Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[Newly2b]

Just cancelled my accounts at TDWaterhouse and Brown&Co.

Waterhouse has raised their commissions from $12 for limit orders 3 years ago, to $20 now. Brown commissions are $5 mkt. orders, $10 limit, but no trading platform. I've never used either Ameritrade or Scottrade, which simply don't offer enough if you are an active trader IMO, but of the 4 you mention, I'd go with Brown if I had to.

My recommendation would be InteractiveBrokers (low commissions one cent/shr., dependable service, nice workstation) or TradeStation (low commissions 1.5 cents/shr, but charges for their high-tech workstation, which includes backtesting, scanning, automatic trading, news and lots more).

I just signed up for TradeStation and in the process evaluated penntrade, harrisdirect, Fidelity, MasterTrader (Pristine), Schwab, Cybertrader, MyTrack, MB Trading and Terra Nova. IMO TradeStation offers the best package for the money. In addition, I prefer pricing/share to pricing/trade, as it allows one to fade in and out of a trade without paying additional commission. By the way, Schwab or Cybertrader (owned by Schwab) would have been my second choice.

Hope this helps.

Newly