where to open an account?

[MasterShakes]

According to www.scottrade.com, they have $7 trades online. I've never used them or anybody else... just poked my head in here and actually knew an answer for once.

[FTRelipsesjeff]

I use scottrade. It doesnt work that bad, you are able to do EFTs for free and if you get referred you get three free trades to start. No inactivity fees and a minimum balance of $500 is a pretty good deal. I've had little if any problems and they have a decent online trading program.

[fluff]

For buy and hold (long term), I suggest www.sharebuilder.com

Their basic plan is $4 per trade. However, these are NOT real time trades, in fact they are lumped all together for purchase every Tuesday. Which if you're just buying and holding, really doesn't matter. Also you can buy fractions of stock, which is nice if you want to buy rounded $ amounts of it.

Also, they reinvest devidends for free.

[Your Mom]

[ QUOTE ]
I might have misunderstood your post, so pardon the following if I did.

Ameritrade is a 2k minimum start up. You get 30 free transactions in the first 30 days then it is $10.99 a trade.

[/ QUOTE ]

You don't need 2k to open the acct. you can open with zero. You get 30 trades good for 30 days for free if you make a deposit of 1000 or more. You will get charged maintenace fees of $15 per quarter after the acct. has been open 6 months if you don't make at least 4 trades in the past 6 months or have a total acct. value of 2000 or more.

Disclaimer: I work at AMTD.