Etrade vs ShareBuilder: Commissions and Investments 2012
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- Stocks and ETFs: $9.99 if 0-149 trades per quarter; $7.99 if 150+ trades per quarter
- Options: $9.99 plus $0.75/contract if 0-149 trades per quarter; $7.99 plus $0.75/contract if 150+ trades per quarter
- Mutual Funds: $19.99
- Futures contracts: $2.99 per contract, per side + fees
- Investment products: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, futures, options, ETFs
- Minimum to open Etrade account: $2,000 for margin account. For securities accounts (except retirement accounts), an account minimum deposit of
either at least $500 in cash or a deposit of securities is required within 60 days of account opening for the account to remain active. There is no initial minimum deposit requirement for retirement, custodial, or employee stock plan accounts. Accounts not meeting the minimum deposit requirement will be closed after 60 days.
- All Etrade fees
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- Stocks and ETFs Basic plan: $9.95 real-time trades; $4 per Automatic Investment
- Stocks and ETFs Advantage plan: $7.95 real-time trades; first 12 Automatic Investment per month included, $1 per additional investment
- Advantage plan comes with $12 monthly fee
- Options: Basic plan - $9.95 per online trade + $1.25 per contract; Advantage plan - $7.95 per online trade + $0.75 per contract
- Mutual funds: $19.95 for 170 no-load funds from leading no-load mutual fund families; 70 free funds including the ING mutual funds
- Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, ETFs
- Minimum to open Sharebuilder account: $0
- All Sharebuilder fees
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Etrade vs ShareBuilder: Pros
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- Very good trading tools
- No IRA account fees, no minimums with electronic statements and confirms
- Minimum to open: $1,000 for cash account, $2,000 for margin account
- Banking products: checking, savings, money market accounts, CDs and credit cards
- No surcharges on large orders, penny stocks and extended hours trading
- Great research amenities
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- Very low Automatic Investing Plans costs
- Free dividend and capital gains reinvestment
- Ability to buy fractions of a stock
- $0 to open cash account, $2,000 for margin account
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Etrade vs ShareBuilder: Cons
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- High commissions on all investment products
- High margin rates
- Customer service complaints
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- Real-time trades at $9.95 are expensive
- $0.007 per share surcharge on real-time trades on penny stocks (subject to a maximum of 15% of the principal amount of the trade, but no less than the base commission)
- Customers can't specify at what price investments with Automatic Investing Plans are bought/sold
- Very basic trading tools
- Customer service complaints
- Terrible executions
- Few mutual fund choices
- No beneficiary option (important for customers with families)
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ShareBuilder vs Etrade: Comparison Summary
ShareBuilder (ShareBuilder Review)
is best known for offering cheap automatic investment plans. This investing strategy is ideal for people that
don't believe in timing the market or don't have time to follow it and are looking to dollar-cost-average their investments
by arranging to have a set amount invested daily, weekly, biweekly or monthly. The disadvantage of
automatic investment plans is that users have no control over what price they are buying investments.
ShareBuilder charges high real-time commission on stocks and ETFs - $9.99 per trade. Like Etrade, the company has no account
maintenance and inactivity fees as well as no surcharges on large-size and extended hours orders.
However, it charges $0.007 per share more on penny stock trades.
Etrade (Etrade Review) is one of the best known online brokerage firms and it
offers good trading tools, banking services, independent research and customer service. Its commissions are identical to the competitor:
$9.99 per stock and ETF trade.
There are better brokerage firms for beginner investors than these two. Some of them offer vibrant online communities where users
could ask questions, learn from more experienced traders and even get investment ideas. Others provide virtual trading environment,
that allows users to practice trading without putting real money at risk. If you are new to investing, check out
our Best Brokers for Beginner Investors recommendations.
It's hard to recommend ShareBuilder for anything other than automatic investment plans. Etrade is a decent choice
(but far from the best) for an IRA account and
for "buy-and-hold" investors. For everybody else we suggest taking a look at other online brokerage companies,
where customers pay much lower commissions and save thousands of dollars in investment costs over the years.
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