Personal Finance Reviews » Broker reviews

TradeKing Strategy Builder Stock Screening Tool Review

pfreviews — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 16:45:58 +0000

Discount broker TradeKing recently launched a new stock screener, the Strategy Builder, for investors to better choose which stocks to buy based on either self-built criteria or well-known principles. If you are already using TradeKing, you can find the new Strategy Builder in your account under Tools.

Since Strategy Builder is a stock screening tool, what it does is help investors identify which stocks to buy based on certain criteria, some are developed by Recognia based on well-known strategy, such as the ‘Growth At a Reasonable Price’ strategy described in Benjamin Graham’s 1949 classic book The Intelligent Investor; others are provided by individual investors from the TradeKing user community. Each strategy is built on a set of criteria, with some popular ones as stock price, dividend yield, P/E, price/book ratio, volume, and price performance in various time intervals.

I am not an active trader myself. When I did buy stocks, I never used any screening tools because I don’t think I need a tool to tell me what to buy if I only buy a few stocks in a year. Plus, for the stocks I did buy, it was always the case that I knew the company first before buying the stocks. On the other hand, I can see how using Strategy Builder, or any other stock screening tools for that matter, could help those who make a lot more trades than I do. It can reduce the amount of initial research required by narrowing down the number of stocks meet certain criteria to a much more manageable level. However, I still think that a strategy, even those that built on Graham’s principles, can’t replace the human analysis in stock research. As thorough as a screening tool can be, there are still something that are important to each individual investor.

Firstrade Stock Trading Platform

pfreviews — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:28:13 +0000

Firstrade is another popular online discount broker. It offers investors a wide range of investment products, from stock and options trading to mutual fund and fixed income investments. The cost of trading with Firstrade, isn’t low compared with what other discount brokers charge. For example, the commission for stock trade is $6.95 at Firstrade, which is lower than Scottrade’s $7.00 per trade, but significantly higher than Zecco’s $4.50 commission and TradeKing’s $4.95. Options trading at Firstrade will add another $1.95 per contract, where at Zecco and TradKing, the extra cost is $0.50/contract. However, Firstrade does have an edge over these brokers when it comes mutual fund investment: Firstrade $9.95, Zecco $10.00, TradeKing $14.95, and Scottrade $17.95 for each no-transaction fee mutual fund order.

Now let’s take a look at Firstrade online stock trading platform.

What I really don’t like about Firstrade’s account main web page is that the Important Notices section, which is supposed to list important announcement to users, takes a large space right in the center of the platform. I don’t find those notices very important at all and many of them are outdated and rarely updated. In my opinion, that place can be used for information that’s more useful for investors.

Overall, I can’t do much on the account homepage alone because, as you can see, what displayed on the homepage are not all related to trading, or even investor’s personal account information. There are only four pre-determined indices and two index charts to display. There’ s a list of stocks to watch, but it looks like I can only enter up to seven symbols. There’s even no list of positions on the homepage, only an account number with the current market value.

If you want to make a trade, you will have to go to a different page to place your order by entering transaction type (buy or sell), symbol, shares, and order type (market or limit). Though there’s no streaming quotes on its homepage, Firstrade does have another tool, called X-Stream, that provides real-time streaming quotes, which can launched by clicking the Real-time Streaming on the top right corner of the main page.

Firstrades java-based X-Stream allows you to track up to 20 stocks simultaneously. Every field and color is fully customizable and all quotes are updated in real-time as the market moves. In addition to quotes, you also have access to streaming charts with real-time technical analytics, streaming time and sale information, quick order entry, company profiles, and many other features. What I find weird is that though there’s a TRADE button in X-Stream, I can’t really trade from it. If I click the button, it takes right back to the same web page to make the trade. Not very convenient at all.

In addition, Firstrade also has another tool that allows you to track multiple portfolios in real-time and updates your profits or losses on each position and the entire portfolio in real-time without having to refresh. It’s called MarketAce Portfolio Manager. MarketAce shows you each stock’s performance for that day and from the purchase price. You can specify your portfolio name and customize all the positions for each portfolio. You may also enter the cash balance of your portfolio to get the total value of your account updated in real-time. This is a unique tool to Firstrade as far as I know.

