Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Thank you for the opinion. I'm really not sure who to go with now. Only one that I haven't heard bad about is TDAmeritrade but I'm sure I just haven't found someone burned by them yet. I need to do some long and hard research for when I leave Zecco I'm not switching again too much of a pain in the azz.
Interactive Brokers=InteractiveBrokers.com is that a brokerage. TIA
See previous post..ChoiceTrade Choice Trade SUCKS. They're with Penson. They'll take one of your stocks, deem it worthless, and just remove it from your account without ANY Notice.........assholes.......z
SCREW CHOICETRADE!!!....Bastards.........et z
Do Interactive Brokers. They don't fuck with you, just let you trade.........z
Penny foolish giving me some good info on another board right now on them. Sounds great thanks.
Im going to answer these questions from what he told me earlier i can get you better answers if need be
1)He said he was only restricted once from buying a stock
2)5 dollar per trade no add on for pennies
3)yes they offer level 2 and he actually uses them as is primary lvl 2 service
4)I don't think they give you free trades, but i will look into that!!
Questions #1 Do they ever restrict buying anything online. #2 What do they charge per trade and is there an add on fee for pennies (scottrade does this). #3 Do they offer level 2 and if they do, do they do it for pennies (not a huge deal I pay for livecharts service) #4 How much per trade and do they give you free trades every month etc. TYVM for the answers to these. Take your time getting back to me. I like what I have heard about them so far.
a friend of mine uses choicetrade and loves it.. I was talking to him about it over the weekend
FWIW Zecco back up after over 1 hr not responding.... not happy here at all. Every day since FRE fell I have had atleast a 10 minute outtage. Their flash ad's have worked fine though LOL
Let's find someone who has them and get them to respond. They seem like a good deal but I would definitely like to hear from some people who have it before I jump again. I hate not having all of my $$$$ available to attack LOL.
I have heard some good things about choicetrade. I am also thinking about giving them a try
Are you still with them and do they restrict penny plays often? TIA
Thank you for creating this board hate Zecco's computer problems and Scottrade's treatment of penny stock players (online restricting buying them and higher fees) Actively shopping for an online broker again....
I am and until they get their computer issues worked out I would avoid. As much as I hate Scottrade for trading penny stocks they never go down during trading hours which has happened to me multiple times this week and is happening right now.
I just had someone point me to this board. I have not been able to login to Zecco at multiple points during the last week and am looking for another brokerage that allows you to trade pennies online unrestricted and does not charge an extra fee for trading pennies like Scottrade. Would appreciate any feedback. I marked this board and will read the posts and IBOX. TIA Dave
Looks like we are getting some clear picture and it seems the SEC is claiming that these securities are worthless and some clearing firms are implementing the rules, although I cant find any info from the SEC for these supposed worthless securities.
an exert:
A letter was sent out to you on 7/03/08 from our clearing firm Penson Financial. The letter states that DTCC shows that PABN has had no transfer agent or company contact for 6 years or more. The letter asks for the customer to contact your broker to ask that this position not be purged from the account. You didn’t conact us for this purpose and your stock was purged and deemed worthless. If you go on to www.pinksheets.com and pull up the security PABN you will see there is no inside bid on the stock. Pinksheets has last conact as 3-01-01, please read the warnings that pink sheets gives in regards to this stock.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=32041050&txt2find=worthless|security
So its 6 supposed years of dormancy and no TA that makes the guidelines. I had heard Penson tell me that it was a dormancy thing but that didnt make sense bc it was trading but I guess its a quiet type of dormancy and others have been saying its a TA thing so now it seems to be a little of both.
This is strange bc a lot of the times there are TAs but they just dont want to give out info until fees are paid and sometimes they have to be sued.
Does anyone know if you can use a shell co without old TA records? Can you just start a new TA record? Do you give up corporate type actions like RSs and FSs?
reply to all:
Yes someone should really sue SEC! This "rule" is a BS! It's designed to keep people with average income away from wealth!
For instance in Europe there is no $25k rule...
Anyway Prodigy is actually a part of Grossman trading which is a decent firm. According to discussion on another forum the thing is that we all are presented as a group which abviously meets $25k so there is no law breaking.
