After the stock market crash in February-March, 2009; I thought I should start investing in stocks. People told me that it is a good time to start investing and this will be a rare opportunity (once in every ten years or may be more). I had no idea about how stocks work and how to invest. With the help of my colleagues and others I was able to open a brokerage account with TDameritrade. My colleagues were very experienced and their invest range is in thousands. My investment capabilities were limited (In hundreds) and in addition to that I was new. After I opened my account, I studied about stocks from many sources like Google finance, smartmoney, Kiplinger, yahoo finance, Kiplinger old editions on Google reader, YouTube and others.
By the time I got an idea it was November, but the stocks were on the rise and it was time of thanks giving followed by December (Christmas). It was good time for businesses and so I started my first investment with starbucks. I had little idea on how to choose my stocks but had strong belief that this company will do well in long run. Ameritrade was good but not for beginners and for people who invest very less. They charge 9.99 for each trade; it’s a lot for small investors like me. I switched my brokerage account to sogotrade, which charges 3$ flat for every trade. The only problem I had with this brokerage was the stock prices are delayed by 20 minutes or so or may be less than that. Anyways, I check real time prices on Google finance before I buy on sogo. I found just2trade.com for 2.50$ per trade but I did not find their website very clear.
Very recently I opened an account with share trader, which charges 4$ per trade. It is a nice brokerage for people who want to invest on a biweekly or monthly basis. They have plans like basic, standard and so on. If you open an IRA account they are giving free credits to invest for a year (check restrictions). From time to time they give out promotional codes for free credits to invest (no brokerage fee). I use referral programs from these brokerages to get some money or free trades. For example, Ameritrade gives 50$ or 5 free trades for every referral, sogotrade gives 25 and sharebuilder gives 10 per referral.
If you have a really good credit history (say 740 or more), I would say apply for a Schwab visa card (the one with 2% unlimited cashback on everything you buy). The cashback is directly deposited into the brokerage account which can be used to invest in the stocks/funds. I use this card alone for all my purchases to get the benefit. In my opinion, one should always choose a brokerage account based on their requirement. If you keep asking others or search Google, there will be multiple opinions about all the brokerages. Do your research and make a choice. Good luck..
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