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Anyone here ever use E-Trade?

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by schiezainc, Feb 5, 2009.

  1. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    Howdy all,

    Simple question.

    I'm interested in picking up about $100 of Sirius/XM (SIRI) stock just to kind of get my feet wet in the stock market. I've never done anything like this and figure if I lose the $100, hey tough, but if it turns a profit, sweet.

    It's going to be a one-time purchase and likely a one-time sell once the price of the stock (Now around 14 cents) hits a price I'm willing to sell at.

    Those of you experienced in this type of transaction please feel free to give me some advice. I don't want to spend a ton of unnecessary money and want to do this as cheaply as possible. I'd go to NY myself and buy it but clearly that's not an option apparently.

    I'm green in this whole thing, so pardon me if I sound stupid, but how does a service like E-Trade work? Would it be worth my time and effort?

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.
     
    schiezainc, Feb 5, 2009
    #1
  2. trifectarich

    trifectarich Well-Known Member

    There are tons of sites that have minimal trading fees, most of them in the range of $7-$10: E-Trade, TD Ameritrade, Scott Trade. If you're a Bank of America customer, you might qualify to open a brokerage account with them and trade for $7.99 per transaction.

    And don't be greedy. You're not going to retire on these profits, so if you're able to grab a return of 20 percent in these days when so many things are moving laterally or down, take it.

    Good luck.
     
    trifectarich, Feb 5, 2009
    #2
  3. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    E-Trade gives you something like 100 free trades when you sign up. Of course there is a ton of fine print.
     
    mustangj17, Feb 5, 2009
    #3
  4. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    I am an E*Trade customer. Also a TD Ameritrade customer. I prefer TD Ameritrade for basic equity trades, but if you want to buy and hold some stock, E*Trade is a great, cheap, reliable on-line broker. It's a fine choice.

    If you are an active trader, I'd recommend some other places, even though E*Trade angles for that business. But to buy and sell a few stocks over the long term, it's great.

    E*Trade put in a trading platform for futures trading, which is interesting. They are a bit shifty with how they advertised their commissions--they don't include exchange and NFA fees. So their commissions are higher than a very active trader can find elsewhere. And their trading platform is lacking and doesn't give you the choices a more specialized futures or forex broker can, even if it is user friendly.

    I find it interesting because to me it looks like a lawsuit waiting to happen. You can't jump into those markets with a few thousand dollars and trade casually. You can lose $5K or $10K in a half hour because of the leverage you are given. And in fact, 95 percent of people do. They must be hurting for business to want to be the firm that brings those markets to Main Street. Companies that specialize in them spend their lives in arbitration with pissed-off people who lost their shirts because they didn't have a clue that is like swimming in a shark tank. I don't know why E*Trade would want the headache for the amount of business it can give them.
     
    The Big Ragu, Feb 5, 2009
    #4
  5. StormSurge

    StormSurge Active Member

    I use ING's Sharebuilder. I don't use it that often, but since I already had an ING savings account, I opened a Sharebuilder.

    When I did my taxes I found that I made a whopping $11.23 in divdends last year. :)
     
    StormSurge, Feb 5, 2009
    #5
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