OptionsHouse literally does not have 40% of the stocks you would want to purchase because of expected rally. Who wouldn’t be part of the rally when we know its coming? But OptionsHouse does not even bother to resolve that problem.

OptionsHouse did not let me purchase several of my shares in past few weeks which becomes very frustrating. I would have quit OptionsHouse before trying other options.

Zecco on the other does not impose any such restrictions and allows you to trade at your will and risk! Come on we all are grown ups here, why are you stopping us from doing what we need to do. For details, please check Zecco

Also OptionsHouse website does not work on safari. Thats a big problem for me because I use a MAC!

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• $7.99-$9.99 options trades, plus 75¢ per options contract. Reduced commissions on spreads
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Etrade is also running a promotion where you could get a flat 100 free trades which has longer validity. Thats a better offer if you are not a frequent trader.

For more details, please click on any other offer below.

I will dedicate this post to my recent experience with TD Ameritrade. I must admit TD Ameritrade is an excellent brokerage firm, no doubt about that. However it comes with its own set of problems. Last week I was trying to purchase a stocks of a company (BIEL). I had been following them for a while and I knew it was time for BIEL to get buying signals and hence a great opportunity to make money.

Broker Reviews 2011 Best Commissions and Fees in Stocks, Mutual Funds, ETFs and Options

I logged on to my TD Ameritrade account to place a LIMIT order of few thousand shares of BIEL, but to my surprise I was not allowed to do so. I tried several times only to run into problems every time. Being frustrated I called the customer service, which was very prompt to respond (< 1 min hold  time). I was told that BIEL was put on hold by TD Ameritrade. Arghh!! I lost an opportunity to up my investments by about 15% in a matter of two days!

Did some research and opened an account with Zecco & OptionsHouse. They were right when they said maintain accounts with multiple brokerage firms. You might run into problems with any broker so you got to have a choice! Again by no means I am saying TD Ameritrade is bad! They are probably best among the lot, but you got to have options in the event that I ran into. I would recommend the readers to open accounts with one or more from following list:

1. OptionsHouse is currently running special ads for 100 Free Trades if you open your account before April 30th. On top of that, they are the cheapest as far as the commission rates go (2.95$ per trade).

Get 100 Free Trades with OptionsHouse.com

Read reviews at OptionsHouse Reviews

2. TradeKing is the top Rated Broker by SmartMoney – 4 years running (2006-2009). It also got 4-Star Rated Broker by Barron’s – 12th Annual Survey of Best Browser-Based Online Brokers. All that is available for low flat fees – $4.95 per trade plus $.65 per options contract

Open an account with Trading King – Tradeking

Read reviews at TradeKing Reviews

3. Zecco:Best thing about Zecco is their 10 free trades every month if you make 25 trades in a month. Hence your effective rate actually becomes a lot lower than what they advertise which is 4.5$/trade. Their effective rate comes down to 2.70$ / trade, now who can beat that? See details below:

Trade with Zecco for Free

Read reviews at Zecco Reviews

Merrill Lynch was founded in 1914 by Charles E. Merrill and later joined by Edmund C. Lynch. Owned by Bank of America, Merrill Lynch is an international financial services company. It was taken over by the Bank of America during the global financial meltdown of 2008. The headquarters of the company is located in New York City and is known for having made successful investment decisions even in its early years.

Broker Reviews 2011 Best Commissions and Fees in Stocks, Mutual Funds, ETFs and Options

Today, Merrill Lynch is aggressively eyeing young and relatively inexperienced brokers as well as top veteran financial advisers as declared by the firms hiring chief Don Geisler. Currently, Merrill is apparently offering an upfront bonus of 140% of the broker’s previous year’s income for them whose minimum annual fees and commissions of $800,000. This is because Merrill is giving recognition to the fact that there are phenomenal brokers whose numbers are off because of the market. Also, with the historic collapse and the credit crisis that wiped out a number of storied investment firms, Merrill clearly has lost its foothold as the biggest retail-brokerage firm on the street.
Merrill Says It’s Not Desperate
Merrill disputes the notion of desperation, saying it’s always interested in adding top-quality brokers to the thundering herd. The aggressive posture comes at a time of turmoil for Merrill. Since BofA acquired it in January, the financial advisory unit’s management has been in flux. Its ranks of brokers thinned from 18,000 before the merger to 15,000 at the end of June. Some top producers have jumped to rivals and the company has encouraged lower-producing advisers to move on. In addition to the reps generating $800,000 or more in fees and commissions, Merrill is targeting brokers who range from the first to the third quintile,  or the top 20% to 60%, in production.

