Online Trading: Who do you use & why?
 

As I have said in my disclaimers around here a few times, I am my own financial adviser. I have always been my own financial adviser. I have no pieces of paper that say I can be a financial adviser. I do have one client though. That's Mr. Boomer. He still likes me.

Anyway, I am thinking about tiptoeing into the world of online trading. No, I will not become some whacked out, caffeine-mainlining day trader. But I do feel like I can see opportunity approaching. Not exactly pounding on the door yet. But approaching. Way down the road though. I have to use binoculars.

There are some seriously beat up good companies out there. Dividend payers. And if the dividends hold, I get paid to wait while sitting around on the potential of a real gain. And the percentage returns on some of those dividends look interesting to me. I am not a big risk taker. Well, not since the unfortunate bubble dancing I did in the 90's. I have confessed about that on here before. I learned.

So that's what I have been thinking about lately. A lot. Buying a little stock. A little. And I think the time has come to open a little account somewhere and learn how to do this online.

I am thinking about Scottrade, but we are not married yet. I have always just used the phone to buy and sell stock. But I think I am ready to learn how to trade on line. And I thought there could be some good information here about which site to use, from TOTVers who have been doing online trading. So if that's you and you don't mind giving me some advice, which online trading site do you use? And why?

Thanks.

Boomer

I started out with DATEK about 10 years ago. They were since bought by AMERITRADE.
Basically I'm with them because I see no need to change!

Our investment club here in TV (OBGIC) uses Scott Trade and I see no advantages or disadvantages.

Good Luck, but for my real money I use a certified financial planner.

My on line account is small (and getting smaller).:cryin2:

Thanks aln. We signed up with Scottrade yesterday. They have local offices which I like having for some goofy reason. And Mr. Boomer liked the helicopter in the ads. So that was pretty much it.

We may do a fee-only CFP at some point but have not yet. I just never buy anything that I do not understand and I never buy anything that will not let me sleep at night. I am truly boring. But I do worry that someday I may flip out and start buying Pez dispensers and Beanie Babies.

Boomer

Boom,
Let us know how it goes with establishing your Scott Trade account and how easy it is to buy/sell. Right now I've got my money tied up in scratch-off tickets, but I need to diversify.






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Well Munc,

My best bet lately has been consumer staples. I have been buying a lot of toothpaste and soap and toilet paper when it's on sale because I know for sure the price will only go up. It's the best ROI I can find right now.

Re. that acct. I am all signed up, but I have not tried anything yet. I am looking at Clorox and Kraft maybe. Online trading is a new adventure for me. I am mostly a buy and hold kind of girl. Even though I have had two husbands.

Boomer

A buy & hold kinda gal.........
 

Yeah....... I was also a buy & hold kinda gal ..... way back when I retired 10 years ago! My retirement present for myself was to purchase my first PC, and I started trading online with Charles Schwab!

I'm kinda lame when it comes to financial stuff but it was so easy to make a deposit at my local CS business and then go online and click on "buy". During that time, 1998, stocks were climbing and so was my account - so I felt good about that. Their website gave "advice" on whatever stock you inquired about and it always said "BUY" - I don't ever recall it saying "sell".

Anyway, a year or so later...... stuff hit the fan ...... Bill Gates got in trouble, stocks started falling and I just held on :shrug:

The end of my story is not pretty :cus: Ya gotta know when to SELL ! :shrug:

And there's me...who got into investments very late in life...to secure my retirement since I was a stay at home mom and didn't go back to work full time until I was 48 years old. My financial advisor put me into annuities in a company based out of Scandanavia and for the past 11 years I have been plopping half my earnings there. I'm all set...financially comfortable for retirement and every time I see my advisor I kiss and hug him with all my heart.

Nope, no stocks for me...I'm too skeered for that at my age! I learned long ago not to wager money....cause clothes are too expensive to buy.

I'm just "mostly" a buy and hold girl. That's because I am so conservative in what I buy. I have one or two that I am pretty loyal to.

But I have sold a few things. Jumped off that Harley just in time. And then there was when my insurance company issued an IPO and said that policy holders could have stock or money. I took the stock. Up and up it went and I sold it. And I am glad. I just did not want to own it anymore.

But there was also my unfortunate tech bubble incident of the 90's. I have written about that on here somewhere before. I sure thought I was hot stuff. I would walk in the door after work, flip on Bloomberg, and smile like the cat who swallowed the canary. Well, you know what happened. I learned though.

Mr. Boomer still loves to say, "Hey, where is that woman I used to sleep with who was getting me a 102% on those funds?" (Hubris ain't purdy, you know.)

But I never bet the whole farm. Just my little stash of butter and egg money. I am mostly boring as can be.

