Pardon the rambling...

I'm no stock guru but I I'm no dummy either...

1. etrade has awesome, hilarious and memorable commercials... and they claim 1000 new accounts per day. Wow, sounds great!

2. Warren Buffett says now is the time to buy good stocks. Who can disagree that when Warren Buffett talks, something can be learned?

3. I am shocked to learn that E*TRADE only has about 1/8th the users that tdameritrade has...

So 2 questions for those of you who are active and interested:

1. Who do you use for online trading and why do you prefer them over the others?
2. Share your most recent stock purchases for me to consider. Of course if people catch on to it being posted here then you benefit too :)

Note: Please resist posting a) warnings of economic/stock market doom and gloom opinions, b) why this is not a good time to buy stock in good companies, c) etc.

Thank you :)

I also enjoy Etrade's commercials. But each time I see their claim, I wish they would tell us how many accounts they lose each day.

1. I use Scottrade. $7 per trade. No fees, no catches. They provide a lot for the money. There are cheaper brokers, but in my opinion you get what you pay for. There are better brokers and there are cheaper brokers. Scottrade is a reasonable balance between the two.

2. I can't give you a good answer on my trades because I primarily day trade. After getting killed like most other people when the market dived, I gave up on trying to pick winners. My strategy is simply to watch the market and trade when I see an opportunity to make a quick buck. I follow a few stocks and when one starts to move then I watch it more closely. Sometimes I make 3 or 4 trades a day. Other times I will go 3 or 4 days with no trades. My current philosophy is that a $5.00 profit is better than a loss. And yes, I have made large trades and settled for a $5.00 profit. (My target gain is more than that, but I don't mind breaking even when I'm wrong.) I admire the people who are making big gains now, but I'm not that good.

Good fortune.
Walt

My girlfriend has an account with Scottrade; She says it is very easy to use as far as trading stocks and buying/selling mutual funds. You control everything and can deposit money online directly from a bank account, and when she wants to withdraw money they mail her a check within I believe about 1-3 days.
As far as my own experience, I am a big fan of Dollar Cost Averaging- Continuing to invest (in mutual funds) at lower prices will buy more shares & create bigger returns when the fund performs better. Even if you must reduce the amount you can afford to contribute each month it is better than nothing. Also, I don't recommend investing lump sums into mutual funds; If you have $10,000 to invest it makes more sense to either A) Pay the minimum amount the mutual fund initially requires, lets say $5000, and then deposit the other $5000 in monthly installments of between $100-$300. or B) Search for the highest interest rate on a CD or MMA to get a guaranteed ROI.
Note: I disagree with not listening to the horror stories because even negative information can be useful.

Lastly,
Do what works: a truly pragmatic approach.
Good luck to all and thanks for reading

I realized half of my answer about mutual funds may not have applied to this question regarding stocks- I am currently reading a great book that was on the Best Seller list called "The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing", 2008 Edition by Jason Kelly; It is a great read and breaks down everything from how to evaluate stocks to the opinions/strategies&techniques of professional investors like Buffet and a few others...

It wasn't that long ago that Etrade was in financial trouble, but their funadmentals look better today. I use Fidelity Investments, but unless you do a lot of trading, their fees are much higher than Etrade, Ameritrade and Scott trade. Before you do business with anyone, find out how much it costs to purchase stock. There are significant differences. In today's economy, in my view, it is much more prudent to invest in liquid companies. I define a liquid company as one where the debt is either zero, or significantly below the cash on hand. Stocks that have more cash per share than the share price also provide a lower risk, but most important is that the company has good income and isn't burning cash. No one knows when the economy is going to recover, but the longer it takes, the more companies are going to go out of business. If you ask Google to list high yield low risk stocks, most of the companies you will get will pay good dividends and have good fundamentals. Merck (MRK), Pfizer (PFE) and EL Dupont (DD) are just a few. But, before you invest in any stock, go on yahoofinance.com and get a quote by putting the symbol or first few characters of the name in the box, and it will bring up a list. After you see the quote, click on Key Statistics and you will see all the fundamentals. You need to keep checking weekly on whatever you buy or own, because if the cash position or debt position increases significantly, you might want to consider a change.