TDAmeritrade Review

Overall 4.00 of 5 (by 1 user)

Telsadelic
Grand Forks, ND

TDAmeritrade is a good online stock brokerage!

an moderate investor

MAR

2009

I've had TDAmeritrade as an online stock broker, on and off, for the last nine years. They are good at what they do. The trades are executed rapidly and correctly. The only thing that I would have them do different, is they should reduce their prices by $1 or $2 a trade. There are other online stock brokerages that charge less then TDAmeritrade. When I withdraw cash from my account, the checks always get to my mail box in two or three days.
Here's some free advice for stock investors. One of the best ways to invest, is to buy index mutual funds. They beat 90% of regular mutual funds. They charge the least, so pick the ones that charge the lowest out of them all. I think Vanguard is the one that charges the lowest. Adjust your risk according to how old you are at the time. If you are in your 20's and 30's you can invest in more risky index funds. If you have two or three bad years, you have decades to make up for your losses. If you are in your 50's and 60's, invest in lower risk index funds, or move towards bonds. You don't have as much time to make up for your losses.
The way that an index funds risk is measured is beta. The Dow Jones 30 has a number of 1. There are index funds that have a higher number, on average, they will earn a higher percentage return. If the market is bad, on average, they will perform worse than the less risky index funds.
In Economics their is the theory called the efficient markets theory. That theory says that no one can beat the market. They have three exceptions to that rule. 1. People with inside information. 2. Employees of a corporation. 3. I don't remember what this one is called. There are exceptions to this rule, but they are rare. Warren Buffet, would be a good example.
This is a long term approach to stock investing. If you want to see how powerful an idea this can potentially be, use a financial software program to find out how powerful it can be. Pick a starting point of 8% to 10%. Then compare it to 8.5% and 10.5% with a range of years, say, from 20, 30 and 40. A minor change in returns can have a significant difference in the grand total.
If you use this, and it works out well for you, I would appreciate it if you donated some of your money to charity. St. Judes Childrens Fund would be my choice. It's your money, you can do whatever you want with your money.
Thank You.