Quote:
Originally Posted by cpd004
As a beginner, I was thinking playing around with TD Ameritrade. Any of reason not to use them over one of the best there...E*Trade, Robin Hood, etc.? It appears they all require a linked bank account. Is this risky?
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TD Ameritrade has some of the best charting software out there (ThinkorSwim), and trading is free; executions are sometimes absolutely terrible, however. Robinhood is a pile of crap, unless you enjoy using your cell phone to throw money away. Etrade is nice, and it is also free, but it lacks a lot of what TDA gives you. My wife's dad really likes Fidelity, especially after his account got smoked in the last bubble; he learned to become more hands-on. There are zillions of other brokers out there . . .
"Playing around" usually means losing money, pretty much all of it. Another of the benefits of TD Ameritrade is that they offer a ton of free educational resources online (with quizzes!), through their secure platform; YouTube also has a treasure trove of educational content, but much of it is trying to sell you crap. You can open an account at TDA with nearly nothing, so it is a good choice overall, even if the money you put in just sits there for a year (for free).
Over the past decade, the free information on this stuff has improved exponentially. It's a perfect time to learn and watch (and better understand why so many others are losing or making money right now).