Tim, I have been trading with Fido's (Fidelity's) Spartan account for some time now and I think it is superb (and I am very, very demanding).
1. With Spartan's gold circle (or whatever the heck they call it), all trades up to 1,000 shares are $25. And that is so whether the trades are done on the web, via touch-tone trader or via a live trader. Since this rate went into effect I've been day-trading fanatically, as many as a dozen trades a day, and it has been fun (and intense).
2. They really try to please. Occasionally they make mistakes, but they always give me $ to make up for the errors. Touch-tone trader missed a day trade I did on one stock. Fido credited my account $250. You have to be a squeaky wheel, but they definitely listen, and listen hard. Many times they have deleted commission charges for me, and wire charges, etc. My favorite story is the day trade I did on Intel last year. They waived the commission because I didn't get the execution price I had wanted, so I held on to the stock to this day (up from 28 to 100ish in almost 18 months...cool!)
3. The reporting of trades is always accurate. I track Fido through my Quicken account, and it has been matching to the penny for a year now. Pretty amazing.
4. Fido has been exceptionally helpful on shorts. They will even call back to advise when a short has become available. No charge, as well, on the short (only a charge, $25 up to 1000 shares, on the buy-back).
5. The research crap they send is useless to me, but what it's free.
6. Margin rates (I use it a lot) are the best of any broker I've seen...Spartan margin decreases to below broker's call. This makes up for a good portion of the extra cost of Fido.
7. I do wish Fido would add commodities to Spartan, and maybe someday they will. You can do lots of other stuff, though, including trade in foreign stocks (for a higher cost), t-bills, etc.
8. Again, they try to please, yet they are not pests. When they goof, they make good on it. What more can you ask?
Good luck!
Gary Korn |
