at the mercy of the incompetent customer service of E*Trade. I once heard someone say that “stupid people learn from their own mistakes. Smart people learn from the mistakes of other”. Be smart, and STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY. You will save yourself TIME and FRUSTRATION.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 30 May 2008 23:44:37 +0000

I use optionxpress, my big complaint is the length of time they take to credit my deposits to use for trades… Is there a better broker that credits faster and makes funds available quicker to make trades…

Also can anyone tell me how to transfer my IRA to one of these brokerage firms, is it easy? DO they walk you through? ALso what would be the best one to use… and can I transfer my account with optionxpress to any other broker without any problems?

Thank you

By: jim

jim — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:30:33 +0000

I believe you should have as many as you need to accomplish your goal. Some brokerages give you access to better research, some have cheap trade commissions, etc. For example, I have a Vanguard mutual fund account because I like Vanguard mutual funds, a TD Ameritrade because they offered cheap trades when I moved my Roth IRA there three or four years ago, an E*Trade because I wanted their high interest savings account, and then I just opened a TradeKing account to review it.

By: AndyS

AndyS — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:23:04 +0000

Great analysis. I use TD ameritrade myself and my only complaint would have been their low interest money market account as well. Is it woth having multiple brokerages?