Scottrade vs ChoiceTrade: Trading Fees and Investments 2012
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- Stocks and ETFs: $7
- Stocks and ETFs broker assisted: $27
- Stocks and ETFs interactive voice response (IVR) telephone system: $17
- Options: $7 plus $1.25 per contract
- Mutual Funds: 2,800+ free mutual funds, $17 for others
- CDs, OTC Secondary Corporates, OTC Secondary Municipals, U.S. Treasury Bills, Notes, Bonds and STRIPS, New Corporate Offerings: subject to a markup or markdown
- Listed Corporate Bonds: $35 fee plus $3 per bond (minimum investment $1,000)
- Unit Investment Trusts (UIT): $50 liquidation fee
- Foreign Stocks Transferring In or Out: $60 per transaction
- Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, CDs, munis, U.S. Treasury, Canadian and foreign stocks, ETFs
- Minimum to open Scottrade account: $500 for a cash account, $2,000 for a margin account
- All Scottrade fees
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- Stocks and ETFs (not direct access): $5 per trade
- Stocks and ETFs (direct access): $0.0025 per share, $1.50 minimum per trade
- Stocks and ETFs (broker-assisted): $10 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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- No inactivity, account maintenance or hidden fees
- No-fee IRAs
- One of the highest customer satisfaction ratings according to JD Power and Associates
- 500+ local branches
- Great support for beginner investors with massive amount of educational resources
- Online user community
- Banking services: savings, CDs, money market and checking accounts (visa check card and first order of checks is free)
- No ACAT fee
- Only $500 minimum to open account
- Free real-time streaming quotes and charts
- Free dividend reinvestment for mutual funds (but not for stocks)
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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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- Additional 0.5% of the principal value commission for stocks under $1
- No electronic withdrawals (but can use debit card or checks)
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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
- No penny stock surcharge up to 500,000 shares. Over 500,000 shares, add 1% of the total dollar value of the order to the normal commission of $5 per trade
to all stock orders of more than 500,000 shares
- $2 surcharge on bulletin board and pink sheet stock trades
- High mutual fund commissions
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ChoiceTrade vs Scottrade: Comparison Summary
Scottrade (Scottrade Reviews) is more expensive than
ChoiceTrade (ChoiceTrade Reviews) for equities: $7 for stock and
ETF trades versus ChoiceTrade's $5 for stock and ETF trades. The firm is cheaper for mutual funds though: free/$17 for mutual fund
transactions versus $25 at ChoiceTrade.
ChoiceTrade and Scottrade provide its customers with intuitive trading tools and great customer service. Unlike ChoiceTrade, Scottrade offers over 500
branches where customers could visit and talk with a representative face-to-face. The firm's biggest disadvantage is additional
commission on penny stock trades.
ChoiceTrade charges high monthly trading platform fees as well as a large number of surcharges. All these costs make the firm way too
expensive for majority of investors.
Thanks to helpful online community, where users could ask questions and learn from more experienced investors, as well as plethora of
learning materials, Scottrade is one of the
Best Brokers for Beginner Investors.
It is also one of our Highest Rated Brokerage Firms in 2012.
Scottrade is a great company for most customers, especially for mutual funds, buy-and-hold investors and for individual
retirement accounts.
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