Stock Markets Exposed

Best place to buy stocks online?

There are dozens of online trading sites nowadays and I am curious as to which one's are the best. I have a banking account at Wells Fargo in California and they some investment options, but I've never heard anything about their investment accounts. I have checked out the websites of Etrade, Ameritrade, Merrill Lynch, Charles Schwab, etc. What company offers the best format? I invest heavily in start-ups and penny stocks, what site offers the best research capabilities for these types of stocks? I'm investing about $100,000 and I prefer to do all my own trading, is there any reason I would want to go with a full service firm? I would like to stay at Wells Fargo with all my money for the simplicity, but do they stack up against the competition? Bottom line, what do you feel is the best place to trade online and why? Who has the best tools, charts, interface, advice, etc? Thanks. I am not giving up trading penny stocks, I started investing two years ago in penny stocks with about $8000, now I have well over $100k. I plan to buy other, safer stocks, mutual funds, etc. But a large part of my portfolio is made up of penny stocks and that wont change. Is TD Ameritrade the only brokerage that offers the same price on large and low-price orders?

Public Comments

1. Well if you're gonna "invest" in penny stocks then Ameritrade is your best bet for the actual trading process. AMTD doesn't charge extra for OTCBB, large size trades, or for low price stocks. Wanna buy 300k shares of a stock priced at 0.01 ? AMTD commission is only 10$. As far as research on penny stocks you'll have to find that on the web cause none of the brokers have good research on them. I hope you know what you're doing ... Edit: I can't argue with 8 > 100k ... AMTD is the only one I know of that doesn't ding you for one of the 3 items mentioned above. What broker have you been using ?
2. I love Vanguard... building a portfolio of indexed mutual funds is the best route to go. No-load and no transaction fees and super low expense ratios, I'm talkin .2% and lower. Give up trading penny stocks... you might as well just gamble on sports or something. Index funds beat actively managed mutual funds (including your own trading) 80% of the time over the long term (10+ years). Only 1 or 2% of actively traded funds end up beating index funds after taxes and expenses are taken from the account. Do the math, be smart, maximize return while minimizing risk by have a good mix of index funds.... If you just love penny stocks that much, stick 90% of your money in the funds I suggested and use the other money to play around with your penny stocks. My friends use sharbuilder I believe Unless it's your job to study the market... you won't consistently beat the professionals. The market is clearly unpredictable.