Hi Kent,
I have been very happy with E-Trade, and their local office is not far from where I live, but I rarely had to drive to there, as I do all transactions on line.
I have some friends who like Lombard Brokerage, which was taken over by Morgan Stanley and became Discovery Brokerage. They used to be rated #1 in services and customer satisfaction ('96,'97,'98), and are currently offering a $75 sign-on bonus, you may want to check it out:
discoverbrokerage.com
I don't mind paying higher commission at Schwab ($30 vs. $15 (market order) and $20 (limit order) at E-Trade and others. The thing that bothers me the most is the arbitrary limit of 1000 shares at Schwab vs. 5000 shares elsewhere. This would increase the cost of trading my 5,000 SFLX shares to be $150 at Schwab vs. $15 or $20 elsewhere! Since everything is done by computer, I don't see any basis for the extra commission, except for my own stupidity (and my reluctance to change) to keep paying for it until now. The 2X fee ($39 vs. $20) in tendering charge is just the extra load that breaks the camel's back.
By the way, the large cap stock that I currently favor is good old Boeing (BA), you may want to take a look at it. It had been out of favor, dropped from about $60 to about $30, but recently recovered to $45. I think it may have a way to go, and would like to pick up some more at or below $40 on pull-backs. Best regards, Dean |
