2006 Commission

[Terliso]

I made 170 trades last year, $19.90 commission ($19.90 buy & sell) my broker took  $3,383 from me.. he he 

How about you?

[ScottishTrader]

Yeah, When I actually looked at it, I got absolutely creamed by boroker commissions last year - well over $5000.  You should really look at changing your broker, as it can make a significant difference to your overall performance. 

I moved over to Interactive Brokers (www.interactivebrokers.com) - they offer excellent commission rates that are geared by the number of shares and total value of each trade, you pay .005 per share and it is capped at .2% of each trade's value.  I suppose it depends on the size of your trading account/individual trades, but I normally pay between $1 and $4 for each trade, making it effectively negligable relative to the overall value.  Their trading platform is pretty good too (although a total memory hog on your system - often it takes up to 700MB of RAM on mine!!!)

I used to be in a situation where trading fees would put me in the hole as much as 2 or 3% on a trade just from calculating fees, and I found this would affect my trading psychology.  Not anymore!

[AussieTrader]

Well, you know really you should analyze all your 'costs' of trading e.g

Subscriptions (to 3SoF / news services / data provider etc)
Internet access
Financing (from margin etc)
Brokerage fees
Purchases (software / hardware tools etc)

Then treat them exactly as that, the cost of doing business in the market trading. All businesses have costs. Keeping them (all) under control obviously is always key.

[njshiva]

I made 170 trades last year, $19.90 commission ($19.90 buy & sell) my broker took  $3,383 from me.. he he 

How about you?

19.9 is kinda high. For those many trades you should get a better rate Alister.
I pay 9.9 at Etrade.  I didnt check but I might have made around 100 trades last year.

[Terliso]

I made 170 trades last year, $19.90 commission ($19.90 buy & sell) my broker took  $3,383 from me.. he he 

How about you?

My commission is $19.90 buy & sell divided by 2 equals $9.95

* I made 170 trades *
$9.95 = 85 trades
$9.95 = 85 trades
Total trades = 170

$19.90 multipy to 170 total trades= $3,383

[nullzero]

Fidelity has terrible comm. rates for active traders. After you trade over 1k shares per trade it charges .015 for each additional share.

[Terliso]

Fidelity has terrible comm. rates for active traders. After you trade over 1k shares per trade it charges .015 for each additional share.

Fidelity is definitely not a suitable broker if you only trading sub-pennies stock.
101,000 shares x 0.05 pps = $5,000 - commission for 100k would be $1,500

[nullzero]

I leanred the hard way with fidelity I bought some MCZ on my fidelity since I had some extra money sitting aside in the account. Put the trade through not noticing the comm rate. Came out to $60, learned by lesson from that. Fidelity is good broker for long term portfolios with small share blocks however.

[nutsterrt]

Fidelity is definitely not a suitable broker if you only trading sub-pennies stock.
101,000 shares x 0.05 pps = $5,000 - commission for 100k would be $1,500

Actually, I've found that many brokers have special fees for pennies that they do not regularly advertise.  Though they are still steep, they don't break the bank.  MB Trading (my broker) charges a flat $8.95 for pennies, unlimited quantity. thinkorswim varies the commission, but charges a max of $50, I believe.

[tokyopua]

Bank of America offers 30 free trades per month if you keep $25K in your combined accounts.

I used it for many trades so far, but found I am addicted to Etrade Pro and havent been able to quit it entirely.  But if you just do analysis based on end of day data and place your orders as limit orders for market open, and dont need level 2 data during the day, Bank of America seems like a great way to save money, I am surprised more people here havent at least tried it. 

I think the problem is we all get addicted to our platforms or services because we have spent a lot of effort trying to learn it. 

[Lucas Scott]

My brokers made about $1,850 from me. That's for just over 600 trades.  I use Interactive Brokers and Ameritrade Izone. Izone is my main broker. I pay $50 a year plus $3 per trade. It was a special offer. Most people have to pay $5 a trade with Izone. I'm happy to pay the $50 annual fee and save 2 bucks on every trade. That added up to $1150 savings in my pocket.

Terliso - I think you made a math error and only spent half as much on commissions:
(85 buys * $9.95) + (85 sells * $9.95) = $1691

or you could calculate it as:
85 round-trip trades * $19.90 = $1691

[Terliso]

My brokers made about $1,850 from me. That's for just over 600 trades.  I use Interactive Brokers and Ameritrade Izone. Izone is my main broker. I pay $50 a year plus $3 per trade. It was a special offer. Most people have to pay $5 a trade with Izone. I'm happy to pay the $50 annual fee and save 2 bucks on every trade. That added up to $1150 savings in my pocket.

Terliso - I think you made a math error and only spent half as much on commissions:
(85 buys * $9.95) + (85 sells * $9.95) = $1691

or you could calculate it as:
85 round-trip trades * $19.90 = $1691

Thanks Lucas, my calculation was wrong

[tokyopua]

My brokers made about $1,850 from me. That's for just over 600 trades.  I use Interactive Brokers and Ameritrade Izone. Izone is my main broker. I pay $50 a year plus $3 per trade. It was a special offer. Most people have to pay $5 a trade with Izone. I'm happy to pay the $50 annual fee and save 2 bucks on every trade. That added up to $1150 savings in my pocket.

Terliso - I think you made a math error and only spent half as much on commissions:
(85 buys * $9.95) + (85 sells * $9.95) = $1691

or you could calculate it as:
85 round-trip trades * $19.90 = $1691

Thanks Lucas, my calculation was wrong

But this is one case where it pays to be wrong, you didnt spend nearly as much as you thought, that is great! 

I on the other hand spent over $4500 on commission in 2006...

[catrader]

a couple of options here, www.lowtrades.com, $5/trade (tried penny stocks and ok with it so far.)  Also www.zecco.com, $0/trade, will open account there soon hopefully, min $2500.