I don't know about Tuco's extreme leverage but Prodigy gives you 1:1 so there shouldn't be any liquidity problems.
And please do post names of other brokers like Prodigy so we can have wider choice...
Yes, and this thread is about "Online Brokerages" and probably should have the word "Retail" in there somewhere...
Maybe there should be a companion thread on iHub where people can go discuss prop shops. If someone whats to go set that up.
I haven't done business with either TUCO or Prodigy.
My caution was toward brokers who claim they can help users with less than $25k get around pattern day trading rules.
There are many others. I won't post them here.
But the person that is asking about it seems to want to do that -- find a way around the rules.
Usually, somebody associated with a prop shop or one of these brokers will come post about their deal.
All I am saying is be sure you know who has your money.
Thats an unregistered prop firm, which is different from a retail brokerage like ameritrade.
Someone should sue the SEC who has under 25k...
seems like how much money you have shouldnt stop you from doing what you want to do when it is legal for people who have over 25k to do it . ie buying and selling stock
Do you have over $25k in your account? If you do, then you can go anywhere to trade. Many people do not have $25k and would like to daytrade. So there are services out there that offer this service.
And one bad seed does not make the entire industry bad. It's like one of your stocks is a scam and you don't want to buy any other stock at all? Only way is to ask around and see.
Drink my Kool-Aid...
ATMs when they end:
Beware the broker offering you a "work-around" on the $25k pattern day trader rule. Good luck.
SEC Obtains Emergency Orders Against California Firm Defrauding Day-Traders
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2008-36
Washington, D.C., March 6, 2008 - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has obtained an emergency court order against an unregistered securities day-trading firm in La Jolla, Calif., that was not disclosing to traders that more than one-third of their money was being used to cover other traders' losses or pay firm expenses. The SEC's complaint alleged that approximately 35 percent of their equity was diverted, leaving an approximately $3.62 million shortfall in the traders' equity as of Dec. 31, 2007. In issuing the emergency orders, the court found that the SEC had shown that the day-trading firm was violating the broker-dealer registration and antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, and ordered the appointment of a temporary receiver to safeguard customer assets.
The SEC charged Tuco Trading, LLC, and its principal, Douglas G. Frederick, with violating broker-dealer registration and antifraud provisions of the securities laws. According to the SEC's complaint, the defendants provide securities day-trading capability to Tuco's more than 250 traders who had approximately $10.2 million invested in Tuco. They permitted traders to day-trade securities in Tuco's own brokerage accounts at registered broker-dealers through sub-accounts created at Tuco for each trader.
The defendants enticed traders with services unavailable at a registered broker-dealer. As alleged in the complaint, they allowed traders to day-trade without meeting the $25,000 minimum equity requirement under NASD regulations for such trading. The SEC's complaint also alleges that for each $1 in the trader's sub-account, Tuco and Frederick allowed the traders at Tuco to use up to $20 of Tuco's equity, which has been invested by other traders, to purchase securities (20:1 buying power). NASD and NYSE regulations, however, only allow a day-trader to have 4:1 buying power.
"Tuco provided traders with trading capability not permitted at registered broker-dealers," said Linda Chatman Thomsen, Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement. "This case warns investors that the additional trading capability comes at a steep price — the safety of their money."
Rosalind R. Tyson, Acting Regional Director of the SEC's Los Angeles Regional Office, added, "Tuco's unregistered operations posed a substantial risk to both investors and the securities markets, and we will act to stop these operations."
A day-trader actively buys and sells securities, often on the same day, and hopes to make a small profit on each buy-and-sell transaction.
The SEC's complaint also alleges that Tuco received transaction-based compensation for its members' trading, and Tuco's traders conducted substantial day-trading through Tuco's brokerage accounts both in dollar amounts and number of trades. As a result, Frederick earned substantial commissions on the trading as the registered representative for the Tuco principal accounts at the registered broker-dealer. The SEC alleges that Frederick then used substantial amounts of his commissions to pay Tuco's operating expenses.
