I use Scottrade. Contrary to what someone said above, they do allow electronic bank transfer. I use it all the time to put money into my account. They have decent stock screeners and some free research reports. This is the only online broker I have ever used so my knowledge of how they compare with others is limited. I have no complaints about them.
My brokerage account is with Scottrade. $7 a trade and they go through in a second. Also they give you 5 free trades if you refer someone. They've also been very professional and helpful the few times I've had to contact them about something.
I also use Scottrade. I can't believe that they don't have a program set up yet to have funds electronically withdrawn. I just don't even understand how they could be that far behind the times.
The thing is, once you are comfortable with one broker it's hard to change. I started with something else than Interactive Brokers but I would have never changed if it weren't for the ridiculously cheap comissions. With my old broker US stocks had a commission of about 20 euros, whereas with IB I pay $1.
If you're a newb, go with scottrade, etrade, amertrade, and the likes. If you are pro, you can shop around a bit. My favorite broker, like the above poster, is IB because their commissions are just so ridiculously cheap. For most normal-amount of share-trades, you'll only have a dollar commission. DOLLAR!
Thanks for all of the options that people posted. Plenty of them to choose from! Are their any online brokers that we should absolutely avoid?
Well I use two different brokers, Chase bank is okay for the world of investing. I must say that I love Scot trade more. I think the webpage is presented better and navigation of it is much easier.
Wouldn't IB be better for everyone, since it does the same thing as the other brokers and has the super low fee? Even as a newbie, it's always better to get the lowest fee possible, right? What advantages do those other brokers have?
Interactive Brokers should be the only choice. By far the lowest commission fees. It's a buck a trade for equity and options. The only reason I could find for you using something else is if you want to invest in equitys for a Tax Free Savings Account or something of the sort. I don't know if you guys in the US have something equivalent to that but as a Canadian that's the only reason why I would even consider using something else other than IB.
Went with Interactive Brokers after checking out this thread a bit ago and so far haven't had any complaints with them. Site interface is really easy to use, the commission frees are cheap.