Online brokers...
"otoh, schwab's commissions begin to add up for trades of 1k+ shares. Their executions seem to be cleaner, however."
I have both a Schwab and an Etrade account. The Schwab orders cost more than other online brokers, but I've never had a problem with an order. With Etrade...I'm a fairly new account, and all I've had is problems. (problems logging on, getting my password processed, etc.) My reason for trying Etrade was to try an online broker with lower costs.
I've decided that even as an active investor/trader that the fee isn't as important as long as I am getting a good execution of an order. Besides the order, the end of the year tax accounting is easier (I think) with the Schwab form.
With the competition among online brokers, I think all of fee structures will be changing. (I'm waiting for Schwab to lower their fees!) Also, with some of the trading systems being developed, I think some orders/executions will change.
Ashton Technology (ASTN) is using an eVWAP system. (Approved by the SEC, and in it's second stage of development/use.) This is a system mean't for large institutions where the minimum order I believe is 5,000 shares. The price you would receive on an order would be the volume weighted average for that trading day.
Between online brokers, ECNs and other trading systems... online trading should be a lot different in the future.
Libbyt |
