how to buy stocks online

I have stock accounts at 3 different brokers (E*Trade, TD Ameritrade, and Merrill Lynch) and I must say that my favorite by far is E*Trade. Why do I have three different accounts? My Merrill Lynch account was set up for me in the 80′s by my father, I set up my own account at Ameriprise in the early 90′s, and my E*Trade account was set up as my first online account about 10 years ago.

At the time I put my first dollars in E*Trade, they were one of the pioneers of online brokers and I felt they probably knew what they were doing more than anyone else. The online investing world was relatively new and I wanted to go with one of the leaders. They still are a leader today and I have never regretted it.

Price

I get all my stock trades for $9.99 and while I can get cheaper trades elsewhere, it is just not worth it to me to change because I don’t trade too often. Their price has always been $9.99 as long as I can remember and I get good value for that because I LOVE their website and how easy it is to navigate.

Website Usability

When you are choosing between E*Trade and other online brokers, you will find that one of the biggest differences between all of them is their platform website. For instance, I absolutely hate my Ameriprise account because their website is NOT user friendly. I can never figure out how to get from one place to another and I don’t like the way they display things. It’s like Ameriprise hasn’t thought about how best to present the account information and they have never changed anything to make it better.

E*Trade on the other hand, is a dream to navigate and it takes very little time to figure out where everything is. When you first log on, it will have your account(s) displayed right in front of you and all you have to do is click on them to take you to a screen that will show you every stock in your portfolio. You will immediately see how much each of your stocks went up or down for the day along with some other basic information. Everything about their website is simple and “user friendly” which is just the way it should be.

Real Offices In Many Cities

Another thing I like about E*Trade is that they are big enough (publicly traded on Nasdaq – symbol ETFC) to have real offices in many major cities. Unlike some of the discount brokers that only have websites, they have a brick and mortar office in my city and I went there a couple of times when I wanted to add money to my account. I was able to hand a check directly to a broker and talk to him as well.

You can of course add money to your account by mail or by wire but I like the fact that I have somewhere to go if I have any real problem or complaints. I have also dealt with them on the phone from time to time regarding account issues and always found their customer service to be great. They even have online customer service chat so you always know someone is there 24/7.

Research, Investing, and Trading Tools

Once you open an account you will have access to a full array of research tools that rival that of any online broker. I don’t personally use them too often but you probably will find all you need. Every stock you look up will have a section for analyst research, fundamentals, earnings (complete with graphs) and a section listing insider activity.

With E*Trade you also get a section that has about 25 videos covering different online investment topics. There are also periodic live web seminars that you have to sign up for that do NOT cost anything extra.

If you think you will want to be buying stocks on any of your mobile devices there are apps for the iPad, iPhone, Android, and Blackberry that allow you to trade on the go.

Bottom Line

E*Trade is one of the original online discount brokers that started the whole website stock trading revolution. In my opinion they have the most solid website experience and that is extremely important forme as I do log on to my account just about every day to see how my stocks fared. I feel confident having my money with them because of the responsive customer service I have always gotten and their price is right in line with most everyone else. Right now E*Trade is offering free trades for the first 60 days if you are a new customer so it is a good time to give them a try!

The stock market has gone up now for close about 4 1/2 straight years. There have been some small pullbacks along the way but nothing major and every downturn was followed by a new high shortly after. Its been a great run and if you have had money in the stock market, it has been hard not to make money. As they say, a rising tide lifts all boats.

As we come to the end of 2013, there are a lot of worried people throughout the investing world that fear a major correction may be right around the corner. I worry about that too and I have throughout 2013. It has prevented me from putting more money into the market and as a result, I have lost out on some of the gains I might have had. Oh well, no one can see the future.

Federal Reserve Easing

The #1 worry is that the Federal Reserve will start easing up on the amount of money they are pumping into the economy. It is a complicated subject but all you need to know is that the government has been artificially stimulating the economy by buying $85 billion in bonds every month and that may be “tapering” off in the near future. Interest rates have been kept artificially low to make money easier to borrow which supposedly stimulates the economy and keeps it ticking. All the while, the unemployment rate has NOT improved much and our country continues to dig itself into a deeper hole of debt every day.

Higher Interest Rates

If interest rates start to go back up, history shows that the tendency is for more people to put money into save savings vehicles rather than in stocks. People want investment income and the more you give them that is risk free, the less likely they are to buy stocks which are certainly NOT “risk free”. If the nation’s interest rates start to climb, that would be bad for the stock market and possibly contribute to it reversing course. That is why there is worry out there.

ObamaCare

ObamaCare is something that has NOT made an impact on the stock market so far and you don’t hear many people talking about in relation to stocks. But I am concerned about what is happening now with the higher health insurance costs for many Americans. ObamaCare is clearly going to be a debacle deep into 2014 and then in 2015 the employer mandate will kick in and everyone who has insurance through their company will be affected.

Health insurance is an absolute mess and people are worried. Costs are going up (no matter what the Democrats tell you) and that means less money in people’s pockets and a lot of uncertainty. In those types of situations people normally tighten their belts and try to spend less. Businesses stop hiring, jobs are harder to find, and new businesses are put on hold. This cannot be good for the stock market and although ObamaCare may not directly cause stocks to plunge on any given day, the overall drag this new government program is having and will have may eat away at investor’s confidence.

End Of 2013 And Then What?

The just released earnings of many companies were pretty good and that is why stocks have continued to go up. However, as we come to the end of 2013, the changes just mentioned above will all take center stage in the new year. Additionally, the Christmas shopping season this is going to be a short one so it will probably not be a blockbuster, especially if people are conservative as I think they will tend to be.

There are still a lot of pundits that think the market is just fine and fairly valued with many reasons to keep going up. But personally, I’m really scared to buy stocks now. I’ve been holding off for months and have lost out (as I mentioned) but I’m going to continue waiting at least until January or February 2014 before I consider buying anything new. I just want to see what happens as the clock ticks over to the new year and see what other investors do. Buying stocks at this time when the market is at an all time high just seems a bit too risky to me.