The SEC's complaint also details the defendants' inaccurate reporting of the traders' equity balances. As of Dec. 31, 2007, Tuco and Frederick used about $3.62 million of the traders' approximately $10.2 million total equity to pay Tuco's expenses and to cover trader losses. Approximately a $1.35 million shortfall remained as of Jan. 31, 2008. Tuco and Frederick failed to disclose those details or that Tuco and Frederick's recovery of the shortfall in the traders' equity is dependent on Frederick's recovering the funds from third parties.
U.S. District Judge Dana M. Sabraw of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California found that the SEC had made a prima facie showing that Tuco and Frederick have engaged in, and will continue to engage in future violations, of the broker-dealer registration and antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, appointed a temporary receiver as a monitor over Tuco, and issued orders against the defendants for accountings, expedited discovery, and prohibiting destruction of documents.
# # #
For more information, contact the SEC's Los Angeles Regional Office:
Andrew Petillon
Associate Regional Director
(323) 965-3214
Kelly Bowers
Senior Assistant Regional Director
(323) 965-3924
Additional materials: Litigation Release No. 20480
http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2008/2008-36.htm
=============================
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2008/lr20480.htm
Generic obviously you don't know that we are talking about Prodigy just because we are daytraders with less than $25k
If I had $25k I'd sure not have problems choosing a broker.
And btw I do have a TOS account and they really are great.
Anyway, so how are you folks that do have Prodigy account satisfyed?
thinkorswim keeps getting high marks, so I have read.
Any complaints about the iBox on this message board?
I can update the Excel file, if so.
Please reply to this post.
Anyway.
I called Prodigytrading and asked what's the margin and they said standard 1:1 which actually means NO margin.
So if I have $5k and want to daytrade well I need some leverage otherwise it ain't working.
Sad news but I also don't like the fact that there is still no info on their website...can't trust it. They also don't respond to my email which I sent from 2 addresses in case I got spammed out.
So no, I will probably not open an account at Prodigy.
RE: lowtrades. Do you use them or were just looking into it? They suck. My Balances page is always so outta wack. Nothing adds up right and I always have a huge chunk of my cash unavailable to trade with, even though it is long since settled. Their emails are to the effect of "that is the cash you have dummy." Think I'll close it out before year's end.
It seems like Penson and the brokers arent online together. Seems like Penson is just doing this to make some profit and not even letting some of the brokers know. This should of gotten some major attention. Looks like some of the push over brokers like Zecco and Choicetrade were the first to bend over to Penson. This should be illegal. Its practically discrimination on investing preferences. Wish I could put together some class action suit or something. These securities lawyers want big dollar stuff though but this may work too. This shouldnt hold up in court.imo
This is Penson's next response.
Not sure who you are speaking to at Interactive Brokers but if they want to call us and confirm, we will need to check this for them.
Thank you
Wow so I guess we are not suppose to speak to the brokerages? Now Penson is the God Father. Im going to put together some letters and complain to Zecco, Choicetrade, USAA, Options Xpress, and Interactive Brokers etc.
Going to let them know that Im no longer thier client b/c of Penson. Everyone else should do the same. This is an utter outrage. What if I started charging 25 bucks a month for Blue Chips? Wonder how well that would go....
Just called IB about the Penson Worthless Security thing. They said that they never heard of it but policies do change. So I dont want to take chances so Im going to transfer my pennies to Ameritrade every 3 months. Dont care if it cost me 50 bucks a pop. Its worth it to do so for me.
I emailed stupid Penson and ask why hadnt IB heard of the fees and this is the response I received. Typical of them not answering. I hope they go BK!
$7.50 is charged monthly for each cusip for holding worthless non-transferable securities.
Thank you
watch out for lowtrades. charged me $50 inactivity fee despite me being anything near inactive. emailed them and it is resolved. lame that it even happened at all though.
Find an other broker.
Firstrade for Pinkies? Is anyone using this broker to trade PKs?
It is stated on their site that it charges 1/2 cents for every share for stocks priced below $2. So that means:
stock price @0.0001 X 1,000,000 shares = $100 + 6.95 flat rate commission= $106.95 PLUS the penalty of 1/2 cents per share:
0.005 commission per share X 1,000,000 shares = $5000?
