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ChoiceTrade vs OptionsHouse
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OptionsHouse vs ChoiceTrade: Commissions, Fees and Investments
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- Stocks and ETFs (not direct access): $5 per trade
- Stocks and ETFs (direct access): $0.005 per share, $1 minimum per trade
- Stocks and ETFs (broker-assisted): $30 per trade
- Options: $5 plus $0.15 per contract
- Mutual funds: $25 per trade
- Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, Forex, ETFs
- Minimum to open Choicetrade account: $0 for cash account, 2,000 for margin account
- All Choicetrade fees
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- Stocks and ETFs: $3.95
- Stocks and ETFs Broker assisted: $3.95
- Two plans for options:
1. Up to five contracts for $5; each additional
contract $1
2. $8.50 + 0.15/contract (great if trading over 10 contracts)
- Two plans for spreads:
1. Up to 10 contracts for $10; each additional
contract $1
2. $12.50 + 0.15/contract
- Mutual Funds: $9.95
- Orders for U.S. treasury bonds and listed corporate bonds are accepted by phone
- Investments: stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, ETFs
- Minimum to open Optionshouse account: $1,000 for cash account, $2,000 for margin account
- All Optionshouse fees
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- Direct access trading with lowest per share commissions
- Very low flat-rate commissions
- Powerful trading platforms
- No account minimum, maintenance or inactivity fees
- Free paper trading
- Investor community
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- Lowest commissions
- Free streaming quotes
- Efficient trading tools
- No account minimums. Minimum initial funding size is $1,000 for a cash account and $2,000 for a margin account
- No fee IRA accounts
- No volume requirements, maintenance and inactivity fees
- Free check-writing privileges
- Free DRIPs (complete shares only)
- No surcharges for large orders and extended hours trading
- Very low margin rates
- Free virtual trading
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- While web-based trading platform with delayed quotes is free, more advanced platforms and streaming quotes are not: web-based Choicestreamer is $14.95/month,
ChoiceTrader Direct pro is $49/month, Choicetrader Select with eSignal is $126/month
- Extended hours stock trades have $0.005 per share surcharge
- 1% surcharge of the total dollar value of the order in addition to the normal commission of $5 per trade to all stock orders of more than 500,000 shares
- High mutual fund commissions
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- For stocks priced $2 or less that are not options eligible, add $0.005 per share for the entire order
- Shortened extended hours trading: 8:00 am - 9:30 am and 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm EST
- International investors are not accepted
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ChoiceTrade vs OptionsHouse: Comparison Summary
Optionshouse (Optionshouse Review)
offers lower commissions on stocks and ETFs than
Choicetrade (Choicetrade Review):
$3.95 per trade versus $5 at ChoiceTrade. For mutual funds it's $9.95 and
$25 per transaction respectively. In its flat-rate plan, ChoiceTrade charges $0.005 per share
more on extended hours stock trades. Optionshouse has a surcharge of $0.005 per share on stocks under $2 that are not options eligible.
ChoiceTrade and OptionsHouse do not charge account maintenance and inactivity fees, and don't have volume
requirements to get their low commissions (unlike many other online brokers). Both brokerage firms are great for
anyone looking for retirement account and OptionsHouse has one of the
Best IRAs in 2012.
OptionsHouse and ChoiceTrade are great online brokerage houses, highly rated by all financial magazines and would
work great for most investors.
Only because of lower commissions and therefore substantial savings over the years, we recommend OptionsHouse over ChoiceTrade.
We also rated OptionsHouse the Best Brokerage Firm in 2011.
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