Scottrade is a privately owned discount retail brokerage firm headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Its founder and president is Rodger O. Riney. Scottrade has more than 370 local branch offices. Scottrade was founded in 1980 by Riney as Scottsdale Securities in Scottsdale, Arizona, with two offices, one in Scottsdale and the other in St. Louis.

In 1996 Scottsdale Securities offered online trading to its customers, under the domain name of www.scottrade.com. It adopted the Scottrade name as its corporate name in 2000.  http://www.scottrade.com

Scottrade was my first online broker and from the get go they made it very easy. I loved having the local office so that I felt comfortable handing my money over to someone instead of transferring online or mailing in a check to a random address. Although I don’t use Scottrade very much any more for my trades, I still use them for all of their easy to use tools, charts, and streaming quotes.

Below Im going to walk through some screen shots from my Scottrade account to better show the user interface and explain the pros and cons so that you can make a more informed decision.

First is a shot of the home page when you first log into your account.

I like the homepage with Scottrade in that it is very clean and uncomplicated.  I have used other brokers where you get to your homepage and you have no idea whats going on because they are very cluttered.

The homepage has user friendly tabs for navigation.  It shows up front your positions and a chart showing your performance over a customizable amount of time, which I like.   Also shows your watchlist, which is customizable.

Next snapshot is of the streamer that comes free with your Scottrade account.  You can find my comments in the green boxes on the picture.

The last snapshot is one showing more detail on an individual streaming chart.

As my comments in the snapshot mention the lack of indicators that you can add is a bummer, but if you don’t need all the extra indicators these tools will definitely do the trick.   Scottrade does have all the additional tools and streaming indicators available to you if you carry an account of $25,000 or more with them.  This platform is called Scottrade Elite.  They probably figure that if you want all the extra tools you are probably day trading in which you would be required to carry a balance of $25,000 anyways.  (FYI on any online brokerage account if you are deemed a “pattern day trader” you must meet the minimum requirements of $25,000 or you will get a margin call to make up any difference needed)

So in conclusion Scottrade is a great overall platform in my opinion.  Very easy to use and the free streamer with streaming quotes is top notch for any beginning to intermediate trader.  I still use my streamer with them just because it is so clean and doesn’t fill up my desktop like other streamers.   Also the trades are easy to make in that they have the ability to “quick buy” right from the charts.

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(12 votes, average: 3.83 out of 5)

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The Charles Schwab Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHW), based in San Francisco, California is a company founded as a traditional (brick-and-mortar) brokerage house, and which today is one of the world’s largest discount brokers. Schwab offers the same services as traditional brokerages but with lower commissions and fees than many other brokers. The company serves some 7 million individual and institutional clients, with $1.39 trillion in assets (as of March 31, 2008), from some 300 offices in the U.S. Clients can also access its services via telephone, wireless device, and the Internet.

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(10 votes, average: 3.30 out of 5)

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OptionsXpress began in 2000 as a service primarily focused on options and a limited selection of equities; however, today the broker offers a wide array of investments including stocks, mutual funds, exchange–traded funds and bonds.  http://www.optionsxpress.com/

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(9 votes, average: 2.22 out of 5)

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Fidelity is a privately-held company founded by Edward C. Johnson 2nd in 1949 and still controlled by the Johnson Family. Fidelity Management & Research Company, the US investment management division of Fidelity Investments, acts as the investment adviser to Fidelity’s family of mutual funds.

Fidelity Investments operates a major online discount brokerage and has investor centers in about 100 cities throughout the US and Canada, as well in Europe and Asia.  http://www.fidelity.com

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(22 votes, average: 3.41 out of 5)

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E-Trade Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) is a financial services company based in New York City, United States.  It is a holding company, the major business of which is an online discount stock brokerage service for self-directed investors.  Investors can buy and sell securities such as stocks, bonds, options, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds via electronic trading platforms or by phone.  The company also offers banking and lending products such as checking and savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and credit cards. http://www.etrade.com

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(13 votes, average: 2.62 out of 5)

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Zecco.com is an American online investor portal.  Zecco stands for “Zero Commission Cost”.  Zecco’s stated philosophy was to eliminate commission fees.  Zecco was among the first online investing websites that allowed for any trades without a commission.  Currently, Zecco Trading allows for ten free trades a month.  However, Zecco requires a minimum balance of $25,000 OR execute 25 trades a month to be able to receive the 10 free trades.  If either of these is not met, or the 10 trades are exceeded, the price is $4.50.

Zecco is a relatively new kid on the block and initially started out with a very aggressive campaign in late 2007. In that campaign they offered 40 free trades a month, which was amazing. As time has passed they have narrowed the free trades, but have added more functionality and tools to the site.

Below are some snapshots from an account and followed with some commentary:

• First is a snapshot of what you see when you first login to your account

• Second is a snapshot of the “Positions” page

• Third is a snapshot of a page on their website explaining how they are able to offer free trades

• Here is one of the “Zecco Sirens” instructional videos… Technical Analysis never looked so good!

Pros:

• The user interface is the easiest to use out of all those reviewed.  Interface is very clean and concise, without a maze of extra tabs and links that you find with other online brokers
• Free trades! with conditions mentioned above.
• Very cheap trades after freebies are gone …  $4.50 (same with options!)
• Money transfer process is very easy to use
• Trade Execution is on point never had any problems:  Zecco Trade Execution Info

Cons:

• Although I never have had any problems with customer service I have heard horror stories.
• Bare bones on Tools.  In order to get things such as streaming quotes you have to pay a monthly charge for that premium item.
• Changing pricing structure.  Although they have had this latest pricing structure for almost a year now, it was pretty depressing when they changed the free trades policy to what it is now.  Bait and Switch anyone?

Overall Zecco is a great online broker if you are a person looking to just make trades.  It also helps if you are a low maintenance kind of person and don’t need to deal with the customer service.  With the free trades and low price point thereafter Zecco is definitely very tough to beat for a reputable online broker.   As a suggestion a strategy a lot of us here use is having multiple accounts where you get all the great tools from say a TD Ameritrade and use Zecco to make all the trades on the cheap.

If you do end up planning on opening a Zecco account please do us a favor and use our link on the right sidebar (its the pink Zecco box) so that we can get a kickback of some sort to keep the wheels turning over here at NHF.  Greatly appreciated!

Also be sure to check out our Online Broker Promotions to be sure that you have any promo codes that are currently available.

Leave your rating and any comments below on any experiences that you have had or other information that others may find valuable.

(15 votes, average: 3.80 out of 5)

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