Tom,
I just started ameritrading two weeks ago before the market took a spill. At that time, I thought...for $8 a pop, this is a damn good service since I'm a no frills kind of guy. All I care about are executions, executions, and executions.
But on the day of the spill, I lost of ton of money because there was absolutely no way to get through. Their website was jammed, telephone trading was always busy, and there was absolutely no way to get through to a live broker. One thing that really surprised me was that on the morning of the spill, I called at 7am with an account question. As I was talking with one of their representatives, he mentioned that there was only 4 of them in the office at that time. Now, let's do the math. They're a nationwide service and there's only four of them in the office on what was to be the busiest day in market history?
I know that it's not all their fault because it was difficult for anyone to reach their broker...through any means. But given that I could have limited my losses had I have gotten through, I was a bit sore. But look at it this way, if you're in the market for the long run and really don't need any fancy shmancy services, you might as well go for the cheapest commissions. Less money for them, more for you.
Sang |
