E*Trade satisfies all your minimums and more:
As a baseline any broker listed here has to offer at least the following:
-has to be a discount broker
BB and all Nasdaq trades are $19.95 market OR limited, AMEX and NYSE are $14.95
-has to allow OTC BB trades thru the web
Yup
-has to have a 'premier' level of service for frequent traders/investors
Power E*Trade - 30-75 trades per quarter - streaming real-time quotes system (so only 10 trades a month gets you into this group - this is where I fall in the 30-75)
Platinum Level - over 75 per quarter - free streaming Level II (I had this for 2 quarters, Level II is great)
Both levels give you a "special" 1-800 number for questions or trade inquiries (I used this on BOVI today to straighten out an MM that wouldn't answer the phone, so to speak). E*Trade has a lot of customers and significant assets under thumb, thus they have the ability to throw some weight around when inclined so - frequent traders are their bread and butter. Both also offer rebates based on the number of trades - I think $5 for Power, $10 for Platinum
-has to handle trades over the phone w/o a 5 or 10 minute que
Yup, automated touch-tone very slick or a human (I sometimes have to get a human to enter limit prices for odd prices like buy 1000 OZON at 56.5 cents). Wait times are within your specs and quicker when you get the special treatment for frequent trader status.
-has to be full service (funds, bonds etc..)
Yup, don't forget options, including LEAPS, Canadian, treasuries, etc...
-has to have a manager(s) that handles disputes in a reasonable fashion
Don't know about this one, never have had to "go over" anyone yet.
-has to have people in the office over the weekend
I believe so
-has to have full pre market and after market capabilities utilizing at least 2 or 3 vendors
This is the newest feature of E*Trade that is really slick. You of course have after-hours quotes, but also trading capability through Instinet, one of the largest and most used ECN's for better market representation. Thus far, from my experience with it, there is minimal BB activity after-hours. I suspect this will be vastly different in the coming years.
I can't say enough good things about them really, although there are features about the others I like, for instance, NDB's multiple one-side trades for one commission. I like Datek's raw speed but of course no BB's and no checkbook and after-hours you're limited to Island ECN. E*Trade sends you a checkbook for access to your money market funds which are automatically swept and pay approx. 5% current. E*Trade also allows you to setup a "wire" relationship with any of your regular checking accounts. You can always overnight a cashiers check, but this allows you to instruct E*trade to pull a specified amount from your checking account - funds credited within 2 days. Then they've got electronic or paper confirms and statements, whichever you want, online 1099's and realized or unrealized gains (losses). Another slick feature is account or stock pop-up alerts you can have it email you for executions, price increases (decreases) $ or % or volume spikes and on and on.
And of course there is gobs of research capability, but frankly, you can get that elsewhere. That's really windowdressing. What we're looking for is good market representation of your order, quick, reliable executions, ease of use and a system we can trust for handling the inevitable "bad trade". That's my vote Gary.
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