Investing

Schwab Launches Extra-Cheap ETFs

Posted by Sun on November 6, 2009 (0) Comment

One of the biggest advantages of Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) over traditional mutual funds is that ETFs usually cost much less to own because of the way ETFs are structured. Also helping to reduce the cost is that not before long, all ETFs are passively managed, meaning that they all track their respective index, minimizing the [...]

Categories : ETF, Investing Tags:

I-Bond Rate for November 2009 – May 2010 Is 3.36%

Posted by Sun on November 5, 2009 (2) Comment

The last time I wrote about I-Bond interest rate was last May when the Treasury Department set the total earning rate of Series I-Bond issued from May to November to 0.00% due to the negative annual inflation rate, which has already affected the contribution of 2010 401(k) plan.
Even though that I-Bonds purchased in the past six [...]

Categories : Bond, Investing Tags:

Firstrade Trading Platform Review

Posted by Sun on November 2, 2009 (0) Comment

Early last week, I took a look at Scottrade trading platform because it’s the broker that I use the most for stock trading (not that I trade a lot). As you know, Scottrade isn’t my only stock broker. In fact, it is one of many brokerage accounts I own. Another *old* account I have is [...]

Categories : Brokerage, Investing Tags:

OptionsHouse Promotion Code for 100 Free Trades

Posted by Sun on October 31, 2009 (2) Comment

OptionsHouse is one of the discount brokers that I have an account with.
I opened the account in June when I found that it charges only $2.95 per stock trade, much less than other brokers I use (Zecco offers free trade, but the requirement is rather high for small investors). However, it disappointed me when I [...]

Categories : Brokerage, Investing Tags:

Transfer Fund to Scottrade Brokerage Account Is Easy

Posted by Sun on October 30, 2009 (1) Comment

The stock is down pretty badly so far today. For some investors,  this is an opportunity to buy stocks at a better price, given that the market was down four out of the six trading sessions. Suppose that you see a stock that you have wanted to buy and today it finally reaches the price [...]

Categories : Brokerage, Investing Tags:

Join Prosper, Get $50 Free Money to Start Lending

Posted by Sun on October 29, 2009 (1) Comment

Prosper, one of the earliest players in peer-to-peer lending, was quite last year and early this year because it failed to meet regulatory requirements. It wasn’t allowed to keep operating until it was cleared by the SEC. Its chief rival Lending Club, on the other hand, was quick to get the OK from the regulator [...]

Categories : Alternative, Investing Tags:

Lending Club Loan Default and Credit Score and Debt-to-Income Ratio

Posted by Sun on October 27, 2009 (3) Comment

In my post over the weekend, I took a quick look at Lending Club’s new statistics page. The improved web page offers potential lenders a range of tools to evaluate the overall performance and risk of lending money through Lending Club. In addition to statistics provided by LC, you can also download raw data from [...]

Categories : Alternative, Investing Tags:

Scottrade Trading Platform Review

Posted by Sun on October 26, 2009 (1) Comment

Sottrade is a online discount stock broker which offers investors, from big to small, a wide range of products and trading tools at a competitive price.
One of the online discount stock brokers I use very actively is Scottrade. When I first selected Scottrade as my broker 7 years, I didn’t not much about it other [...]

Categories : Brokerage, Investing Tags:

Lending Club’s New Statistics Page Looks Good

Posted by Sun on October 24, 2009 (2) Comment

One of the biggest challenges when investing through social lending platforms such as Lending Club is evaluating loans to minimize, but not totally avoid, risks involved in lending money to total strangers. It’s not an easy task because, though Lending Club does its job to collect and verify the data,  there’s just some much information [...]

Categories : Alternative, Investing Tags:

Learn More About Lending Club Credit Rating and Collection Process

Posted by Sun on October 9, 2009 (4) Comment

I have been using Lending Club as an alternative investment vehicle for more than half a year now. At beginning, I could only invest in LC loans through their note trading platform because of the residency restrictions. Then since last month, I began to invest directly with Lending Club after moving from NJ to VA.
Currently, [...]

Categories : Alternative, Investing Tags:
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