It seems so, to me at least.

A few months ago, I reviewed Personal Capital’s 401(K) fee analyzer shortly after the free tool was launched. My first impression of the tool was that the tool could be helpful for people, including myself, who are concerned with the overall cost of their employer sponsored retirement plans. Using the analyzer, I am able to see how much my 401(K) plan is going to cost me over time, which isn’t just given as a percentage, but also a number in dollar amount. But I did have one big complain about the overall usefulness of the tool because it only pulls expense data from standard funds that are available for everyone. If you have mutual funds in your accounts that are specifically made for your employer by the account administrator, then there isn’t much you can do with the tool, even though the expense ratio data can easily be found in the fund’s statement, because the tool doesn’t allow manual inputs of expense.

In the previous post, I also mentioned that Personal Capital is  more than just a tool to analyze 401(K) plan cost. In fact, it’s more like one of those free personal finance management tools (Mint.com for example) that allows its users to link their external financial accounts, such as bank, credit card, and investment accounts, to Personal Capital and make it one place to manage all your personal finance activities  I signed up for a free Personal Capital account in September, but so far I have only used the 401(K) tool. Since in order to perform the analysis, I linked one of my 401(K) accounts at Fidelity to Personal Capital, and I have been receiving weekly update of that particular account since then.

In the first few weeks, things seemed working fine and the weekly report showed the the change of the account value in the past week and how it compared with benchmarks in terms of performance, not that the information, the weekly change of account value, really concerns me.  However, the updates that showed real change only lasted for a limited time. Since early November, all the weekly updated I have received showed no change to the account, which of course isn’t the case. The email still comes every week and every email still showed the total amount in the account, but there has been absolutely no change in account value. The last email I received with an updated account value was more than a month ago on November 3rd. I had no explanation on why it suddenly stopped working and when I logged into my account, the settings seemed to be fine and I haven’t changed the password of the 401(K) account either.

Anyway, since I am not using Personal Capital for any other purpose, it doesn’t really bother me that I can no longer receive “updated” info from it. For tracking my investment accounts, I am actually using Wikinvest instead.

Original Post on www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com

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A while ago, I compared web-based trading platforms from some leading online discount brokers, such as Scottrade, TradeKing, and ShareBuilder, etc. In that post, I shared my personal experience of trading stocks from these brokers’ main web portals. Even though I found myself trading more and more from mobile phone these days, not every broker has a mobile app that lets me trade stocks anywhere or make a deposit. Therefore, there are still occasions that the broker’s website is the only way that’s available to make a trade or other account maintenance activities. Today, I am going to talk about another easy-to-use web based trading tool from TradeKing, called TradeKing LIVE, a real-time, integrated trading platform that brings all you needs to make a successful trade in one place.

TradeKing has a mobile app, but it’s currently only available for Apple iPhones, so I still use its website most of the time to trade. The issue about using the website to trade is that it is not very convenient because I have to jump from page to page to get a quote, draw a chart, do research, and eventually place an order. I am pretty sure that everybody who relies on a broker’s web based tool to trade has similar experience as I do. But with TradeKing LIVE, the trading experience is completely different and much improved.

TradeKing LIVE Platform

Unlike the main web interface, which is default trading platform once I log into my account, TradeKing LIVE is a tool that needs to be launched separately within the account. Once it runs, you will have information such as Holdings, Order Status, Watchlist, Charts, Detailed Quote, Account Balance, and Market Snapshot, all integrated into one page, as you can see from the above screenshot. When I first used TradeKing to trade, I complained about the prices shown in the main page were actually delayed quotes and real-time prices only started to display when an additional setting was enabled. However, the quote was only a snapshot, meaning that there is no continuous update of the price and to get the current price, I have to keep refreshing the screen. With TradeKing LIVE, all quotes are streamed in real-time, whether the security is in your holdings, or watchlist, so no more refreshing screen. Among the features TradeKing LIVE offers, I consider real-time streaming quotes the biggest improvement over its web based platform because essentially all the trades are made based on the prices of the stocks and the speed of the execution of an order, even though it’s impossible for me to test the latter (not that I can see the difference anyway unless the execution delay is exceptionally long).

Trade Stock in TradeKing LIVE

Trading a stock is also very easy in TradeKing LIVE. In addition to trade stocks I already own, I can also trade from the Quote and Watchlist section directly since each stock symbol in TradeKing LIVE has a Trade action button associated with it. After I clicked the Trade button, I am shown the Trade Ticket window to enter details of my trade, such as Action (Buy or Sell), Quantity, Price Type (Market or Limit) and Term (Day or GTC) and some of these fields are already populated, depending on where the trade action is taken. For example, if the stock is my holdings already, I will see Action as Sell and Quantity as all the shares I currently own. But if it is a stock in my watchlist, then Action will be Buy and Quantity will be 100. The same for the stock in the Detailed Quote section. Of course, such defaults are not always the case, especially for stocks I already own, and when I buy a new stock, I don’t always buy in 100-increment in quantity. When entering a trade ticket, I would rather TradeKing leaves all the details to myself to avoid any mistake. If I have to change any of the fields, it really won’t make my trade any faster with the default info.

