z28C4maro82z

iTrader: (33)

Hey I'm 22 and want to get started with investing. Anyways, I'm looking to get started possibly with online trading. Does anyone frown against this. My parents recommended going to a firm, but I hear good things with online investing.

Anyways, I see e*trade, but they say you get 100 free trades, and no comission. What are some of the things to watch out for, and what are benefits.

Thanks

Chris

Brewski

iTrader: (1)

You'll want to check if they have yearly fees, no activity fees, what they take for a trade commission once trial periods are over etc...

Here are some general things to keep in mind...
If you're looking to day trading you need to be aware that after performing a sale you'll need to wait three days for that money to clear before being able to re-invest it.

I try to keep my transactions @ ~$500 or more rather than buying a stock in several smaller purchases to avoid multiple transaction fees.

I currently use scottrade but my guess is many of the online trading firms offer similar tools for stock analysis along with different stock reports. I typically run a stock screener and then look up the stock at fool.com to see what higher rated members have scored the stock and what they're pitches were. If I'm still interested I then check Seeking Alpha and Reuters to get additional information. Lastly I'll go to stockchart.com and check the stocks trend and try to see if it's "value is currently high" chart history wise. If it isn't I'll put an offer in at that price.

Also tax implication wise keep in mind short term capital gains taxes can be fairly steep so you'll need to budget in paying those taxes on those transactions. Plan on saving ~40% of gains when you sell to avoid being surprised at the end of the year.

Take it easy
Brewski

z28C4maro82z

iTrader: (33)

Im not looking so much for day trading as per buying and selling overnight. More so just looking to toss some money into stocks, and sit to see how they do in a few weeks/months. I just want to begin to test the waters, and see how my hand is at it. Ive got a couple stocks that I've been looking into, and want to see how they fair. What are the quirks with scottrade? annual fee, transaction fee, what do they want out of me? Any commission?

hypry2k

I'm 36 and just started a month ago with scottrade and pretty much didn't have a clue but they offer a lot of tools and resources to learn and research stocks and trading. I'm not a day trader or looking for quick turn around, so far I've got 8 stocks have made decent gains and really enjoy using scottrade. On the other hand I still deal with a firm for retirement. Take Brewski's advice research your stocks
Good luck

LS1LT1

iTrader: (16)

Nope. there's some decent money to be made and the comission savings over a full service broker are almost built in gains right off the bat, if you know what you're doing that is. Often times a full service broker is better but nothing is fool proof.





The benefits are the comission savings as noted above as well the ability to control your own transactions and not have to wait on a phone or for your broker to call you back, it's all virtually immediate, that can also bite ya in the *** as well if you're not careful.
Things to watch out for....well, if you have $280,000.00 to invest, don't...buy a Ferrari F430 Scuderia or three Vipers or two ZR1s instead. Trust me on that one LOL.

z28C4maro82z

iTrader: (33)

lmao Marc. I knew I could count on you hahaha. Anyways, I think I'm going to sign up on Scottrade and start puttin around on there. We'll see how it goes. Scottrade seems to have some hype here so why not try it out