Online Stock Brokers
You have some of your hard earned money to invest, but now you need to look at the best online stock brokers to find the one that is most suitable for you.
In this section I give you the opportunity to compare online stock brokers. I've written detailed reviews on the most popular ones.
There is no question there are a number of greedy online stock brokerages out there, who only care about extracting as much money from you as they can in the way of fees. My goal here is to help you avoid these sharks!
Picking the right broker can have a massive effect on your trading results. In some cases, picking a broker with higher fees can be the different between having a positive return and a negative return.
| Broker | Cost Per Trade | Min Account Size | Inactivity Fees | Broker Assisted Trades | Margin Rates | Options Per Contract |
| OptionsHouse | $2.95 | None | None | $2.95 | 4.45% | $0.15 |
| Zecco | $4.50 or FREE* | None | None | $19.99 | 7.20% | $0.50 |
| TradeKing | $4.95 | None | None | $4.95 | 6.50% | $0.65 |
| ChoiceTrade | $5 | None | None | $5 | 7.50% | $0.55 |
| tradeMONSTER | $7.50 | $1,000 | None | $7.50 | 7.50% | $0.50 |
| OptionsXpress | $9.95 | None | None | $9.95 | 6.25% | $0.75 |
Optionshouse was established in 2006. They offer the cheapest stock trades I have come across to date. At just $2.95 per trade. They offer good support via live person and over the phone.
It is not just the stock trades that are incredibly cheap. Options contracts are just $0.15 and they have the lowest margin rates around too.
Open an account with OptionsHouse
Zecco was established in 2006 and is now well known for offering free stock trades.
As explained above Zecco will give you 10 FREE stock trades if you have an account size over $25,000. They will give you 10 free trades if you make 25 trades in a month, if your account is smaller. This can make the cost per trade considerably less or even free!
TradeKing has been around since 2005. They are a very reputable online stock broker and have won many awards to prove it including a 4 star rating from barron's from 2007-2010. They have also won awards from SmartMoney for customer service.
They have grown massively over the last few years, perhaps due to their low trading fees and good service.
As a promotion they are currently offering to refund up to $150 in transfer fees that your old broker may charge when you switch to TradeKing.
ChoiceTrade
is a well established broker that offers fairly competitive pricing at $5 per stock trade. They have no account minimum.
They are the best broker around for trading penny stocks. The cost is a straight up front $5 per trade regardless of the price of the stock. Most other brokers have additional fees for these types of stocks.
Choicetrade have been 4 star rated by Barron's for 5 years running.
Open an Account with Choicetrade
OptionsXpress is one of the oldest online stock brokers around. They were established in 2000.
They offer every instrument imaginable including currencies, futures, options, stocks, bonds, mutual funds and much more. When it comes to trading stocks, they provide a good service, but there are cheaper alternatives.
Open an account with OptionsXpress
If you would like to learn more about each online stock broker, I have reviewed them in detail below:
Questrade Review (Canadian Broker)
Which online stock brokers are best for me?
For some traders, using more than one brokerage can be beneficial. For example some brokers charge extra fees for trading penny stocks whilst others do not. This is talked about in the reviews.
Another factor that is important to traders who trade on margin is the margin rates. These rates can vary massively between different online brokers.
For my penny stock trading, I use Choicetrade, they are my first choice as they have no additional fees for buying low priced stocks. However, for my margin trading, I use OptionsHouse as they have the lowest margin rates of any broker I have come across and also offer very low cost trading.
I am sure you get the idea. Your trading strategy often needs to dictate the online stock brokerage you choose.
As a final note, OptionsXpress is the only online stock brokerage firm I have reviewed to date that offers international traders the opportunity to trade US Equities.
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