Hey Everyone, thanks for providing all the wonderful info!
I'm a new investor looking for a discount broker that allow online trading. I've done a fair bit of research (especially here and at fool.com ) and so far Waterhouse seems like the best choice. What does anyone else think about this conclusion?
For some details (this is gonna get long, so just skip it if you're not interested), I'm 21 years old, and have a little over $40k in a few stocks (200 BGP and 88 SEG), a T. Rowe Price International Stock Equity Fund (~$6k there), and the rest in a Money Market and Prime Reserve. Pretty much all this came from a trust fund and some inheritance.
Up until this point my dad has been doing all my financial planning / management. The only real input I've had thus far is to "rubber stamp" most of his decisions, although I was the one who chose to invest in BGP (after he showed me a magazine article and gave me a few ideas). Recently I've become very interested in the market and my future, and my dad has become less interested, however, so I'm going to "take over".
The first order of business is to start my own brokerage account. Once I have an account I'll probably invest in a few "Blue Chip" stocks (probably use some version of the Dow Dividend or "Foolish Four" approach). Once I actually earn some money this year I plan to start a Roth IRA, and am thinking about investing it in some high yielding stock or income oriented mutual fund (does that sound like a good idea?). If my interest remains as high as it has been the last week or so I may start looking into mid and small-cap stocks, and maybe even some day trading, but that's a ways off, and I'd be happy to open an account with a 2nd brokerage if the times comes.
The free-check writing and ATM/Visa Check Card are fairly important to me since I hate banks, and really like the idea of using my brokerage account / money market to pay bills and such rather than opening a low yield often high fee checking account at a bank I don't like.
Along with that, other big positives I see with Waterhouse are the no fee IRA and dividend reinvestment, direct download if/when I get Quicken98 up and running, and the fact that there is a branch office within a bout an hour of my new apartment (not real close, but not too bad). The commissions seem to be better than average, but not perfect.
Not sure what else to say (sorry this got so long), but if anyone has any advice whatsoever for me, and specifically whether my tentative decision to start out with Waterhouse seems like a good one, let me know. Thanks again!!!
-- Bill J. Landis ae954@tcnet.org |