A ridiculous $5000 commission charge for trading in a low priced pinkie? Is my working correct or I got it wrong?
You guys don't use Omni Pro anymore?
I was going to wait to put up a survey until we get the list of 20-30 nailed down. That includes who handles clearing.
I think we need to order that chart best to worst for OTC traders.... Maybe we could have a survey. I vote for Interactive Brokers....z
I will be updating the chart this evening. Need to know who handles clearing for the 20 in the chart.
Also, would like to know specific brokers iHubbers want added.
Thanks.
Sounds good i'll try it.
Happy trading.
Tackar
I'm in sweden and it works fine for me. lycka till.
Swenglish! does zecco trading allow foreigners like me(sweden) to open accounts or is it only for U.S residents?
Since Prodigy doesn't support paper-money I have some questions regarding Omni Pro for anyone who uses this platform.
I googled for some OP futures and it seems nice, I'm used to thinkorswim software which is cool as well.
--Can I create First triggers second in basked order?
What I do is for instance buy 300 shares at limit and after that gets filled send a stop market order $0.30 under the fill price. So buy and stop order as one order.
In tos it's called First triggers all. So can I save this type of order in OP basket?
--Does OP remember charts and stuff that I have detached and configured so that I don't need to do it again next time I run OP?
--Are charts, T&S and order entry linkable?
--Is it really fast and stable for aggressive daytrading even on busy days?
--Is the Blotter window where I cancel my working orders? Can I also close open positions from there?
--Is OP high on CPU/RAM usage?
Zecco users. log on to switch to all e-documents. otherwise they will start charging for every trade notice.
Posted by: ottoman
In reply to: zardiw who wrote msg# 1546
Date:5/1/2008 1:04:11 AM
Post #of 1549
qqqdirect (which is really My Stock Fund).
http://www.qqqdirect.mystockfund.com/
basically their accounts are "handled" through mystockfund, but the reason you want to open it through qqqdirect, is because that's the only way you can get a zero-monthly-charge account.
mystockfund uses Legent clearing as their clearing firm, and Legent can be (not always) pretty good with speed of getting round ups....but that's been my experience with most clearing firms. Once time they're first, the other last. Except TD Ameritrade which always sux. Maybe IPOR was just a Legent screw up. Never got MXSV.
mystockfund has drawbacks!
the only discount brokers I know of are Tradeking, and mystockfund.
Tradeking is now useless for otcbb/pinksheets, and they froze down my accounts because of roundups. Had to get Finra involved to get them to ACAT transfer my JDMC shares to another broker, as they REFUSED. aholes.
mystockfund is similar to sharebuilder. It's one of those dollar-cost-averaging, big-board stocks kinda brokers. They charge your commission costs ($12.99 for realtime trade) all at once. Once a month to either a credit card or bank account.(usually the first Friday of the first full week of the month after your purchases......got that?? lol) ......
AND........ no limit orders! Maybe if you call them, they would do it ......IF.....you can talk to someone. I don't think they are geared to be taking peoples trades over the phone.
qqqdirect (Legent really) closed down/consolidated my 6 accounts into 1 because of my round-up playing. so they are smart to it. I still have 1 account with useless roundups because they're worth less than $12.99. I haven't used the accounts in weeks.
Not doing the round-up thing much/any more. Got burned with heavy commission costs for MXSV. might play in 1 or 2 accounts. I'm closing most down.
z
Posted by: ottoman
In reply to: zardiw who wrote msg# 1546
Date:5/1/2008 1:04:11 AM
Post #of 1549
qqqdirect (which is really My Stock Fund).
http://www.qqqdirect.mystockfund.com/
basically their accounts are "handled" through mystockfund, but the reason you want to open it through qqqdirect, is because that's the only way you can get a zero-monthly-charge account.
mystockfund uses Legent clearing as their clearing firm, and Legent can be (not always) pretty good with speed of getting round ups....but that's been my experience with most clearing firms. Once time they're first, the other last. Except TD Ameritrade which always sux. Maybe IPOR was just a Legent screw up. Never got MXSV.
mystockfund has drawbacks!
the only discount brokers I know of are Tradeking, and mystockfund.
