Are you overpaying your stock broker?
       By: Artur Chachuna
Posted: 2009-12-06 06:24:40
I remember in the late 90s, when stock market was hitting new highs and people were making fortunes on internet stocks, everyone was excited about Etrade. With Etrade you could pay a measly $20 to buy stocks! What a deal! Conventional brokers charged $80 in stock commissions. Then Ameritrade showed up and it charged only $15 to buy or sell stocks. A bit later Scottrade appeared on the radar with their unheard of $7 per trade and Sharebuilder charged only $4 for their unique kind of trades which everyone hated. There were other companies too but many of them were bought up and few remember their names. We happily dumped now expensive Etrade and went with one of the cheaper options.Over the next few years most of us settled with our $7 or $10 per trade stock brokers. We went through the stock market surge that brought Dow to new highs. Now we are healing the wounds of the biggest recession in the last 80 years. We are wary of the stock market and still worried about economy. And many of us do not know that prices on stock trades kept falling down all these years. What we thought was cheap is now considered expensive. There are new, ambitious players in the stock broker world. These companies are young and nimble, and they charge much less then the veteran discount online brokerage houses. How about $5 per trade? Good? Ok, what would you say to $2.95 per trade? Unbelievable? Wait! There is a very reliable brokerage company that lets you trade stocks for FREE. Yes, 10 free trades every month if your account balance is at least $25,000 or you make 10 or more trades a month. It can be that cheap to buy stocks and most people do not realize it!I see no reason to pay $15, $10 or even $7 to buy or sell stocks. They are the same stocks after all! There are very highly rated by all investing magazines and investor surveys stock broker firms that will charge you only $3-$5 per trade. I have been with TD Ameritrade since year 2000, paid diligently $10 per trade and when I discovered how much less the other companies charged, I was in shock! I cannot believe I was overpaying my stock broker so much and for so long! I just transferred my IRA account to one of the new firms and the experience has been great so far! If you would like to compare stock broker firms and their fees, go to the link below.
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