Internet trading broker service

I'm considering delving into my own trading online & going away from the broker that I've used in the past.
I'll throw out that open question of "Any Advice?" [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]
Also, any opinions on companies offering the service?... such as E-trade, Scottrade, Schwab, ICCnet, AOL, Yahoo, ->my the list goes on & on these days... [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]
I'm not planning to be a full time daytrader, but wanting start small while learning & then possibly do more of my own if it looks right for me...
Thanks for your help. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

I have been on Etrade for almost five years now. Orginally there were some problems with accessability, they even refunded my 2500 for a trade that I could not get back in to sell. For the last two years, no problems, at 9.99 a trade if you trade 27 times a quarter, level two quotes, they are pretty good. Do not know a lot about the others out there, I feel that for me it would be to tough to learn a new system. Have some experience with Trade Station, it is a system that will trade for you based upon information that you input. However the market changes to quickly for any system and that is just what it is, a system, just like going to Vegas with a system, it may or may not work.

A few years ago I spent 6 months day trading on the internet. I used CyberCorp's (owned by Schwaub) CyberTrader with L2. Commissions and such were very reasonable but you needed $10k in cash to setup a margin account. SEC now requires $25K I believe. I did look at other realtime trading platforms but CyberTrader offered the most and had great tech support besides. I also had a high speed DSL connection.

Also, you should be prepared to spend $$ to subscribe to other tools such as IQchart (the best charting and research tool in my opinion) and any other realtime programs. There are plenty out there. I spent 2-3 hours each night preparing for the following days activity.

I had fun, learned a lot, made a few $$, lost a few $$, but ended up in the black.

Good luck and have fun.

If you're starting small - look at Buy & Hold. They charge $6.99 a month, and it includes two trades for free. Additional trades are a nominal fee. The best thing for starting traders is that there are no minimums, and you can buy less than full lot (less than 100 shares). They don't trade the full exchange, however, and this account would not be good for an "in&out" day trader since they transact trades only a couple times a day, and are geared more toward "buy and holders".

I'm about to transfer my shares from my PaineWebber account into Scottrade. Only $7 per trade (regardless the number of shares), or $12 for a limit order.

Scottrade also has local offices, so if you need to see a REAL PERSON, they have that option.

I initially set up on AmeriTrade, but when my wife opened a Scottrade account, it opened my eyes. AmeriTrade had changed some of the rules after I first went with them and was no longer as good a deal as Scottrade. I switched and have been very pleased. We currently have several accounts including joint, personal each for my wife and I (these are small accounts where we started out with the same amount of $$$ and compete with each other -- she's ahead right now [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] ), retirement funds and education funds for our granddaughters. The website is first rate, and you just can't beat having a local (about 40 miles away, in our case) broker to help set things up, handle transfers, answer account-related questions, handle the rare transaction that can't be done over the internet, and generally put a human face on the process.

All that for $7 per trade (market order)! There is, in my opinion, no comparison. I have no connection to Scottrade.

I'm a bit late to the party but here's my .02 worth. We've used Etrade for the past 5 years. In the past, I've bought and held but I've moved more into short term trading (0-3 months hold). We pay the $19.99 per trade which includes limit orders but I'm seriously considering moving to Scott Trade in the near future mainly because a limit order can be filled at $12 rather than the $20 (most of my orders are limit orders) but market fills are $7, which is pretty nice. My uncle uses Scott and is quite pleased with it.

The nice thing about Etrade is that you can go full service there with the brokerage and the bank.

I am in the process of moving one of my brokerage accounts to Scottrade. I have not made a trade yet, but the literature I have says limit orders are $7.00 also.

Just wonder if this may be something new or do I have false advertising or maybe just I don't understand everything?

Sorry this is so late; I don't log in all that often. But, the $7 limit orders for Scottrade IS very new; around the first of the year. It's really a good deal; my wife never used limit orders because she's such a miser, but she uses them now.