The Competitors are Not Behind Either

Merrill’s main competitor in the financial advisory business, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, had also increased its signing bonus to lure online brokers, said the recruiter. Its upfront offer is 160 per cent of the previous year’s production, with a similar production-based payment three to five years later.
Earlier this year, Morgan Stanley reduced its upfront signing offer to 100 per cent of the previous year’s production, and about two times annual production on the back end.
Because the lower upfront payment was not deemed successful, says the recruiter, Morgan Stanley recently increased the upfront component to 160 per cent of the previous year’s production, with a comparable amount on the back end.
The total pay-out of Merrill’s package is harder to achieve, so it is difficult to determine whether it or Morgan Stanley is the highest payer.
Just last week, Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis tapped Ms. Krawcheck to replace Dan Sontag and run the bank’s global wealth and investment management sector.
Morgan Stanley declined to comment on its recruitment terms, other than to say the package was competitive with Merrill’s.Citigroup  Traditionally, Merrill has been seen as market leader and has not had to recruit aggressively, preferring to nurture homegrown talent. The financial crisis, merger and resulting upheaval have changed that.
Merrill’s offers are also noteworthy because its parent company is trying to pay back $45bn in taxpayer funds from the troubled asset relief programme.
Two Merrill leaders have left since the BofA merger. Most recently Dan Sontag quit after Sallie Krawcheck, former Smith Barney chief, was brought in above him as head of global wealth and investment management.
Ken Lewis, BofA chief executive, said last year that Merrill’s unparalleled network of financial advisors was the driving force behind his desire to acquire the investment bank.
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There has been a considerable amount of debate going on about the Obama administrations decision to give more financial regulatory powers to the Fed. Before a clean chit is handed to the Fed, a thorough examination of relations between Fed and Goldman Sachs is definitely in order.

Fed Presidents were in Goldman Once

Many of the Fed presidents have served in one capacity or the other at the Goldman. There were questions raised over the decision to give bank status to Goldman which died due to lack of required follow up. It has been 9 months since Goldman got the status but you won’t find a single retail banking branch of Goldman. The Fed took less than 24 hrs to take the decision but never cared to make sure that Goldman follows up the guidelines required to be fulfilled by any bank. As a result of the decision, Goldman got access to TARP funds of around $10 billion and TALF funds of $ 5 billion. The bank is yet to go out of the TALF program and has already started to talk about giving record bonuses to its employees.

Public Money for Goldman

There are sections within the financial circles that say the bank needs to be encouraged for making money at a time when the whole sector is going bust. While that stands true, one has to keep in mind the money being used for the purpose is public and the securities written down by government under these funds were underwritten by Goldman Sachs.

The argument that Goldman is working for its investors also does not hold water. Goldman got the government backed TARP funds at 5% interest rate whereas the Warren Buffet funds came at 10% interest rates. As per business common sense, the company should pay the higher interest rate loan first, but Goldman did just the opposite because it wanted to pay record bonuses to its employees.

Let‘s talk about the connections Goldman has in high places. New York Times says the Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson talked to the Goldman Boss Lloyd Blankfein, two dozen times in the September week. That was the time when he was taking a decision on bailing out troubled insurer AIG. That’s quite an abnormal figure for routine conversations.

Too Close for Comfort

Paulson has once served as the chief executive at Goldman for eight years, and critics say if the government had not bailed out AIG, Goldman would have gone bust. The decisions that came from Paulson, could be easily termed as inconsistent. He allowed Lehman Brothers to collapse, whereas he helped Bear Sterns and AIG survive.

For Online Stock brokers reviews Click Here :   Scottrade Reviews, Tradeking Reviews, Options Xpress Reviews, Lightspeed traders Reviews, OptionsHouse Reviews

Trading in stock market online can be a highly profitable business and by wisely investing money, one can reap great benefits in the stock market. With the ups and downs of the market, it is not possible for a new investor to bid on a stock that is advantageous and a new investor in the stock market might end up losing money more often than making any profit. Hence, it becomes important for new investors to the stock market as well regular investors to take help of online brokerage firms for estimating the rise or fall in prices of the stocks. There are a number of online brokerage firms that provide guidance through tested investment strategies and detailed market analysis for the benefit of their clients. Here are a few steps that can help you in finding the best online stock brokers.

Check Comparison Sites: Comparison sites are a useful tool that one can use to search for online brokerage firms and also find affordable online stock brokers services. Comparison sites save you the trouble of searching several sites, as the stock brokerage firms and online stock brokers are already compiled in the site’s database for evaluation and comparison. By filling a simple form one can check out the results and find the stock broker as per one’s budget and requirement.

Online Stock Brokers Forums: Online forums are a great way to find affordable and experienced online brokerage firms that have experience of working in the field of stock market. Forums can be trusted for honest reviews of the companies as these are maintained by volunteers and people interested in stock market.

Review Sites: Interested investors can also search for reviews of the services of the online stock brokers they want to do business with. One should check through several review sites to form an opinion about different online stock brokerage firms. The testimonials of people on the various websites can also be very helpful in finding public opinion about online stock brokers.

If you are looking for a single site that will solve all your worries about finding a honest and trustworthy online stock broker then CompareBroker.com is your best choice. At CompareBroker.com, you can check out the various online brokerage firms and compare them with others to choose the one that best fits your budget. Find out more about comparing online brokerage firms by browsing through www.comparebroker.com.