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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Teflon who wrote (25555)	7/6/1999 4:36:00 PM
From: Jill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Teflon...I've used Schwab and now use Fidelity. I like Fidelity better.

To: Teflon who wrote (25555)	7/6/1999 4:56:00 PM
From: Sir Francis Drake	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

<OT> Teflon, as you are well aware, there is no "perfect" broker, or even close to one. Given the list of requirements you gave, I would look to Schwab - you get a little bit more service. Brown & Co, is another possibility, the plus is that you have lower commissions, and - very important, low, low, margin interest rates (important, if you like to be on margin for any lenght of time) - though you definitely have a bit less "all around service" compared to Schwab. The problem is getting 'everything' in one broker... f.ex., there are brokers out there who are better than both of these when it comes to options, but have less "overall" service. If you are heavy into options, and use margin extensively, I'd recommed TradeStar: 4tradestar.com I have been w/ TradeStar for almost 2 years, and the only complaint I have, is that compared to Datek, f.ex., their website is slow. On the other hand, they answer the phone with reasonable speed, you can also place touch-phone orders 24 hours (and online as well, 24 hours, though the website is a bit slow during heavy trading). Commissions reasonable, on options v. good. You can participate in select IPOs. Check writing, and automatic sweep of outstanding cash into money market funds where you earn interest. Their statements are very well written, w/ all trades for the month, balances, margin costs, interest rates, (in addition to separate trade confirmation mailings, which are a bit cheezy) - but big negative... their trades and balances on the website are so strangely structured that to this day I can't make head or tails of it - so no automatic downloading of trades from the website. Of course, TradeStar cannot be used for daytrading frenetically. Stay away from Etrade. Hope this helps. Good luck! Morgan

To: Teflon who wrote (25555)	7/6/1999 4:58:00 PM
From: Kenneth V. McNutt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Re: Broker-- With all respect to Uncle Frank and other Fidelity subscribers I have moved my several accounts to Schwab due to poor service on the net from Fidelity. I still have two accts at Fidelity I handle for relatives and I hate it each time I have to bring them up. Their program (Fidelity's) seems cumbersome and not as intuitive as Schwab's, and many times I have been unable to make a trade after logging on, seems to take forever. Schwab market orders are almost instantaneous. Also, Schwabs portfolio accounting on screen is real time whereas Fidelity's is not brought up date until 4am the next morning. In other words, at market close I know where I stand and do not have to wait till the next day to see final quotes and portfolio net. If you have sufficient funds inquire about the Schwab Signature account. I get a great deal of info and assistance from them, personally or thru the web site. Just my opinion. Others, no doubt, are happy with Fidelity as I was for over 20 years until I began having trading problems on the web. FWIW K