E-Trade Reviews?

[VroomPshhTsi]

Anyone have an E-Trade account that cares to share their experience? I'm new to the whole stock market thing so looking for any type of advice. As far as investments, I already have a 401k through work and a separate IRA too. Just looking at stocks and was wondering if it would be wise to invest $50-$100/month into an account or just keep it in the bank.

How easy is it to claim stock information when you file your taxes?
How well laid out/easy is it to buy/sell on E-Trade?

Again, total noob, looking for stock market advice.

[VroomPshhTsi]

After 20 minutes of reading online reviews, Scottrade has much better reviews. Apparently E-Trade has a good amount of hidden/BS fees. Still researching but so far Scottrade seems the friendly/easier one between the two.

[Crawlin]

Friends and I had used scotttrade for a long time. was no hassle. we weren't day traders obviously so alot of the fees didn't apply and we weren't racking up the per trade fees. as for taxes, I've always had someone else do them so I couldn't say.

Are you at the limit for your company's 401k match? I only ask because if you can put more money in and have them match that extra money, instead of putting it into a second account, might as well put more into the 401k, get the match, and if it's pretax then you get that benefit too.

[brotherbenn83]

I'm glad I caught this thread early, E*Trade ripped my family off to the tune of $130,000 after my father passed away. I absolutely would recommend avoiding them at all co$t.

[VroomPshhTsi]

Are you at the limit for your company's 401k match? I only ask because if you can put more money in and have them match that extra money, instead of putting it into a second account, might as well put more into the 401k, get the match, and if it's pretax then you get that benefit too.

Yeah, I'm maxing out my employer's 401k match. Just looking for another way of investment that won't tie up my money until I retire.

[VroomPshhTsi]

I'm glad I caught this thread early, E*Trade ripped my family off to the tune of $130,000 after my father passed away. I absolutely would recommend avoiding them at all co$t.

Damn that's rough. I'm assuming your family had a lawyer that tried to get it back?

[FoxStang]

Are you planning on investing or speculating? If you don't have the restraint to stay on some value positions then staying out will save you some money. Out of times to start trading now is probably one of the worst to be entirely honest, markets make little if any sense nowadays, fundamental's and technical's are trading every which way (except where they should be). There's some good money to be made trading volatility, but that's almost a full time job in and off itself.

Sounds like your just trying to put money away for the future, so I would have to stress value stocks (high book-to-market, good dividend yield). Anything without constant cash flows is just a speculation, though you can make market neutral plays if you do indeed find a growth stock you like. You might also want to look into international exposure, but first and foremost, decide what you want your account to do and stick with it.