<OT> Teflon, as you are well aware, there is no "perfect" broker, or even close to one. Given the list of requirements you gave, I would look to Schwab - you get a little bit more service. Brown & Co, is another possibility, the plus is that you have lower commissions, and - very important, low, low, margin interest rates (important, if you like to be on margin for any lenght of time) - though you definitely have a bit less "all around service" compared to Schwab. The problem is getting 'everything' in one broker... f.ex., there are brokers out there who are better than both of these when it comes to options, but have less "overall" service. If you are heavy into options, and use margin extensively, I'd recommed TradeStar:
4tradestar.com
I have been w/ TradeStar for almost 2 years, and the only complaint I have, is that compared to Datek, f.ex., their website is slow. On the other hand, they answer the phone with reasonable speed, you can also place touch-phone orders 24 hours (and online as well, 24 hours, though the website is a bit slow during heavy trading). Commissions reasonable, on options v. good. You can participate in select IPOs. Check writing, and automatic sweep of outstanding cash into money market funds where you earn interest. Their statements are very well written, w/ all trades for the month, balances, margin costs, interest rates, (in addition to separate trade confirmation mailings, which are a bit cheezy) - *but* big negative... their trades and balances on the website are so strangely structured that to this day I can't make head or tails of it - so no automatic downloading of trades from the website. Of course, TradeStar cannot be used for daytrading frenetically.
Stay away from Etrade.
Hope this helps.
Good luck!
Morgan |
