ONLINE STOCK BROKERS

 

Minimum Deposit:

None

 

If you haven't already heard of Trade King, you soon will. Trade King has become one of the leading online stock brokers for several reasons. They make trading securities extremely simple and affordable for even the newest of traders.

Trade King offers a flat $4.95 fee for their stock trades. This is one of the most inexpensive rates in the industry with no gimmicks or hidden charges. They also offer excellent research and charts to help you make educated decisions. When it comes time to execute your trade, navigating the site to buy or sell securities is very simple and straightforward. Trade King provides a sophisticated yet simple browser-based trading platform.

 

 

Opening an account with Trade King is a very simple process. Answer a few questions online and you can be trading in minutes. Not only is the signup process simple, they also have no minimum balance requirement. That means that anyone can enjoy the affordability to execute trades, no matter how big or small an investor you are..

If you have any questions about a trade, the Trade King customer service department is available toll-free from 8am to 6pm est. We found their representatives to be both helpful and extremely knowledgeable.

To give you added assurance, Trade King provides account protection up to $25 million, which put us at ease especially with today's economy and banking issues. Trade King also provides unlimited real-time quotes to customers who are actively trading. This is a very nice feature and exceeded our expectations for such a competitively-priced service.

Trade King is one of the premier online stock brokers in the industry, and it's not hard to see why. With no minimum investment, rock-bottom trading fees, an easy to use website, and real-time quotes & charts, anyone can successfully and affordably trade in today's market. Trade King delivers the best value for your dollar and earns our highest rating.

 

Minimum Deposit:

$500

 

Scottrade has been seen and heard for years. With over 290 US branch offices, many of us have actually driven by a Scottrade location and may not have even realized it. Scottrade also provides an online trading platform with a solid foundation and a long list of customers.

Scottrade offers the following to their online stock broker clients:

•  $7 flat fee trades

•  $500.00 minimum to open an account

•  Investment research tools and charts

Scottrade is also well known for their customer service and have been historical award winners in this category. We found a few comments from experienced traders that felt the trading engine was not as perfect as they would have liked. Several felt the research tools were not as user friendly as the higher ranked company. Overall, Scottrade is a solid online stock broker with fair priced trade prices and a low minimum to open an account.

We talked to three different customer service representatives and they all answered our questions thoroughly and with respect. Scottrade does a good job of helping anyone buy and sell securities online and this is evident with the number of customers they currently service.

 

Minimum Deposit:

None

 

Options Xpress provides expert service for those interested in Options trading. Having said this, they also offer a broad range of broker services, including stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and even ETF's.

Getting started with Options Xpress is quick and easy. You simply fill out an online application, select how you want to fund your account, and you can be trading within minutes. There is no minimum deposit required unless you are trading options, where a minimum balance is required for the margin and premium payments that are needed with these instruments.

Options Xpress has a number of tools that you'll find useful in analyzing and executing your trades. As a customer you have access to robots that scan the markets for ideas based on your particular investing criteria; customizable charts to help you identify trends, and real-time current and stock quote prices so you can act instantly based on the most up-to-date information.

In addition to giving you the tools necessary to analyze and execute your trades, Options Xpress also provides some features you may not expect. For example, you have a "virtual" trading platform - which lets you execute trades through their system with "play" money. This is an excellent way to practice trading and learn more about areas that you may not be familiar with - while risking nothing. They also offer a range of webinars and instructional videos to help you learn about different aspects of the market.

Options Xpress provides each customer $500,000 in account protection. Should something happen to this company, your assets are safe up to $500,000.

Options Xpress offers a good value for those wanting to buy and sell not only options but other securities as well. They provide an impressive array of tools to help you learn about the markets and trading, and give you a chance to practice with their virtual trading platform. Options Xpress receives high marks in our review.

 

Minimum Deposit:

$2,500

 

As a result of its large size, customer base and balance sheet, Schwab has resources available to provide technology offering the latest in news and investment information. Schwab offers a full service product for those wanting to trade online any investment vehicle available today but not at the best price.

Schwab offers customers a sort of tiered approach to pricing transactions. Generally speaking, each trade is $12.95 but those prices can run lower if you are transacting 30 or more trades each month. However, the minimum balance is $2,500 to open and thus excludes some investors looking to transact in the lower range.

Schwab also offers a bilingual customer service team that is very helpful to those with English as their second language. The Schwab trading website has a number of resources and analysis information available. The trading platform was generally easy to use and we had very few questions in our first attempt to navigate a trade.

Overall, we were impressed with Schwab's full service approach to handling stock investments. However, we were a little less impressed with the cost per transaction and most definitely the minimum deposit requirement.

