Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Secrets To Find The Best Online Investment Broker

Finding the best online broker isn’t easy. Information is incomplete. To complicate things even more online brokers aren’t forthcoming on basic information like cost per trade, fees, cash interest rates, and other critical information.

Authoritative sites give conflicting reviews and ratings. For example, the top rated online broker for JD Power in 2007 is the 12th place loser for Smart Money. To make things worse there are so many online brokers to choose from that even the reviews couldn’t decide whom to review. It’s common for some reviewers to completely leave off companies that received high ratings from another reviewer. Another problem is that some reviews are 2 to 3 years old.

In the information age you’d think someone (cough…cough… Consumer Reports) would have the solution, but they don’t. There are too many factors to make a final judgment on the best broker. The type of trader, account size, activity, research provided, customer service, and the amenities offered make each company fundamentally different.

In a way, rating online brokers is a lot like looking at vehicles. A dump truck is fundamentally different than a motorcycle. The dump truck reviewer will rank the motorcycle as a flimsy cheap vehicle that can’t haul more than a couple people. The motorcycle reviewer will discredit the dump truck as heavy, clunky, and a complete waste of gas. So which is better, the dump truck or motorcycle? Just like many things, it depends.

To find the best reviews try to find similarities in each review. Is there a company consistently in the top five? These brokers will likely be one of your top candidates as well. Another tip is to make sure the reviewers are comparing apple to apples. It happens regularly so be careful.

Try to find out the criteria for the review of each broker. One review might give your perfect broker a low score because they don’t offer check writing. If you didn’t care about check writing and that broker has everything else you want you might have missed them because of a poorly written review.

Another tip for finding a great broker is to know what’s important to you. Are you interested in Mutual Funds, are you an active trader, do you want to get into options, will you have a lot of cash sitting in your account, will you use margins? There are many things to consider. Some brokers will be very good in some areas and not so good in others. Knowing what areas are important to you will help you narrow down your search quicker.

The final thing to remember is spending more doesn’t always mean you get more. Most of these discount brokers went through tough times after the internet bubble burst. They had to become competitive while lowering prices. As they did this the tools, research, and service provided started to even out. You don’t need a premium broker to make money anymore. In fact, the big banks and investment firms have a lot more overhead than many smaller companies. Don’t believe the marketing that you’ll be getting more by spending more. It’s not always true.

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