I really do like being responsible for investment decisions myself, for now anyway. Some of my friends think this is so weird and they ask me why I like this stuff. And I really do not know. I have wondered if it is some kind of genetic predisposition. Maybe some day the financial adviser of my dreams will come my way, but for right now I just can't turn it all over to some guy, even though he wants to buy me dinner first.

Boomer

My financial advisor never bought me dinner nor did he even offer. I am grateful for his advice and he secured my future.

That's good. I know some day I will probably have to find one that I like. I will probably use a CFP at some point, possibly a fee-only. I probably should start thinking about it more. But for now, I'm it. But that's just me. I am a freakazoid about it. I have remained quite conservative because I know I am not a spring chicken. My bottom line is to establish my own cost of sleep. That's my test. And I am boring so I fall asleep easily. But I will say that this thing now is the scariest thing I have ever seen for investments.

A financial planner called me today, in fact. He left a message. I do not know if he wanted to buy me dinner or not. Maybe he wanted me to buy him dinner.

I just hope my pension fund's financial planner is doing OK.

Boomer

As far as I'm concerned a person who holds himself or herself out as a financial planner must accept a fee as the ONLY form of compensation from you.

Otherwise the planner is merely another salesperson whose primary goal is his or her well-being, not yours. It is unreasonable and naive for you to expect any different.

If they make money only from what you buy or sell, you stand too much of a chance to not get advice on the best course for you to take.

I am very wary of sale-commission-only financial planners. The "financial planner" title is probably correct, but whose finances are being primarily planned?

:agree:

I'm very conservative when it comes to personal finance. I'm not a gambler and I believe letting someone else make financial decisions on my behalf based on their commission based fee is not in my best interest.

Boy oh boy Boom, I've been biting my tongue (or fingers) since you posted the above. That man of your, of whom we hear quite often but from whom we never hear, must really be something. Was this kinda like a casting couch in reverse? Just by "sleeping" with the "lady", he was able to get 102% return on his investments! He must be amazing! Did you ever find out who she is/was?

Back to topic --- re the use of commission based financial advisors, it's real easy to see how even a well-meaning individual would suffer in comparison to fee based types. When you have products, be they insurance based instruments or a selection of funds and/or stocks, you are indoctrinated to believe that these are the be all and end all. Sorta like the carpenter whose only tool is a hammer and treats all problems as if they are nails, these guys may well look at an investor and ask which of "their" products fits best. The fee based guy has an entire tool chest along with a truck full of extras. He fits the solution to the problem. And of course there are the real scum, bottom-feeding commission guys whose only purpose in life is to get you to do as much buying and selling as possible, just so they can get their cut.





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Aw Munc,

Now I feel so bad. Here I sit picturing you trying to type with those bloody stumps that are all that is left of your fingers.

Anyway, I kid you not, Munc. It really was 102% on some mutual fund. It was a brief and shining moment. I am going to have to dig around through old paperwork to see if I still have the name of that thing.

And Munc, it gets worse. Remember the scene in The Graduate where that guy says something to Dustin Hoffman to the effect of, "I've got one word for you -- plastics."

Well, Munc, I have to do a shameless confession here again. I used to say to Mr. B, "I've got one word for you -- tech."

Ohhhh, like I said. Hubris ain't purdy. That flying too close to the sun stuff just does not work out.

But he still lets me be his financial adviser. But I make him buy me dinner first.

And re. that hearing about, but never from, stuff where Mr. B is concerned -- Well, sometimes Mr. Boomer passes by my computer when I am pounding away with a fiendish smile on my face, and he says, "OK. Are you writing about the hapless Mr. Boomer again?" And I swear to him that he is never hapless in my little stories. But then he just wants to know if I am making any money writing stuff. And I have to tell him, "Nope. Still givin' it away."

But back to Scottrade. I just logged on and gave it some stocks to watch. It's a start.

Boomer

the sequel
 

Well, it has been a whole month since my very first and only online trade. Kraft (KFT) at $22.23. I still watch General Mills, Kellogg, 3M, and Waste Management, and I cannot help but look at GE, but so far I have not done anything else with the online stuff.

Meanwhile, Procter and Gamble raised its dividend 10%. PG has a dividend history back to 1890. They have a history of paying an uninterrupted increase in dividend for more than 50 years.

When they announced last week that it was business as usual where the dividend was concerned, I was proven to be right in a little discussion I had with a fellow PG stockholder. He said it would not happen. I said it would. He was glad that I was right. (I am not always right though. I know that well.)

PG has been beat up just like everything else. I hold some PG. And I go to the stockholders meeting in the fall. (I really do think it might be the law in Cincinnati.)

PG has been known to go through periods when it stays flat for a very long time. It sure is not the most thrilling stock somebody could ever own. But that's OK. It has been passing that cost of sleep test that I use. (Of course, I am not a financial adviser. I just kind of like this stuff.) And I really am wondering if we are entering a period now where those beat up old stocks will hold their own, sort of, but will mostly stay flat for a very long time.

Boomer