Research in TradeKing LIVE

There is, however, one tool in TradeKing LIVE that I am not able to test for some reason, the Chart tool. Somehow, for whatever symbol I enter, nothing shows up and, instead, it keeps asking for a symbol. The Charts option under Research does the same thing. TradeKing LIVE currently supports Firefox, Chrome, and Safari and I tried both Firefox and Chrome, but no chart can be displayed in either browser and no error was given so I had no idea why the chart was no shown.

Conclusion

Overall, TradeKing LIVE offers a convenient way to research and trade stock and options, especially with the streaming real-time quotes that are free for every customer. Research tool appears to be quite limited right now in TradeKing LIVE and Charts don’t even work in both Firefox and Chrome in my test. Even though it’s customizable, TradeKing LIVE doesn’t currently support other configuration options that you can add to the platform beyond those listed above. The customization seems only to refer to where you want to put those elements. Despite these shortcomings, TradeKing LIVE is still a big improvement over its main web interface.

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As I have discussed many times here before, I am using Scottrade as my main broker for stocks and ETFs trading. For that, Scottrade has multiple platforms that make trading easy for investors, whether you are at home (ScottradeElite stand alone platform), away from your residence (Scottrade web interface), or on the go (Scottrade mobile app for iPhone and Android). But Scottrade isn’t just a stock broker. If you are an options trader, Scottrade also has another platform just for that. It’s called Scottrade OptionsFirst.

Scottrade OptionsFirst Commission Rates and Fees

When I researched for my stock brokers, the first thing I always looked at was the cost of trade, i.e., the commission for making a trade online. I use Scottrade for most of my stock trades, but to be fair, it doesn’t have the cheapest commission among popular discount brokers. For example, the cost to make one stock or ETF trade online, buy or sell order regardless the number of shares, is $7 at Scottrade, which is higher than what other brokers, such as TradeKing and Options House, charge. The same thing can be said for Scottrade options trading. Currently, Scottrade charges $7 for options orders per ticket plus another $1.25 per contract, no matter how many legs are involved. And with Scottrade OptionsFirst, there is no volume requirements and no monthly minimums. Of course, there’s also no hidden fees or account maintenance fees. You can open an OptionsFirst account with only $500 initial deposit for cash account or $2,000 for margin account.

Scottrade OptionsFirst Trading Platform

As I mentioned above, Scottrade offers more than one platform for stock trading, which is very convenient. For options, Scottrade OptionsFirst is the web interface where trading takes place. Like its counterpart for stock trading, OptionsFirst is also full of features that include:

• Easy navigation: Finding your account information is easy in OptionsFirst, where you can see your account balance, current positions and detailed quotes. The three navigation tabs in OptionsFirst, Account Info, Powerful Options Chains and Tools, make it very easy to go from one task to another.
• Enhanced research tool: With OptionsFirst, you can easily compare your target stock against benchmarks as well as its peers. Scottrade Enhanced Charting tool also lets you customize your research with different time frame, chart type and various indicators.
• Unlimited watch list: Whether you want to keep an eye on just one stock, or many of them, you are able to monitor unlimited stocks and track number of contracts at the same time in Hot List and Watch List in OptionsFirst.
• Fast execution: Options trading in Scottrade OptionsFirst is fast and accurate with its Point-and-Click execution system. Before placing your order, you can easily configure it with Scottrade Smart Order Tickets and view the Execution Report for status of your order once it was filled.
• Virtual Trading: If you are a new options trader, before using real money in real trades, you can practice the techniques you just learned with Scottrade Virtual Trading, a tool that lets you practice and test the market in real-time, but with virtual money instead of real money. With the virtual trading, you won’t lose anything but do gain valuable experience that will help you in real trading when you are ready.
• Free education: It doesn’t matter whether you are a new or experienced options trader, there are free educational resource available to help you become a better investor. With contents from The Options Industry Council, you can learn both basic options trading strategies and advanced trading techniques. Free online options classes are also available to enhance your knowledge.

I am also new to options trading and there are plenty for me to learn. As I know more about options trading in general and Scottrade OptionsFirst in particular, I will share my experience. But right now do you think Scottrade OptionsFirst is the right tool to trade options?

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In the past couple of years, social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn (LNKD, which went public as the first social media last week)  and Twitter have  become very popular. They are not only tools for social connections, but also a channel for business. As a result, more and more companies are now increasingly turning to social media to reach out to existing and potential customers. Nowadays, you can do many things with social networks, even trading stocks.