 

Minimum Deposit:

$2,000

 

Ameritrade is a well-known online stock broker servicing millions of clients. Their website and trading platform are easy to use and straightforward in your first attempt to navigate.

Ameritrade does offer a full service experience including a well rounded approach to servicing any investment option. Ameritrade also offers a flat rate fee to commissions at $9.99 per trade. The minimum balance deposit to get started is $2000. The investment research information Ameritrade provides is easy to read and accessible on most securities.

After reading a few accounts of some customer service issues we decided to give them a call and see for ourselves. Overall, the several individuals we called were polite and forth coming with the information we needed. We noticed a couple delays in response time but it was barely noteworthy. We did encounter one individual on the evening shift that would have been better skilled for a non-customer interfacing position but they were generally knowledgeable. We also found some comments from customers regarding concerns trading with Ameritrade if they wanted to execute a limit trade. However, it sounds like the technology has improved since but we were unable to confirm.

Generally speaking, Ameritrade is a large online stock broker with a well-rounded approach to handling the needs of the majority of their investors. The flat fee commission was generally affordable and without any gimmicks or small print writing.

 

Minimum Deposit:

$500

 

Sogo Trade offers a low budget online stock broker service. We found the no frills site to be free of the unneeded extras that some of the massive companies provided and that we had to spend time sorting through. However, sometimes low budget can mean lower quality and we found that in some cases with Sogo Trade.

The trading engine and overall website was more than we expected for their $3.00 flat rate fee. The fee is clearly the cheapest in the industry of any online brokers. However, Sogo Trade does not handle all investment choices. While you can cheaply trade stocks they do not currently offer education plans. They also don't offer mutual fund trading or IRA accounts.

The research tools and analytical security information were lacking as well. Be prepared to do your own research on Google, along with what Sogo Trade can provide, before placing your trade.

Sogo Trade provides a $500,000 in account coverage in the event the online stock broker fails. This is important to know and understand when deciding how much to place with this online stock broker given the current environment.

In the end, we felt that Sogo Trade is probably a good option for some in the market that already have their own investment information sources and that are only trading stocks at this time. For those that are interested in funding their IRA or kids college, we suggest you look at the higher ranked companies for assistance.

 

Minimum Deposit:

None

 

Zecco initially gained popularity for it's 10 free trades per month advertising with a $2000 minimum balance. However, Zecco now requires a $25,000 minimum balance to receive those same 10 free trades. Zecco does however offer low priced trading which could be popular to our bargain shoppers.

Trades are a flat $4.50 with no minimum balance. But, for only $4.50 a trade you can anticipate that Zecco can't keep up with the higher ranked providers in overall information and satisfaction. Charts, security analysis, and overall investor information is definitely limited with Zecco.

Zecco is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) and provides a protection on assets up to $500,000 for all customers. That covers $100,000 for cash balances as well.

Overall, we found that Zecco is a good opportunity for those with access to quality investor information and are looking for a cheap trade. The no minimum requirement allows for anyone to trade at Zecco.

 

Minimum Deposit:

$2,000

 

Trade Monster offers a relatively low cost trading platform. With a $2000 minimum deposit required, Trade Monster gives most investors the opportunity to own a piece of the pie.

Through our research we found recounts of investors dissatisfied with the level of investment charts available on Trade Monster. Also, the website organization was ranked lower on a list. We had to search much longer on the Trade Monster website to locate the details we were looking for.

The customer service team is generally responsive but overall the company has only been in business a very short time and that brought us much concern with even the largest and most successful brokers shutting their doors in 2008.

Trade Monster is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) and provides a protection on assets up to $100,000 for cash balances. Any cash balances maintained for the purpose of interest accrual are not protected. The SIPC also covers $500,000 in assets.

Overall, we couldn't find any reason over the competition to choose Trade Monster. The per trade cost, minimum balance, website organization and functionality were no better than the higher ranked companies.

 

Minimum Deposit:

$1,000

 

Options House has also been in business for only a short time. They specialize in options trading and offer a great per contract price and low minimum deposit. However, being the cheapest isn't always something to be proud of.

We found that Options House had both positive and negative recounts of customer service satisfaction reviews. We took it upon ourselves to call Options House several times and after talking to them we had to make some assumptions. We found that 1) they have some training consistency issues across representatives and 2) be prepared to wait on hold if you are going to call right before the market closes. We were confused and dissatisfied when different representatives reported varying information that did not correspond.

Like many others, Options House is a member of Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which protects customers up to $500,000 (including$100,000 for cash balances).

In today's time when the biggest and oldest brokers can go out of business in a day we found Options House too new for our comfort level. We also had serious concerns with the varying responses we received from the customer service representatives. We recommend you select a higher ranked online stock broker to best meet your needs.