Ameritrade: anyone use? Likes/dislikes?

[bigred]

Just wondering. Thinking about it.....

[Esperdome]

Last year, after a sales call by one of their representatives, I agreed to meet with him to discuss what Ameritrade had to offer as a brokerage firm. The fellow was very personable over the phone and seemed like someone I might trust for investment advice. At the time I was using a discount broker, (H&R Block), and felt I had dropped off their radar since my first broker there had retired.

At our meeting I was disappointed to find he had brought his associate, IE "boss" with him. This other individual did 95% of the talking and employed hard sell tactics making me regret setting the appointment. What he said they would do for me was what any prudent investor should be doing anyway, so I didn't see what advantage they would give me. We returned to this point over and over again.

Needless to say, they couldn't get me to sign on the dotted line. Instead I switched to Banc of America Investments for a completely self-directed account. I'm happy with this but others might like more hand-holding.

[bigred]

?? I thought the whole point of this place was as a do-it-yourself kinda thing and for much cheaper than through a traditional brokerage firm. I'm frankly not interested in their advice; I'm interested in being able to buy the stocks I want as cheaply as possible.

[roger]

Then go for Zecco. I've had an account from them for quite some time - trades execute reliably and fast, cash transfers in 2 days, and best of all, you get something like 10 free trades a month. After that it's, I dunno, $3.50 or something. Right now there are no bells and whistles - stock news, etc., but you can get all that through google finance anyway. However, they are planning on adding that stuff in the coming months.

Free trades - it doesn't get cheaper than that. If you have more than 25K, there are bank accounts that also give free trading - such as Bank of America (IIRC).

[bpesta22]

?? I thought the whole point of this place was as a do-it-yourself kinda thing and for much cheaper than through a traditional brokerage firm. I'm frankly not interested in their advice; I'm interested in being able to buy the stocks I want as cheaply as possible.

I've had ameritrade for about 5 years now, and I think they're outstanding.

If you want a no hassle, cheap way to buy and sell, AT's very good.

[bigred]

Define "cheap" :cool:

Also I notice they ask for more personal info when signing up then I'm frankly wild about giving or that they should need........

[letsthink]

I liked them better before the TD Waterhouse/Ameritrade merger.

[bigred]

Do they (or someone else) still not do the $10/transaction or whatever?

[letsthink]

There are a lot of online brokers that do cheap trades, including TD Ameritrade. For some it depends on the amount in your brokerage account. Wells Fargo has very cheap trades, even free in some cases. Scottrade is good and inexpensive. Etc.

[Foolmewunz]

There are accusations all over the blogs that Ameritrade sells off your email address to pump-n-dump spammers.

One recent article....
http://weblog.infoworld.com/robertxcringely/archives/2007/06/ameritrade_buy.html

If you google "Ameritrade Spam" you get 120,000 possible cites.

[Plantfoam]

I have a Scottrade account, and I'm happy with it. No huge minimums, and a $7 flat trading fee. Looking for something cheaper does not interest me, as I don't trade very often.

[rsalinger]

I've had two accounts with them for around two years and have zero complaints. They credit new money almost immediately, and the executions I get seem to be within normal trading limits. Since I have a decent sized account I get lots of research. I make all my own investment decisions and like any broker this works well. I worked on Wall Street for over 30 years and I would NEVER trust or use a "full service" broket. Their research is garbage and completely determined by what their investment bankers want to see printed. Use any discount broker, invest in index ETF's, make money and be happy!

[RecoveringYuppy]

Most of the stock related spam I get looks to be either complete scattershot or traces back to the Motley Fool. TDAmeritrade has worked well for me for years, going back to TD Waterhouse.

[skepticalbeliever]

I use ameritrade. I like it. I would never pay a broker for advice because there is plenty of good, free advice on shows like Fast Money and Mad Money.

[beachnut]

Define "cheap" :cool:

Also I notice they ask for more personal info when signing up then I'm frankly wild about giving or that they should need........
That is so they can arrest you like Martha Stewart if you cheat.

I have 5 account in our family with them; they use to be Datek, it was 9.99 a trade limit or market! It is back to 9.99 when TD took over.

I have had no problems. I can get in an out of the market in a few seconds. I have messed up margin trades, but I did not get into too much trouble. I guess there are rules for some types of trades.

I liked Datek, Ameritrade is okay; and not TD seems to be okay.

But you can study them and get the one you want. Pay attention to limit trade cost. If you want to set a value to sell at, your cost for limit will be of interest. Learn a little and get the service you want.

I picked Datek due to 9.99 for limit trades. I think Scott is very close to this or as good. If you do not set a price for your stock sell, you could loose money, and the same for buying. So understand the prices for each transaction and the cost of money if you want to borrow to do margin; so you can loose money twice as fast! or make it.

Check out the other investment vehicles they offer and think ahead.

oops scottrade is just 7 bucks for market and limit! save about 3 bucks. Maybe I should move.

[Gazpacho]

Zecco is awfully tight-lipped about how it expects its business model to work.

All I can find on their web site is 20 repetitions of "Cool, free trades!" It doesn't really convince me to hand my money over to them.

[MilwaukeeMike]

I have used both Etrade and TD Ameritrade and I prefer Ameritrade because it is cheaper and have far better programs to track and screen stocks in real time. I am in the process of transferring all my assets over to TD Ameritrade in the coming months.

[roger]

Zecco's profit is based on margin, plus charges for options, and charges for when you go over your allocated free trades. They also instituted a pay for service to help you calculate taxes. Finally, there is the spread on the customers cash in account.

But I don't worry about it at all. It's not like a failure of the brokerage is a failure of your stocks. Just transfer the stocks to another brokerage. In any case, it's a good business model and they are doing okay.

[MilwaukeeMike]

Zecco is awfully tight-lipped about how it expects its business model to work.

All I can find on their web site is 20 repetitions of "Cool, free trades!" It doesn't really convince me to hand my money over to them.

If it's too good to be true, it probably is. I would stick with more well known and established brokers. I mean, Scottrate is only $7 a trade. That's pretty cheap. I pay $13 at Etrade, and $10 at TD Ameritrade. In a way, more expensive trades also forces you to invest better because you are spending more on trades, at least I've found that to be true personally.