Stock Trading

[longdawgview]

I know a lot of you do a lot of investing, trading, etc. I'm curious as to who you do it through and what has your experience been with them.

Trading (S&P E-mini - Futures)- TradeStation - One of the first trading platforms, quant/programmer friendly

Options - ThinkorSwim (TD Ameritrade) - Excellent Platform, always improving will match Tradeking pricing

Investing - TradeKing- Low cost, decent platform, stocks $4.95 per trade and options $4.95 per ticket 65 cents per contract. There has been some issues with their platform shutting down during the day but they have always been fair, as far as offering free trades to compensate

TD Ameritrade- TD will match TradeKing pricing plus you have access to TradeArchitect and ThinkorSwim

If you or looking to invest (long-term), TD wins out. Ask about their promotions, you should be able to get some free trades as new customer

[longdawgview]

I know a lot of you do a lot of investing, trading, etc. I'm curious as to who you do it through and what has your experience been with them.

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB...715729822.html

[hoppinmad]

Pretty sound advice above, JB. What are you wanting to do, invest or trade? I've used a few brokers mentioned above but not familiar with some.

Penson out of Dallas clears trades for some of the online discount brokers like Zecco, Lightspeed, Watley, Options House, Trade King and maybe some others too, but it appears Penson may be in a bit of hot water so investigate.

If you're mostly new to trading and want to trade, until doofus is out of the WH, I would say to study it all a bit then paper trade, then open an acct. and see what happens.

Most everyone thinks this thing is going down some more .... giving everyone something to ride back up. Until then, get a good understanding of Ex-dividend dates, then park your $$ in something with good dividends and tell your broker to turn on dividend reinvestment.

Here's a site to find those dates.....put your symbol in the upper left:

http://www.dividend.com/dividend-sto...-reit-inc-com/

[hoppinmad]

I believe ThinkorSwim is gone now...new traders will have to negotiate the commissions with TD Am.

[JuBru]

Right now, I'm just looking at what is out there. For example, I had not heard of term 'ex-dividend' until your post. I'm just seeing what others are doing, and hoping to spur some debate about it all.

[longdawgview]

I believe ThinkorSwim is gone now...new traders will have to negotiate the commissions with TD Am.

TOS was bought by TD a couple years ago but yeah I think the official switch over date was within the past couple weeks. I have received a couple emails about it but I haven't notice anything different except cash is sweeped into a money market FDIC insured account.

[hoppinmad]

Right now, I'm just looking at what is out there. For example, I had not heard of term 'ex-dividend' until your post. I'm just seeing what others are doing, and hoping to spur some debate about it all.

If you want the dividend for the next period, you must buy the stock at least one day before the Ex-dividend date ..... handy to know with some issues. I would say 1st buy a stock when the price is low but keep that dividend date in the back of your mind if you want the dividend for that period. If you buy on Ex-dividend day, you don't get that dividend for a month or three months, whichever applies. Probably doesn't matter as much with some of the blue chips.

[dhussdawg]

If you want the dividend for the next period, you must buy the stock at least one day before the Ex-dividend date ..... handy to know with some issues. I would say 1st buy a stock when the price is low but keep that dividend date in the back of your mind if you want the dividend for that period. If you buy on Ex-dividend day, you don't get that dividend for a month or three months, whichever applies. Probably doesn't matter as much with some of the blue chips.

I am confused, why does it matter when you buy it? If you want a dividend paying stock, you want one. However, after the dividend pays out, it should be reflected in the stock price (in theory). Does that not happen or something? I just dont understand the difference between buying a stock the day before ex div date at $33 and if the dividend is $1, you get $1 back. Then, if you were to just wait until ex div date and it would be worth $32. Is there some sort of market anomally here?

[hoppinmad]

I am confused, why does it matter when you buy it? If you want a dividend paying stock, you want one. However, after the dividend pays out, it should be reflected in the stock price (in theory). Does that not happen or something? I just dont understand the difference between buying a stock the day before ex div date at $33 and if the dividend is $1, you get $1 back. Then, if you were to just wait until ex div date and it would be worth $32. Is there some sort of market anomally here?