Online discount broker Zecco has recently launched its own Facebook app, Wall Street, which lets users get real-time stock quotes, charts, and even buy and sell stocks if you want to, all from their Facebook accounts directly.

Above is a screenshot of the Wall Street app from Zecco. As you can see, with this app, you can have real-time display of the three major indexes and quotes of actively traded stocks during the trading session (you can’t customize which stocks you want to display though). There’s nothing about having real-time quotes, because right now you can get them from many places, such as Google and Yahoo Finance for free. What I think is new with this app is that you can actually trade stocks with it.

To trade a stock, you will need to enter the symbol of the stock and get a real-time quote first (remember, even though the quotes are delivered in real time, they are not streaming quotes, meaning you will need to manually refresh the screen to get an update) and bring up a new page, which will show the Buy and Sell button alongside the stock quote. Of course, since this app is developed by Zecco, the broker, you will need a Zecco account in order to place a trade. To clarify, when I said you can trade stocks directly from Facebook, it’s not that you log into your Facebook account and start to trade from there. No. As you can see from the screenshot below, you have to log into your Zecco account before you can make a trade.

When Zecco eliminated commission-free trades all together and increased stock trading commission in March, I didn’t like the changes they made. I mean, after being their customers for four years, I have seen they changed their pricing schedule many times, and each time trading with Zecco got more expensive. That’s why I don’t use Zecco that much these days as I used to. That said, it does appear that Zecco is quite innovative in bringing out new tools to make trading stocks easier for their customers. Around this time last year, they introduced Zap Trade, a Firefox add-on that allows users to trade stocks anywhere on the web. It’s a tool that I didn’t see any other broker has. Now with this Wall Street Facebook app, I think they are once again one step ahead of their competitors in connecting stock trading with social media. From what I know, what most other brokers have is just a Facebook fan page, which you can’t really do much with it.

BTW, the Zecco Wall Street app isn’t just a tool for stock trading and quotes, but also a community itself because you can share with your FB friends about a stock and see what others have talked about the stocks. If you are on Facebook a lot and want to follow what’s going on the stock market, it’s quite a convenient tool. Regarding the security of this new tool, this is what Zecco has to say:

We can assure you that the trading functionality (Zap Trade) is fully secure. There actually is no integration or even exchange of information between your Facebook profile and Zecco Trading account.

If you are not familiar with Zecco Trading, you can see my previous discussion on Zecco for more details. Basically, it’s an online discount broker that lets you buy stocks and ETFs for $4.95 per order, regardless the number of shares. In addition to stock trading, you can also trade Forex with Zecco (you can get a practice account for free). Zap Trade, as mentioned above, is one of the tools that Zecco developed to let its customers trade stocks without going to Zecco’s website.

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I have been trading stocks with Scottrade for more than 10 years. Over the same period of time, I have opened a number of stock brokerage accounts at different firms and tried different things with each of them, but at the end, Socttrade remains the broker I use. The reason for being a loyal customer for so long is more than the cost of trading with Scottrade. Actually, Scottrade doesn’t have the lowest commission fees among brokerage companies I have an account with. It’s stock trading fee is rather high at $7 per online trade. I like Scottrade because its excellent customer service, comprehensive research tools, flexible account funding options, and, of course, no hidden fees.

Choosing a stock broker with the least fees is always one of the top considerations when evaluating brokers that all have very competitive pricing and offer different sets of research, education and trading tools. For me, even though I don’t trade a lot and saving one or two dollars per trade doesn’t always seem to be appealing, every dollar I pay to the broker for other activities outside trading adds up and eventually will erode my return over the long term. At Scottrade, what I do most often, not surprisingly, are transferring funds and trading stocks and I don’t see additional cost for using some of its most convenient tools. For example, the one that I used the most, which is also the one I like the most, is Scottrade Money Direct. With other brokers, there’s always a period of time that I have to wait until the fund I added becomes eligible for trading, some places 3 business days, some even longer. But that’s not the case at Scottrade. With the Money Direct, I can make deposit at any time, even in the middle of the trading day, and the money will be available for me to buy stocks minutes later. There’s no days of waiting for the money to settle. This is the kind of service that I don’t find at other brokers and keeps my business with the firm.

The above is just an example of the services you will get from Scottrade as a customer without extra fee. As for Scottrade commissions and fees, they are not the cheapest among discount stock brokers as I mentioned early, but the fees are clearly listed, so you will not be surprised when doing business with them. Since I do almost all my transactions online and rarely require anything physical delivered to me, I haven’t encountered any hidden fees as a customer for more than 10 years.

Of course, it’s always a good practice to review broker commissions and fee schedule before deciding which one to use and there’s no exception for Scottrade. To find out what and how much you will be paying for services at Scottrade, go to Scottrade website and under the Fees & Commissions section, you will see all the fees involved in trading with Scottrade.

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