Investor Help (NO Ihub questions)

[cintrix]

That subject has been debated here for years. Depends on what type of trading you do. Are you trading the big boards or pennies, do you trade options, do you need trading software or do you use an outside platform? If you read the old posts you will find that there are good and bad points for all brokerages.
I currently use Etrade and Schwab.
Etrade was great until Morgan Stanley took them over. Ever since, their customer service is horrendous. I think they got rid of most of the old etrade reps and hired people who are inexperienced. The on-hold wait time when you call has finally improved a bit since the change over but still not as quick as it once was. They also charge for corporate actions when they used to waive that fee if you were an active trader. What I like about them is Pro trading platform. I like the layout and the different functions and I think I stay using Etrade because I don't want to have to rely on something else.
Schwab's trading tools are not as good. StreetSmartedge is actually being phased out and I think ThinkOrSwim will be their only platform which is overrated in my opinion. I like Etrade Pro better. But Schwab's customer service is excellent. No wait time when you call. And you get someone who knows what they are talking about and they don't screen your call first the way ET does. They also do not charge for corporate actions.
I personally have used different brokers over the years - I can think of about five. I have decided to stick with the bigger name brokerages vs the smaller ones. I know there are others mentioned on this board like Robinhood, Interactive Brokers and Fidelity. I have never used any of them.