Judy-
Throwing in my two cents as I use Ameritrade and National Discount Brokers, neither of which have been mentioned so far.
I like Ameritrade and market orders are $8.00. Limit or stop orders are $13.00. These prices are based on entering your trades online, which is very convenient these days. Their site works quite well, even during market hours. They offer stop orders on all listed stocks, NYSE, AMEX or NASDAQ. Trades execute promptly but the notification is sometimes less than prompt. If you need to know right away that every trade you make has been filled, you might be better at NDB.
I also like NDB, though the trades are a few dollars more, $14.75 for market and $19.75 for limit, placed online. They have a better call-in system for getting quotes and a 100 free real time quotes for each trade you make, which can be accessed online or by phone. I keep this account for the quotes that I get, as I can use this feature when I am out and about. Their site also works very well, and trade confirms arrive by e-mail or fax almost instantaneously.
Either company would be excellent for an investment club in my opinion. Since they probably don't need to worry about an execution report occasionally taking up to an extra hour or two, they would probably do well at Ameritrade because of the lower commissions.
I have heard that Brown and Co. offers $5.00 market trades, even by phone, but I don't know anything about their service and reliability, nor have I heard anything recently, pro or con.
Hope this helps.
Carl |
