Problems I faced with Penny Stocks with TD Ameritrade – Zecco vs. TD Ameritrade
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.
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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
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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 $.65 per options contract
Open an account with Trading King – Tradeking
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3. Zecco:Best thing about Zecco is their 10 free trades every month if you make 25 trades in a month. Hence your effective rate actually becomes a lot lower than what they advertise which is 4.5$/trade. Their effective rate comes down to 2.70$ / trade, now who can beat that? See details below:
Read reviews at Zecco Reviews
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03 May 2010
I have been looking at Apple and Goldman Sachs principally. The recent Goldman drop helped me make a lot money with my puts but I retained Apple for the longer term, I think it has longer term potential. Many thanks for your revealing posts and keep them coming.
03 April 2010
I had no experience in buying and selling penny stocks, but I had the intense desire for trading them because, in my opinion, no other method than investing in these stocks can multiply my earnings overnight. But, I, shamefully, confess that these stocks robbed me of what I had. It was late January when I decided to step out of the stock market and was about to make my move when I came across the sites offering free newsletters and alerts on penny stocks. I was suggested by my wife to subscribe to it, most probably for the last time because I had plans for moving out of the market. Well, I did it and I started receiving their newsletters and alerts and stock listings. A suppressed feeling of dealing with these stocks aroused me and I started reinvesting on these stocks basing on the information provided by the website. And albeit, I can say by this time I have already received a 200% return on my investments and am expecting more. And now I have no plans for moving out of the market because I know that I can make more money with assistance of the penny stocks.
03 April 2010
Allen,
I agree with you that Penny stocks move fast but at the same time you have to be really careful about the exit point. If you wait for too long, you risk losing your entire cash! If you exit early, you cheat ourself out of nice profit. So from your experience, how do you know where / when to exit?
01 April 2010
The future of penny stocks and penny stock investing is very bright. It is changing and the people that are going to make money are the ones that adapt to it.
01 April 2010
Yes Mathew, I agree. Although you have to be careful with penny stocks. Sometimes there are large swings, and remember swing can be on either side
I usually follow the rule to put my stop orders at 8% less than buy price.
01 April 2010
I dont agree with that Allen, Penny stocks are not for everyone. Since these companies are so small, you really need to pick your battles carefully. Not all of these companies are going to make it!