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Firstrade review 2010: few fees but expensive to trade stocks at or under $2 and make trades with over 5,000 shares
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Firstrade Trading Fees and Investments Offered (2010)
- $6.95 equities trade commission. For stocks at or under $2 and trades over 5,000 shares,
add 1/2 cent per share for the entire order
- Options commission: $6.95 plus $0.75 per contract for market and limit orders
- Mutual funds: $9.95 no-load funds, $0 load funds
- Bonds: net yield basis
- CDs: $30 for primary market CDs, net yield basis for secondary market CDs
- Investment products: stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, CDs, ETFs
Firstrade trading costs are not bad. But OptionsHouse,
Zecco and TradeKing offer much better prices.
Firstrade.com trading tools are not impressive. They are clearly behind the curve comparing to competition.
- $0 minimum to open account
- 10,000 mutual funds and fixed income investments
- No inactivity or account maintenance fees
- No annual, setup or termination fees for IRA accounts
- No volume requirements
- Free dividend reinvestment
- Expensive trading commissions for stocks under $2 or orders of over 5,000
- Customer service complains
- Limited trading tools
- Short Term Redemption Fee of $19.95 will be applied to redemptions of no-load fund shares held less than 180 days
Firstrades' $6.95 flat rate per trade commission is not bad but with
1/2 cent per share surcharge for stocks under $2 or orders of over 5,000 these trades could become
very expensive.
Firstrade has an impressive choice of mutual funds to invest in. Remember about of $19.95 fee if
you hold mutual fund for less than 180 days.
Firstrade has no IRA setup and maintenance fees, no volume requirements and no inactivity or account
maintenance fees. Firstrades also offers free dividend reinvestment.
Firstrade is pretty good broker but there are more attractively priced and better rated
online brokerage firms.
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