The Sun's Financial Diary

It didn’t happen very often that a discount broker raised its trade commission because that is against the trend we saw in the broker industry in recent years. In 2010 alone, big name brokers such as Vanguard, Fidelity, and Charles Schwab have all cut their commissions and begun to offer commission-free ETFs, though the number [...]

As the economy started to improve in 2010, though very slowly, the IPO market also rebounded nicely. Actually, 2010 turned out to be a pretty good year for US IPOs, led by General Motors’ $15.8 billion blockbuster deal in November. Even though the total number of offerings in 2010 was no where near the booming [...]

The penny stock market can be a tricky place for anyone to navigate. Whether you’re a novice investor or a seasoned veteran, it can be hard to figure out what stocks are worth investing in, and which ones you shouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole. Is the company trading low because it is a small [...]

Online discount broker E*Trade Securities is currently running a new promotion that will give every new customer a $500 Apple gift card. To qualify for the big gift card plus another 60 days of commission free trading, however, you will need to open an account with at least $150,000, which I believe is too high [...]

Online discount broker ChoiceTrade recently announced a new program called Zero-Commission Options for options traders. Starting October 2010, you will be able to trade equity and ETF options for zero commission during options expiration week. Expiration week is the week ending with expiration Friday, which is the week before the third Saturday of each month. Here [...]

On June 1, 2009, General Motors (GM), once the world’s largest car manufacturer, filed for Chapter 11 protection. Before and during the bankruptcy protection, GM received billions of dollars taxpayer money to stay afloat and reconstruct. Since then, the Detroit automaker slashed jobs, closed plants, shut down dealerships, reduced debt burdens, and, mostly importantly, started [...]

Scottrade and Zecco are two of my main stock brokers. I have used both of them quite often, especially Scottrade. In the past, I have written lengthy reviews of both of them (Scottrade review and Zecco review) from my own experience, including features of the broker, fees, research tools, and account opening process, etc. While [...]

I got an email from a reader other day about buying exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The question is really about what ETFs to invest in, but how. How to buy ETFs to be exact. I am no stranger to ETFs. Actually, I have became a fan of ETFs over the years. Having bought my share of [...]