There are many places on the web looking to take our money for investment services. Some are hooks to separate you from your money but some are worthwhile, credible and deliver what they claim. I'd be interested in hearing what some of you are into if you are willing to share that level of personal information. I'll start with mine. I subscribe to AAII (American Association of Individual Investors) I have a 4 year subscription to the site and Computerized Investing area for $180 and a 2 year subscription to Stock Investor Pro for $199. They do have cheaper options but those are what I chose. They are a good source of information, spreadsheets and stock screens. They do deliver what they claim. The only thing I would say is stay away from Stock Investor Pro unless you are a through fundamental analysis person. That particular subscription is not worth the money for just a screener but the historical data pulled in is nice. In the past I did have an 18 month subscription to Investools. I took their courses on Stock Investing, Advanced Fundamental Analysis, Income Investing, and Portfolio Management. I will say I got a lot out of those courses but only because I got involved and studied ALL of them. They also have trading rooms and online coaching that goes along with each course in which you webex interact with various Investools coaches. While I have no regrets in signing up for them and feel like I did get my money's worth I must say they are pricey (at least to me) which is why I let my subscription expire. Once you study and understand what they are teaching you don't need to keep throwing money at them to keep going over the same material. Also, much of the material is available to anyone that wants to self study but you would miss the interaction and reinforcement of the coaches. The costs can range from $1000 to $6000 per year depending on the number of courses you sign up for. I also in the past have had premium memberships to Zacks.com for earnings information and Morningstar.com for their premium analysis. Each of them were $150 a year and were useful but I let them expire when I went to Investools. That's pretty much my list. If anyone else cares to share their experiences or want to ask about one they are thinking of subscribing to, post a reply to this thread. Love to hear from you. Thanks...
In the past I used Ameritrade and I liked their trading platforms but I changed to Merrill Edge in January of this year because of the 100 free trades I get every month. The trading platform is not as good as Ameritrade but as I do a lot tier trading Merrill fits my trading style better not to mention the savings I get in trades. I saved $472 last month on 68 trades. They do have a decent research section that I can look up the fundamentals of a company in short order. Because I have a online account with Bofa I can switch back and forth between the Merrill and Bofa websites with the click of a mouse. I use that function quite often.
I have equityfeed.com which has some cool scan functions. Im not a big trader on the small caps at the moment, but when I was, running a morning scan to find unusual volume was a favorite tactic.
years ago when I wanted to open an USA $ account after perusing many I decided on ETRADE their platform is ideal for my scalps.....IMO the best I seen not been an USA resident the commission are the lowest 9.99 (that was the same with Ameritrade I used them in UK didn't find as good as Etrade JMHO) if one does over 30 trades x quarter the platform and tools are free.... not hard doing that then of course I got others here but not to general interest btw lately I found that their service isn't as good as before resolving problems
Thanks freshforex but I was looking for unbiased posts from individual investors, not a commercial. Thanks for playing though
There are many other services on internet for trading is available, but i don't like service from commercial.
It's pretty Gil, but just setting up I was at $135/mo. Not sure how that gives much over my current desktop, TOS or ETradePro.
If you like spreads and want to quickly see returns graphed I'd go for optionsxpress.com. It strips all the nonsense and lets you see p/l and risk and trade right from the graph. If you want simple. I wouldn't always get my fills and leg in sometimes so wound up using it just for research.