Options:
[list=a][]Charles Schwab
[]ETrade
[]Fidelity
[]Interactive Brokers
[]OptionsXpress
[]Scottrade
[]TD Ameritrade
[]ThinkOrSwim
[]FolioFN
[*]Other
[/list=a]View the poll here.
A few thoughts here.
Most of my accounts are with IB.
I recently opened an account with ThinkOrSwim. Nice platform(s). Live reps with a very good attitude. Much different from grumpy IB ones.
Very glad I can trade thin Pink Sheets and OTC BB with ThinkOrSwom very smoothly. I do not use P123 strategies to pick PS/OTCBBs. Mainly trade PS/OTCBBs to get access to some foreign companies who do not have a regular ADR and less often some development stage US or Canadian companies.
IB claims one can trade PS/OTCBBs through them and also foreign stocks directly on their foreign exchanges but this has not been true for some very interesting and very profitable for me stocks. They have many such stocks that are not tradable on their platform. Very little explanation why and no warning until you try to place the trade.
Au contraire, through ThinkOrSwim, on their regular commission basis, I have been able to smoothly trade some very thinly traded PS/OTCBBs including all of the ones I could not through IB.
Had very positive experience with trading thin OTCs before with freetrade.com by the way. freetrade.com used to be $0 commission hose. Turned to izone.com $5 commissions. freetrade used not to have any live support, all communication was handles by email. ThinkOrSwim on the other side have regular and very good live person support and there are no additional charges for placing orders when helped on the phone or live chat.
Anybody interested in $0 commissions? Checkout zecco.com. Has anyone had any experience with them.
Another very low commission brokerage: sogoinvest.com. $1 - $3 trades. No minimum deposits.
Happy trading!
Vlad
TradeStation Securities - Primary
Charles Schwab - Secondary
All,
P123 users that use Ameritrade almost surely qualify for Apex status. As an Apex customer (with 4 different Ameritrade accounts, including IRAs), I called them and said that I also have an account at Scottrade (which I opened primarily to assess the web site for trading/research) and that I would like Ameritrade to match Scottrade’s $7.00 price (vs. Ameritrade’s $9.00 rate). They made that change in about 30 seconds for all of my accounts there.
Might be worth a phone call if you havent made that request.
Thanks to all for sharing what you know. Lzast year was a good year for me, and P123 and YOU get the credit!
Marc
Marco,
Ameritrade - Primary
Fidelity- Secondary
I opened new accounts for my son and daughter with Ameritrade and they gave my kids 1000 free trades to use within a 45 day period. So, I called Ameritrade and asked for the same deal, for being such a good customer, and they gave it to me. So naturally I decided to do some day trading and saved over $6000. in commissions. Also when I opened a second account for myself they did the same plus sent me a free iPod.
They are much more lenient than Fidelity and Schwab when it comes to which stocks are marginable.
Rick
IB claims one can trade PS/OTCBBs through them and also foreign stocks directly on their foreign exchanges but this has not been true for some very interesting and very profitable for me stocks. They have many such stocks that are not tradable on their platform. Very little explanation why and no warning until you try to place the trade.
I have noticed there are some problems trading OTC etc. through the webtrader interface, however, it is possible to do it through their “Trader workstation” program. Also have you got live subscriptions to the relevant exchanges? Data for the pink sheets costs $2.50/month, you need to go into account management and check the box for it. Also, because IB has direct access, it can be difficult to trade quantities less than one round lot. Hope this helps.
olikea,
On your notes on IB OTC trading, yes - I have all proper subscriptions and exchange permissions.
I guess the problem could be with liquidity and direct access but is not explained to be that by IB. They simply do not let me place the order. I do have case where the order is taken and never executed (though trades in that range and lower than my limit buy price occur) - si this might specifically be my order size and liquidity, though I do not trade odd lots on these.
With ThinkOrSwim did not have problem of them not accepting the symbol or not being able to execute. It was similar experience with freetrade before (now izone of ameritrade).
In any case, if one is interested in thin OTC stocks: IB - thumbs down, TOS and izone thumbs up.
And slightly off topic here …
And since there seems to be some notion that OTC, especially Pink Sheets, are some how intrinsically ‘bad’ I just want to say that there are great companies that trade through OTC and pink sheets. Examples are reputable foreign companies who obviously decided to incur less expenses registering as a pink sheet rather than as a regular ADR. So pink sheets not always = ‘penny stocks’.
Vlad