Freetrade Brokerage?

[scifos]

http://www.freetrade.com/

Looks like its run by ameritrade but ultra low commissions. A zero frills brokerage. I barely use any of the services my broker offers, I do my own research and mostly use other websites. Any comments?

[New-born baby]

Banana Man,

My kicks with the program is that one must pay a $15 monthly fee for streaming quotes. Wow. That's cheap. And to have a stock list, they want me to cough up $20. $10 limit orders (Ameritrade is $10.99 everyday). They aren't saving me any money.

If every order was a market order, if I had access to streaming quotes without them anyway, then they make a great deal. All I need to do is buy a second computer, use my Scottrade account to watch the thing, and buy with Freetrade. Now that's cheap!

[jiesen]

I don't use them (yet) but I believe that interactivebrokers.com is actually cheaper than freetrade.

$1/100 shares, min $10/quarter commissions.

by the way NBB, you don't need 2 computers to do what you're suggesting. Just open Scottrader in one window, and Freetrade with another, and you're good to go. But having a computer dedicated specifically to trading is always a good idea anyway, as you won't run as high a risk of it being down for some reason.

[New-born baby]

Thanks, Jiesen!

I like this freetrader. I might go with it. Keep two accounts, one with Scottrade, one with Freetrade. Or maybe interactive brokers.

[ChrisZXWJ]

I've been with Freetrade for about a year now. How much have I paid them? $0. Can't beat that. I recommend them to everyone I talk to...there's really no reason not to trade there, unless you like giving away money :)

[scifos]

*Bump* anybody else use freetrade or another ultra low commission service? I'm shopping around for a new broker. They must make their money by accepting payments from market makers for routing orders to them.

BTW Newborn, see this page: http://www.freetrade.com/documents/html/fee_schedule.html

The $10 for limit orders is for EXTENDED HOURS. Quoting from the above page:

Commissions apply to regular session market, limit, stop, and stop-limit trades.

Number of TradesCommission per Trade
Your first 20 trades $0
Your trades 21-100 $3
Your trades 101-200 $2
Your trades 201 & above $1

[New-born baby]

Thank You Scifos! I gotta go with Freetrade!

[df21084]

Does FreeTrade offer dividend reinvestment? ScotTrade does not.

[scifos]

Does FreeTrade offer dividend reinvestment? ScotTrade does not.

I didn't find anything relating to that. Send them an email, they're good about answering emails.

[scifos]

they denied my app

[New-born baby]

Scifos,

They rejected me today, too. Haven't been with an online broker for two years yet. Bad news for me.

[skiracer]

What do you mean they rejected you for not being with an online broker for two years. Is that one of the prerequisites? Could you explain what they told you in a little bit more detail.

[scifos]

no, i've been with an online broker for 3 years. I think it was my limited account size and the fact that I'm a student with no job (thus they don't want to extend margin to me, and all freetrade accts are margin enabled)

[skiracer]

Sounds reasonable on their part for the time being until you are able to build a larger capital base which I'm sure you will over time. Good luck.