Which Discount Broker to Use

[erase]

Hello,

First post ever and I am ready for badassity! I know Mr Money Mustache talks about using Sharebuilder to purchase funds, stocks, and ETFs. Is there any other discount broker I should use? Purchasing the the almighty VTSMX costs $19.95 per trade using Sharebuilder. Should I be using Vanguard.com to purchase funds? Which Discount brokers does Mr Money Mustache use?

Thanks for your help in advance!
erase

[FIreDrill]

Other than our 401k's, all of our investments are with Vanguard so we just have an account with them.  You can buy/sell there ETF's for free if you don't have enough to meet the minimum investment for there index funds.  20 bucks per trade would be crazy.....

[pom]

Brokers are really cheap nowadays.

In the US, I use Etrade at $10 a trade. In Europe I use ING direct €9 per trade between 1K and 3k which is most of my trades.

I hear good things about interactive brokers, they say $1 for up to 200 shares on the website, maybe someone here can tell us more.

I trade approximately 10-15 times a year.

[hexdexorex]

merrill...its free with a certain amount of money...also good transfer bonuses

[ADK_Junkie]

I use (and love) Scottrade. 

$7 per Trade (buy/sell).  No maintenance or minimums.  Also, they have physical location in most cities in the U.S., so you can actually talk to person face-to-face if you have questions or concerns.

If I was opening a new account, I would also strongly consider Vanguard (only for their $0 trading for their index funds), but being able to walk into a Scottrade retail location is extremely beneficial.

Also, my 401k is with Vanguard, and I believe in diversification of everything (including where my money/stocks are kept).

[rmendpara]

Hello,

First post ever and I am ready for badassity! I know Mr Money Mustache talks about using Sharebuilder to purchase funds, stocks, and ETFs. Is there any other discount broker I should use? Purchasing the the almighty VTSMX costs $19.95 per trade using Sharebuilder. Should I be using Vanguard.com to purchase funds? Which Discount brokers does Mr Money Mustache use?

Thanks for your help in advance!
erase

How much do you trade, and how much in assets do you have? That should be your starting point to find an online broker that will fit your needs.

To trade Vanguard funds or Fidelity funds, it is obvious to just open an account directly with them as they don't charge fees to buy/sell their own funds. For stocks/other listed securities, there are a number of online brokerages which are basically the same.

Vanguard charges $7/trade (up to 25 trades per yr unless you have >$50k in Vanguard funds and qualify for "premier"... otherwise the fee goes up to $20/trade after the first 25).

Fidelity I believe charges $7.95 flat fee.

Scott trade I think is around $7.

Sharebuilder (Capital One?) is a bit lower at $4.

Wells, BoA/Merrill Lynch, other banks, etc.... you have a LOT of options. Some offer discounts depending on how many assets you have, of course, this is only valuable if you trade enough to make it worthwhile to move enough assets there.

[ampersand]

I use Option house which just changed their price to 4.75 a trade. I like their platform and it works really well. I've never had a problem with it, and is set up on an ACH tranfer with my bank. It also has cheap options trading if you're into that kind of thing (I'm not)

I've been eyeballing betterment.com. All trades are free, and they automatically update asset allocation using vanguard funds for just a set percent a year ~.25%. Has anyone had experience with them?