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| jumbojack |
 Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 7:42 am Post subject: Fidelity - anyone using them? |
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Investing Sr. Associate
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the place i work for decided to stop managing our 401k's and let fido do it instead. since i didn't have a choice i figured i might as well get the $100 bonus they're offering for opening an account with them.
trades are only $8 but from what i'm reading you've got to watch out for extra fees! i discovered that by opting out from paper statements you can avoid quarterly fees.
i was chatting with a real nice rep online yesterday, she noticed that i had placed a GTC limit order and warned me about this. apparently i have to pay $8 for each day shares were bought to fulfill that order!
i wasn't aware there were so many ways of placing an order, the simulators i've played didn't prepare me for this! first they want to know what order type i want: market, limit, stop limit, stop loss, trailing stop limit, or trailing stop loss. then the time in force: day, good 'til canceled. fill or kill, immediate or cancel, on the open, or on the close. and the last one, conditions: none, all or none, do not reduce, all or none/do not reduce. oh gawd, my brain hurts everytime i have to do this when placing an order 
they have this free software package called active trader pro. i downloaded the app but when i tried to run it i get a message that i'm not an active trader (??) and i have to first place 36 orders before i can use it. that really annoyed me. what's worst, everytime i try to send them a message on their website to complain about this i get a blank screen when i hit submit!
anyways, if you use fidelity i'd like to know if you have any tips. especially about what to do to avoid paying any hidden fees.
thanks!
-jj |
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| soma |
| Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 8:08 am Post subject: |
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Investing Sr. Associate
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When I was first shopping around for a broker, I was told by my aunt to go with Fidelity because they have $8 trades. Sounded like a bargain to me, so I looked into it and soon found that the $8 trades were only for people who have $1,000,000, or $25,000 w/ 120+trades per year. I of course did not qualify so I went with Ameritrade. It's really terrible how they advertise their $8 commission without saying what you need to qualify for it, and that their normal commission is $19.95.
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| MrInvestor |
| Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 7:32 pm Post subject: |
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Investing Manager
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Thanks soma...good info.
I hate when big companies do stuff like that. |
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| jumbojack |
| Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 12:03 pm Post subject: |
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Investing Sr. Associate
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i don't know how much trading soma is doing at scottrade but, is 10 trades a month too much? anyways, that's what i told fido i was planning to do and they gave me the gold level.
as far as the $25k in assets, they were very flexible with this. add up the assets (401k, IRA, savings account, etc.) of everyone that lives with you. i know it should be over $25k so that's what i said. they didn't question it.
i got a response today about the active trader pro app, they are making an exeption for me as long as it's my intention to make 36 trades in a 12 month period. doh! gimmie my sammich |
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| soma |
| Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 6:14 pm Post subject: |
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Investing Sr. Associate
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| Dang. If they want you to make 36 trades per year, just screw it. Scottrade is cheaper and doesn't have any trade/year minimums |
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| jumbojack |
| Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 6:25 pm Post subject: |
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Investing Sr. Associate
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