Where do you guys make your trades? i.e. software

[all_in_lam]

Im currently using my bank's investment account but commission is 25 dollars per transaction.

wondering why deals you guys are using to trade with.

thanks.

[blendedsuit]

Scottrade, $7 trades, Ameritrade $9.95 per trade. Account minimums are around $2000 for no account maint. fees. I have accounts at both and would gladly split the refer a friend bonus with you.
I recommend TD Ameritrade, as I feel the order routing and execution occurs faster there. Feel free to PM me any questions or post them here.

[missmisery]

I use InteractiveBrokers. I never see this broker mentionned in this forum, yet it is probably the one with the lowest commission fees. 1$/trade (maybe a little more if you buy tons of shares).

I wouldn't trade anywhere else. It is basically trading for free. I have a small portfolio (25K) and with such comission fees, I can take a lot of small positions without worrying about the fees.

[Osprey]

This might be a dumb question, but if you want to move your investments from one broker to another, ow do you do it?

[all_in_lam]

[ QUOTE ]
I use InteractiveBrokers. I never see this broker mentionned in this forum, yet it is probably the one with the lowest commission fees. 1$/trade (maybe a little more if you buy tons of shares).


[/ QUOTE ]

hey do you have to have an american bank account (i am canadian) to transfer or be an american? and is there a minimum balance or number of transactionsper year?

[missmisery]

[ QUOTE ]
hey do you have to have an american bank account (i am canadian) to transfer or be an american? and is there a minimum balance or number of transactionsper year?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm Canadian too! Just go to www.interactivebrokers.ca
You can deposit in CAD from your current canadian bank account. If you want to trade USD denominated stocks, you can either convert your money to USD (they have excellent rates) or request a loan (if you have a margin account).

As for specific questions, I suggest having a look at their website. I know that you need to deposit at least 2,000 USD in order to open an account. There is a minimum comission fee of 10$/month (3$ if you're under 25 which is my case!).

Since you're canadian, you might want to take a look at www.tradefreedom.com too. 10$/trade but there is no minimum fee or balance. They also provide free market data. If you just plan to buy and hold a few ETFs, this may be a good option.

I may actually open an account with them and just buy 1 ETF and profit from the free market data :-)

Finally, IB is geared toward serious traders. I sometime find it a bit confusing since I'm relatively new to the stock market. TradeFreedom appears much more user-friendly.

[pig4bill]

IB has just as many pissed off customers as satisfied customers. Their customer service sucks. When you put in an order and it doesn't go through, you can lose hundreds. See their thread on Silicon Investor for complaints.