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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Warkentin who wrote (48784)	2/24/1999 11:06:00 PM
From: Knighty Tin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Steve, Sorry about the dim bulb comment. If you do a lot of no load funds, they have the best system. But their stock commissions are crazy, especially compared with Brown's $5 "tip.", or even Waterhouse or Ameritrade. BTW, you can go to the local office and use their stuff without having an account. Ditto for Fidelity. Your money is not "safe" with any broker, just with govt. insurance. Never go over SIPC limits at any one firm. I remember all the brokers that have gone belly up and bigger is not better. I would rather have the minor inconvenience of several brokers than the major inconvenience of seeing some of my money disappear. Remember, the larger firms, like Merrill and Morgan Stanley and Smith Barney, are rolling the dice every day on derivatives and other stupid trades. They usually win or cut their losses soon enough. But someday, most will be caught. Heck, Long Term Capital almost took them all out in one swell foop. And that was only ONE hedge fund. Pretty scary. Also, don't count on private insurance. These guys are also of questionable use in a major downturn. Yes, it was before your time and mine, but most American insurance cos. did NOT pay off during the San Francisco earthquake. They simply couldn't. If you were insured with one of them, you were dead meat. Those who had Lloyd's of London made out fine. MB MB