Scottrade Review
For any investor who wishes to begin investing online, one of the most important decisions to be made is what online brokerage firm to choose. There are many brokerage firms which offer a wide variety of services, but one online brokerage firm which should be carefully considered is Scottrade. Investing through a Scottrade brokerage account provide you with many advantages that are unmatched by other brokerage firms.
The first advantage of trading through Scottrade is affordable cost. Many online brokerage firms charge up to $25 per market trade. This cost is astronomical and makes investing nearly impossible for some people. An individual who has $1,000 to invest in a stock will need a 5% return just to break even on the trade and cover the $50 expense required to buy and sell. On the other hand, Scottrade offers extremely affordable internet market trades of just $7 per trade, which is among the lowest in the industry.
Another advantage of trading through Scottrade is the wide variety of investment opportunities. Scottrade offers their clients both market and limit orders on all securities, market and limit orders on options, a variety of mutual funds to choose from, and even foreign exchange trading. Scottrade also allows investors to inexpensively plan their retirement accounts through a no-fee IRA. Many online brokerage firms do not allow for such a wide variety of investments.
Another advantage of opening a Scottrade online brokerage account is the limitless support that Scottrade provides to their clients. In 2008, Scottrade won JD Power and Associate’s award for best investor satisfaction. Unlike other online brokerage firms, who are only accessible via email or phone, Scottrade has almost 450 conveniently located branches which can be accessed by anyone. Inside the branches sit customer services representatives who can help with support as well as experienced brokers who can provide sound financial advice and help place trades.
Scottrade also has unmatched resource tools which can be accessed by free by their clients. On the website, Scottrade clients can use Scottrade’s screening tool which allows the client to better search an ideal stock or fund. Their research tools also provide up to the minute stock and industry news, which can be used to filter for news for any specific company or industry. Scottrade also provides each client with free real-time account balances. Scottrade clients can also access their account and place trades through their smart phones.
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And I’d also like to add that, Scottrade also provides for foreign investors to trade U.S. stocks and other securities as well, which is rather hard to find even till this day. The second wonderful thing that comes to mind is the flexibility Scottrade has for investors, that is, it allows for …… no, I’d rather not say it here, fearful that one day it’ll be gone. But one thing I’m looking forward to is whether Scottrade’s trading software is good enough to my taste.
I hope you don’t have the troubles with Scottrade that I have had. Their customer service is pretty bad. Rude people that are of no help. They can’t do this and they can’t do that and they lost the other thing.
I’ve been a customer of Scottrade for a few years now. They make several thousand dollars a year off of me. But whenever I have to deal with an actual person, it’s a nightmare!