[bkny1055]

I just wanted to trade stocks for now
maybe mutual funds in the future but for now just stocks
Who do you guys recommand to go with
I was looking at E-Trade

any feed back will be appreciated
Newbie here

[brownsfan019]

Depends on what you need. If you are doing the occasional trade, any online broker will suffice. If you are scalping daily, different story.

[Nick1984]

Yea good point Brown. Tell us a little bit about how you want to trade.

I started out with stocks with long term trades being my goal. My trading time frame was up to a year long so as to get capital gains tax breaks!

E*trade is good cause if you're going to be swing trading all you really need is EOD data which is provided free for you once you set up your account.

I use ComSec for my stock trades but thats an Aus based broker which trades my domestic markets.

I guess commissions are a big factor. If you're going to be trading often then you may be better off going to a non online broker cause their commissions may be cheaper than Etrade etc where you can pay up to 30 dollars for each trade (AUD), and more for short orders and some limit orders.

[walterw]

for scalping you want to try cybertrader ... they have nice support and soft, and its a schwab super big broker...

[bkny1055]

thanks for the quick reply
i am thinking about trading about 10 times a month or so
i want to do short term trades
with small gains at first i only have 5k to begin so i want to keep them short and build some money

[brownsfan019]

Originally Posted by bkny1055 »

thanks for the quick reply
i am thinking about trading about 10 times a month or so
i want to do short term trades
with small gains at first i only have 5k to begin so i want to keep them short and build some money

Make sure you are aware of the pattern day trader rules.

http://www.patterndaytraderrule.com/

http://www.sec.gov/answers/daytrading.htm

[Nick1984]

Originally Posted by bkny1055 »

thanks for the quick reply
i am thinking about trading about 10 times a month or so
i want to do short term trades
with small gains at first i only have 5k to begin so i want to keep them short and build some money

WIth 5k you dont really have enough buying power to make much money. Your commissions on trades will eat up your profit. You will need to have significant moves to really take any profit after commissions are factored in.

Therefore you will want to be trading only a small handfull of highly liquid volatile stocks which have at least a $1 volatility per day. High market cap miners are a good bet for that.

Why don't you paper trade for a while till you have a fairly good system set up thats been backtested and proven, then use your 5k as collateral on a margin loan to really boost your buying power? That way you can actually profit more from these trade? Probabbly best to talk to a financial adviser first before you do that as they will have a clear picture of your financial situation.

[bkny1055]

Originally Posted by Nick1984 »

WIth 5k you dont really have enough buying power to make much money. Your commissions on trades will eat up your profit. You will need to have significant moves to really take any profit after commissions are factored in.

Therefore you will want to be trading only a small handfull of highly liquid volatile stocks which have at least a $1 volatility per day. High market cap miners are a good bet for that.

Why don't you paper trade for a while till you have a fairly good system set up thats been backtested and proven, then use your 5k as collateral on a margin loan to really boost your buying power? That way you can actually profit more from these trade? Probabbly best to talk to a financial adviser first before you do that as they will have a clear picture of your financial situation.

Okay well i am up to 7500.00 cash and 2500.00 in a roll over and i am going with Etrade for now
We all have to start somewhere and i guess with time i will just get myself up to where i should be