So overall, Firstrade isn’t very competitive in terms of trading cost, unless you also want to buy mutual funds through the broker. However, it does have some features that you won’t find at other brokers. If you are interested in trading with Firstrade, the broker is running a triple-bonus promotion that will give you 100 free trades when opening a new account, plus $100 account transfer reimbursement (if you transfer from another broker to Firstrade) and $100 cash back, depending on your account value. Check it out to get more details on how you can earn the bonuses.

Trade Stock For Free With Scottrade

pfreviews — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:36:13 +0000

I did a quick review of online discount broker Scottrade a few weeks ago. In the post, I mentioned that Scottrade, which charges $7 for each online stock order, market or limit, isn’t the cheapest option out there for trading stocks. There are quite a few cheaper alternatives, including those I listed in the TradeKing promotion post last week.

Despite the relatively high commission cost, I have been using Scottrade for years and it’s my primary stock broker, not only because of its excellent customer service, but also that I can actually trade with Scottrade for free. That’s right, I don’t pay any a penny when trading stocks with Scottrade. No, there’s no special deal for me. Rather, I take advantage of Scottrade’s ReferAll program that allows me to earn 3 commission-free trades each time I refer a new customer to Scottrade. Three free trades don’t sound a lot, but what if you can keep earning free trades without a limit? That would mean something, right?

Actually, the best part of the ReferAll program is that it allows you earn unlimited number of free trades, as long as you keep the account active. So the more people you refer, the more free trades you earn. The only drawback of this program is that you have to use the free trades earned in 6 months; otherwise, you will lose them. However, if you have the free trades constantly coming in, this shouldn’t be a big issue. I used to use Zecco to trade stocks for free when they offered free trades to everyone with at least $2,500 in the account. Now I am using Scottrade exclusively.

Here how you can start free trades from Scottrade:

1. Open a Scottrade brokerage account if you don’t have one;
2. Use promotion code KGKP0724 to get 3 free trades for yourself;
3. Once your new account is active, use your own reference code to refer new customers to Scottrade;
4. Receive free trades and trade stocks for free.

Since there’s no limit on the number of free trades you can earn, you can keep referring new customers to Scottrade and essentially trade stocks with them for free, forever (of course, to the point when Scottrade cancels the program, if that happens). Sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it?

Scottrade Stock Trading Platform

pfreviews — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:19:20 +0000

Scottrade is an online discount broker which offers self-directed investors a wide range of products and services. Unlike many other discount brokers which operates only online, Scottrade also has branch offices throughout the country, giving investors easy access to Scottrade staff for face-to-face help.

Scottrade offers investors two trading platforms. One is web-based and the other is a standalone, PC-based called ScottradeELITE, which can be downloaded and installed on local computer if the account owner has more than $25,000 in the account.

Currently, Scottrade charges $7.00 for each stock trade. Though the commission isn’t the lowest among popular online discount brokers, Scottrade’s other features, such as branch office, stock research tools, and instant account funding (with restrictions) make it an attractive option for stock and options trading.

The best feature I like about Scottrade is that it shows the total market value of my account graphically right on the home page. Even though the graphic only covers up to 6 months, it give me a clear view how my investments have changed over time. This is a feature that I didn’t find at any other brokers I am using.

Scottrade doesn’t have charts on its homepage. Quotes are given as numbers only, even though it does have a separate page where I can get plots and all the technical analysis tools. To trade a stock, I need to enter the symbol in the Quick Quote first then provide all the necessary order information (or click the Trade tab on the top). What I feel not very convenient is that for those securities I already own, I have to go through the same steps (enter symbol and order info) to make a trade.

Scottrade doesn’t have streaming real-time quotes on its main web platform. However, it does have a free, Java-based streaming tool that opens in a new window (from the Streaming Quotes link on the left) and trades can be made from there as well.

While every broker has a web-based trading platform, not every one offers free, real-time streaming quotes. For most brokers, you can only get real-time quote when you enter the stock symbol and get the quote of the particular stock. With Scottrade, you can not only get real-time streaming quote for free, but also trade right from the window as well, no need to go back to the main interface.