What brokerage account website do you use?

[iris lily]

Why do you like it? What's the downside of it?

[innerscorecard]

I use Schwab. The commissions are extremely high, but I trust Schwab, more than I would someone like TradeKing. I know I won't have execution problems. I am terrified of having my money in an institution that is not reliable. (That is why I have avoided bitcoin as well, despite thinking the blockchain is a great piece of technology. To do any transactions personally you pretty much have to trust exchanges which are by their nature very untrustworthy (unless you meet sketchy people in parking lots to do physical exchanges)).

There are also no transaction fees at ATMs and I use their checking account services (which have no transaction fees worldwide) so I think I am getting some value for the higher amounts I pay.

Schwab index funds and ETFs are also good enough (cheaper than Vanguard, though undoubtedly somewhat worse in some other ways) and I pay no fees for buying and selling them.

Customer service is fantastic and I've always been happy with them.

[rayt168]

I second innerscorecard's choice although I do have a Vanguard account as well.   My personal choice is Schwab.  Vanguard' website is rather ackward to use.   I much rather pay slightly higher commissions for better service and choices. 

[soccerluvof4]

I use Vanguard for all my index funds longer holding etc... And I actually like there service and platform , find it very easy to use and get great customer service.

For Trading and daily stuff I use TD Ameritrade.

For me its a comfort thing and what I am use to. I have good things about Schwab but for me I go where i can get the cheapest costs since I am creating my own portfolios anyhow.  I get a discount for my trade volume from TD Ameritrade so again , more convenience and lesser costs.

[Sparky]

Guessing this is from American perspective but might as well chip in anyway.

I'm using Questrade for my brokerage needs. As a company I trust them with what I am doing, and their support staff are pretty good overall. However, Questrade's website is painful to use. The mobile Apps for IOS/Android is a bit easier to use than the web browser, but still far from perfect.

[wtjbatman]

TD Ameritrade and Sharebuilder. TD Ameritrade "feels" like a traditional brokerage, which is a plus in a lot of ways, not to mention they seem to have a lot of tools and information available that helps me when I'm researching stocks. Interface is organize poorly IMO, however.

I do really like Sharebuilder's lower trading fees and easy to navigate website interface. It's a lot more "modern" feeling than TD Ameritrade, but maybe more shallow with less useful information. Sharebuilder had this really cool thing where for $12 you could do 12 automatic trades in a month, but I believe they're getting rid of that service and going back to their regular fee. Which is still a few bucks less per trade than TD Ameritrade. And the automatic (it's one a week) trades are even cheaper, only $4 per. Works great for my IRA.

[KingCoin]

Interactive Brokers.

Extremely cheap commission schedule. Extremely cheap margin if you want to borrow (~1%). Very flexible and customizable.

Probably best for investors with higher trade volume.

[ZiziPB]

Fidelity.  Their website is excellent, they have a good selection of low cost mutual funds and ETFs (no trading fees on Fidelity mutual funds and a good number of ETFs) and their customer service has been very good whenever I had any questions.  They also have a local office near where I live so it's nice to have the option of doing business in person.

[seanc0x0]

Guessing this is from American perspective but might as well chip in anyway.

I'm using Questrade for my brokerage needs. As a company I trust them with what I am doing, and their support staff are pretty good overall. However, Questrade's website is painful to use. The mobile Apps for IOS/Android is a bit easier to use than the web browser, but still far from perfect.

You're not the only one in Canuckistan.  My wife has an RBC Direct Investing account, and I've just opened a VirtualBrokers account.  VB is amazingly cheap, but seem to be doing well. They've been ranked #1 for low cost and innovation by the Globe and Mail for a couple years... 1 cent per share trades and no ECN fees. I'm about to make my first trade once the transfer I started today goes through. 

[Vjklander]

I started with E-Trade and still have a lot there. But, I've moved my big accounts to Scottrade.  I had one with Schwab when they had the money back credit card going to their acct, but that is one I closed and moved to Scottrade.

[hodedofome]

I have 2 Coverdell ESA accounts and 1 Roth IRA with TDAmeritrade, 1 Roth IRA with Vanguard, 1 IRA with Fidelity, and my trading account is with Interactive Brokers. Here's my thoughts on each:

TDAmeritrade has the ThinkOrSwim trading app which is great for a chart based trader like myself. It's really powerful, especially for options. There's plenty of options guys out there running millions of dollars and using TOS as their charting package. This probably doesn't apply to most people in this forum however. So I'll just say that TDA is fine for most people. They have quite a few commission free ETFs and the interface is fine. You can do options, currencies, commodities, all sorts of stuff with TDA but commissions are high if you are an active trader. TDA is about the only brokerage I found that could do Coverdell ESA college savings accounts.

Fidelity seems to have more research available along with lower commissions than TDA. I don't really use it for that, but it's probably great for most people.

Vanguard doesn't seem to give me much info, or at least it's difficult to find. I'd say that Vanguard is the most bare bones however they are also the cheapest. You can trade their Vanguard ETFs for free. If you are just gonna buy Vanguard index ETFs the cheapest way to do it is Vanguard. I should probably move my Fidelity and TDA IRAs over to Vanguard but I just haven't done it yet.

Interactive Brokers is really only for professional traders. They have very low commissions ($.005 a share), excellent execution and the lowest margin rates of anybody. They can handle most accounts. You can buy stocks in markets all over the world, currencies, commodities, German bunds, whatever the heck you want. You can short stocks with IB that most other brokers don't have. Most professional individual traders use IB. It's amazing how much more money I made switching from TDA to IB. I was paying way too much for commissions.

My recommendation for most people is Vanguard or Fidelity.

[Roland of Gilead]

OptionsHouse.   $3 stock trades, $5 option trades (makes covered calls so cheap!)

I like their interface too.  You get money or free trades for referring people but I have never done that, I just like the platform and tell people about them.

[SDREMNGR]

Fidelity.  I buy mostly their iShares ETFs.  The IVV (S&P500) has a 0.07% load.  Very cheap.  Only one cheaper I know is Vanguard with their S&P500 etf at 0.05%.  However, I am starting to buy up sector ETFs and Fidelity branded ones are now only 0.12% load.  That's cheaper than Vanguard's which is 0.15% I believe.  Anyhow, I was going to switch to Vanguard but their customer support was so much worse than Fidelity's that I decided to stay.  I also have Fidelity's Simple IRA for my employees, and they charge $25/year/account.  Vanguard's was also $25 but free if you keep over $50k in your total assets held there.

I'm sure both are fine and good.  I thought Fidelity's website and customer support was much better and that was worth the extra little bit of cost.