Yep, a lot of this crap confuses me too. You're right, the dividend does reflect in the next day's stock price but maybe not always exactly. Take ETP (one of Cramer's recs) for instance, some people want that $.89 dividend on a 1000 shares rather than wait 3 months, others prefer to look for a good entry point.

Look at these two charts of ETP and these dates: 11/3/10, 2/2/11, 5/3/11, 8/2/11, down about 1/2 the div. on 11/4 then absolutely got hammered the days after the other Ex-dates.

Bottom line, studying it and watching the news generally can beat the slots.

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=E...e=off;source=;


http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=E...e=off;source=;

[hookdown]

Whatever method you choose, "game" it for a few months to get a feel for it and what you want your strategy to be.

[dawg80]

I've used both Scottrade and Sharebuilder, and currently have all of mine moved to Sharebuilder. I did some trading a few years ago, but that just pissed off my CPA. I like the slow and steady approach of Sharebuilder, and being able to buy partial shares. Also Sharebuilder offers pretty good promos to start an account, or move an account from another brokerage.

My wife's IRA is in Fidelity, and I like it pretty well. Of the three, I think Scottrade has better reasearch, and the best trade price if you're looking to trade, but Sharebuilder is better for the long term investor.

Does Sharebuilder do DRIPs? Scott does not....yet. Was told they are considering it.

[splicer]

Does Sharebuilder do DRIPs? Scott does not....yet. Was told they are considering it.

Yes, even if a company doesn't allow DRIPs, Sharebuilder automatically reinvests the dividend (unless you turn it off). Share builder lets you buy $100 worth of a stock, even if the price X shares does not come out to $100 even. You can buy partial shares (but only through automatic investing or div reinvestment).

The thing I like the most about Sharebuilder is the automatic investment plan. You buy $X every month. It's a theory called "dollar cost averaging". It's investing on cruise control.

[dawg80]

Yes, even if a company doesn't allow DRIPs, Sharebuilder automatically reinvests the dividend (unless you turn it off). Share builder lets you buy $100 worth of a stock, even if the price X shares does not come out to $100 even. You can buy partial shares (but only through automatic investing or div reinvestment).

The thing I like the most about Sharebuilder is the automatic investment plan. You buy $X every month. It's a theory called "dollar cost averaging". It's investing on cruise control.

Thanks. I will look into Sharebuilder.

[LATechBanjo]

I do all my non-retirement investing through TDAmeritrade. Just got into options trading very recently and wish I would have discovered it sooner.

CChandler, I second the motion to start a forum about this.

[LATechBanjo]

I am confused, why does it matter when you buy it? If you want a dividend paying stock, you want one. However, after the dividend pays out, it should be reflected in the stock price (in theory). Does that not happen or something? I just dont understand the difference between buying a stock the day before ex div date at $33 and if the dividend is $1, you get $1 back. Then, if you were to just wait until ex div date and it would be worth $32. Is there some sort of market anomally here?

Simply put, the price is still the same regardless of shares. Assume a $1 Dividend on a stock worth 100 dollars. That means that (over a year) you would get $1 for each share you own.

If you have 1000 dollars invested, you would be able to afford 10 shares and at the end of the year you got $10 in dividends. That's a 1% dividend yield.

Lets say that last week this stock dropped down to $50. Your 1000 dollars now can afford 20 shares. If the company doesn't cut the dividend and pays out at 1$ per share, you would have $20 after the end of the year. Now a 2% dividend yield. In essence, your money just went a lot farther.

This principle makes dividend stocks rebound earlier than other stocks when the market tanks. And it makes opening positions in parts on the way down (dollar-cost-averaging, in a way) a much better way to do a dividend stock.

For homework, take a look at the dividend yield today and last month for BMY (Bristol Meyers). It has seen enhanced stability compared to the rest of the market and the div. yeild has jumped over a percent since July.