Discount Stock Brokers – How To Pick The Best Broker Without Losing Your Shirt
In many ways, your choice of a stockbroker is reflective of your trading style. After all, when choosing from among many discount stock brokers, your main criteria were your investment preferences, risk tolerance and wealth objectives.
It is best to choose two stockbrokers to service your investment needs. This way, you have a backup stockbroker, so to speak, should your preferred stockbroker fail to provide the service expected of it.
Plus, you can focus on different investment segments and, hence, diversify your portfolio. Keep in mind that it is not advisable to place all your eggs in one basket.
Things to Consider
As can be expected, there are many things to consider when choosing the stockbrokers. For one thing, you have to consider the costs of trading. Oftentimes, stockbrokers offer competitive rates on fees and commissions to attract customers to their fold.
However, it is a good idea to check the fine print as there are many ways to tack on additional rates. In the end, the total cost may have risen to the point where the marketed low-cost rate is just a gimmick.
You should look into the qualitative aspects of the services offered by discount stock brokers. You must evaluate the quality of customer service, the variability of the trading platforms, and the range of tools offered.
All these factors will help you make a balanced decision where quantitative costs and qualitative aspects are given equal importance. Ultimately, you should benefit from your careful consideration of all the factors involved.
For example, if you are an active investor, you should look into a stockbroker with fast execution speeds, a wide range of investment options and low-cost fees and commissions. If you only want to invest for your retirement, then excellent customer service is one of the most important criteria.
Top Stockbrokers
Admittedly, there are hundreds of online stockbrokers that you can choose from. You can either spend hundreds of hours evaluating all of them or you can refer to the following top 5 stockbrokers rated by customers and industry insiders.
First, Zecco offers 10 free trades per month on two conditions. You must either make 25 trades in a month or you maintain a $25,000 balance in your account. Otherwise, be prepared to pay $4.50 on all trades with $.50 on the per options contract.
Second, TradeKing offers the best customer service support in the industry. When coupled with very competitive fees and commissions, it is indeed the king of trades. Or at least, where discount stock brokerage houses are concerned.
Third, Etrade offers many professional trading tools to help in choosing the best stock options. You can take advantage of its generous current offer of either a new BlackBerry or 100 free stock trades on a new account.
Fourth, Scottrade boasts of more than 400 local offices around the world. You should take advantage of its advanced trading tools, $7 flat fee and excellent customer service, all of which has earned it the 2009 #1 for Customer Loyalty Award from Brand Keys.
Fifth, OptionsHouse is considered as one of Barron’s 2009 Best Online Brokers for Options Traders. It offers a flat fee of $2.95 on stock trades as well as 100 free trades on new accounts.
Just choose from among these outstanding discount stock brokers and get started on the journey to wealth.