A.I.M. Users Bulletin Board

[Bernie Goldberg]

Hi,
What a wonderful way to start the morning !
I had a GTC order in on HCP to sell some shares at $40.80.
It opened up this morning and the order tripped ata $41.05! The difference is a nice bonus. This has happened quite often with Waterhouse. It never happened at all with either American Express (which offered free trades with an account of my size) or E-trade which was a total disaster.
As an addition to the discussion here on brokers, I started investing 8 years ago with Waterhouse. Switched one account to American Express with the lure of "no cost trading on market orders". The claim proved to be bogus, and service was lousy.
Then switched to E-Trade which was the biggest investing mistake I ever made. The company totally sucks. At that point I was tired of messing around and switched back to Waterhouse.
IMO it is a mistake to choose a broker by putting too much emphasis on commissions. Yes there are places that charge less than $12 to $20 per trade. I find their statements easy to read and their website easy to use.
Bernie