Tradeking is now useless for otcbb/pinksheets, and they froze down my accounts because of roundups. Had to get Finra involved to get them to ACAT transfer my JDMC shares to another broker, as they REFUSED. aholes.
mystockfund is similar to sharebuilder. It's one of those dollar-cost-averaging, big-board stocks kinda brokers. They charge your commission costs ($12.99 for realtime trade) all at once. Once a month to either a credit card or bank account.(usually the first Friday of the first full week of the month after your purchases......got that?? lol) ......
AND........ no limit orders! Maybe if you call them, they would do it ......IF.....you can talk to someone. I don't think they are geared to be taking peoples trades over the phone.
qqqdirect (Legent really) closed down/consolidated my 6 accounts into 1 because of my round-up playing. so they are smart to it. I still have 1 account with useless roundups because they're worth less than $12.99. I haven't used the accounts in weeks.
Not doing the round-up thing much/any more. Got burned with heavy commission costs for MXSV. might play in 1 or 2 accounts. I'm closing most down.
z
This web site is REALLY good. Someone send this person an email and invite him to post on iHub, will you please?
http://www.broker-reviews.us/alphabet.shtml
Some explanations of what the entries on the rest of the site mean:
Almost all the information here is from the websites of the brokers. I have done my best to be accurate, but there are no guarantees. You should use what I have written should only to help you decide where to begin your own research, not as the basis for any decisions.
Many brokers now have pricing schemes giving better prices to active traders, or those with very large balances. Many also have a different pricing scheme for large numbers of shares and for stocks which they define as "penny stocks". I have tried to list the prices for less than 1000 shares (or wherever that broker's cutoff point is) traded on a major exchange for the highest-paying customer tier. The prices I have listed are always for Internet trades. Prices for trades placed by touchtone telephone or through a live broker are often much higher.
The phone numbers I have listed are those which seem to be intended for general customer service, or for inquiries by prospective customers.
When I could not find a clear list of available products on the site, I tried to reconstruct them from the commission and fee schedules. I have not listed unit investment trusts among the products, since I suspect that many brokers will buy and sell them for you but don't advertise them consistently. The same is true of CMOs and certain other common securities with fancy names.
There are three main reasons why I don't list a brokerage at all, or at least don't list it in the main list:
- Because I don't know of their existence.
- Because I can't find enough information about them, especially fee information, to make them worth listing. This is true, for example, of the online services of the major full service brokers.
Because I can't express the information easily in a form which would make it easy to compare. This, for example, is true of many direct access brokers, since the platform and ECN charges make them difficult to compare with other brokers. However, since many of the site users have expressed an interest in the direct access brokers, on January 29, 2008 I started to list them separately, on an experimental basis, here.
Yep, lol Ive opened several of them with out the right amount and they let me have the account.
Here you can discuss Online Brokerages.
Halfway Decent Brokerages:
ETrade - Will let you trade ALL stocks. .
Interactive Brokers: $10/month, $1/Trade. Geared towards the professional trader, but you can't beat their fees.
Worst Brokerages:
ameritrade tdameritrade . Known as the Stock Nanny brokerage. They WILL NOT let you trade a LOT of runners.....and they make you PHONE IN the rest.
They also foster child mutilation subliminally on their web pictures.
I think they have PEDOPHILES in their mgmt!!!!!!
ChoiceTrade. Whatever you do don't go with them. Their online portal SUCKS, and they like to
FEE you to death. They seem to make those fees up as they go along.
***Top Twenty Brokers For Individual Investors***
1. Nobody here is a shill for this report.
2. You have to give them your email for free access to this 29 page PDF file: http://www.brokeradviser.com/ but access is immediate to this report.
3. Their report is the starting point for the below grid, which is a work in progress and NEEDS YOUR FEEDBACK to paint a true picture of these brokers, from a unique iHub point of view.
Please review and comment, below:
Volume | |
Day Range: | |
Bid Price | |
Ask Price | |
Last Trade Time: |