Which are the best discount brokers?

Further explanation, while the funds invested/to be invested are not over a million, they are in the several hundred thousand range and thus should merit a bulk trade/ decent portfolio balance rate for the trading. Thanks again Hauslohn

I use Schwab and am very happy with them.

Within seconds (except for mutual funds of course which can't be executed until the fund is priced at the end of the day, but that happens no matter where you purchase a fund).

Always.

Very good.

Thanks for your input ref Schwab. To explain - we used to be with a full service high commission brokerage and were basically " hands off" for years being tied up with other things. However early this Spring, we decided to get fully " hands on" and had ideas of our own of what we wanted to do with Stocks and ETFs, so figured we did not want either input or high commissions. We moved to a discount brokerage which I shall call "UStrader" - now in some ways we have been pleased, we are doing well, the trading costs are low and the research decent, the recording of the trades is correct and timely - no problem there - BUT a) the reporting of income into the account is vague " ordinary dividend - $99" - from where the dividend comes is not often shown either by company or symbol - we find that incomprehensible. and b) ref the "Cash" money which goes into and out of an interesting bearing account between Buys and Sells, we have found it impossible to see our Money Market account separately per se, or receive a monthly accounting of interest paid to us while funds are in the Money Market Account, or, since I keep a full Quicken record for tax purposes, be able to balance our figures with theirs. I am not talking a lot of money (but not a few dollars and cents either), and we are finding it increasingly frustrating to be a hundred and more dollars " out" when we do the equivalent of " balancing our check book" ..... so we wonder if perhaps we are expecting too much of a discount firm? Hence our question Thanks Hauslohn

On Jun 30, 4:20 pm, Ernie Klein wrote:

======================================= MODERATOR'S COMMENT: Please trim the post to which you are responding. "Trim" means that except for a FEW lines to add context, the previous post is deleted.

If you are buying MF's, either Fid or Schwab have plenty of no transaction funds you can buy. For stocks Schwab charges $9.95 per trade of up to 5,000 shares. You can get lower commissions, but not by much.

That's absurd. The dividend should certainly say where it came from.

Nope. You apparently chose a crappy one.

I've been very happy for many years with Fidelity and have recently opened and been quite happy with ETrade.

I even got a very pleasant surprise the other day which I'd planned on telling the group about - ETrade refunds a portion of the 12b-1 fees that it collects for certain no-load funds. It wasn't a huge amount of money, but it's like getting your funds expense ratio cut down some. Nice.

As another poster indicated, Schwab has a very good reputation, as well. They used to be a bit more expensive than most if the deeper-discount brokers, but I get the idea that they've cut costs to be more competitive lately. I don't think you'd go wrong with any of these, and all three have walk-in locations in many places, which I rather like as well.

I don't see how they can operate within the law and not account for every penny -- where it comes from and where it goes.

Not a problem with Schwab. Every penny is accounted within seconds in the "Account History". Dividends are separated into ordinary, short term, and long term. Everything is accounted for.

Any cash in my account from dividends or bond interest is automatically invested into a 'sweeps' (money market) that currently pays about 4.5% interest. Long term cash can be moved into a value advantage money market fund that currently pays 5.03%. I move money into and out of these funds all the time when I buy or sell.

I have never experiences any of the problems of which you speak.

I recently opened a Checking and Brokerage account at Schwab. So far they have been extremely prompt. I also like the idea that I can park my money in my checking account and then move it to retirement or brokerage accounts.

If you are having issues with broker ask them questions and if need be give them a visit at the local office. Good luck....

Reporting where? On your monthly statements? Maybe it's the total ordinary dividend that's reported, combined from several sources. On Schwab and Fidelity I can look online for the current transactions. Dividends are reported individually with sources.

Again on both Schwab and Fidelity you can see your transactions online with interests paid to the sweep account shown. But be aware that account balances are always off because stock prices are updated continually during the day.

Also Quicken allows direct link to Schwab or Fidelity (and others) accounts so your account balance can be updated automatically. I have not activated this feature, preferring to do this manually.

Thanks everyone - your help and input is really appreciated, tomorrow we are going to a) open & fund an account with Schwab b) add monies to our Fidelity Mutual Funds to increase that account to cover buying Stocks & ETFs c) Tell the other guys that they have to get their input records clear and balancing to a reasonable degree or we are history.... Tonight shows a discrepancy of near S100 on the balance of one account there and over $300 on the other account there. The fact that these are " in our favor" is actually not that reassuring... another time they could be to our detriment and then we would be really mad !!!!

Thanks everyone - really appreciate your help Hauslohn