I just closed my MB Trading brokerage account, which I only recently opened. First, I didn’t really like the interface of their proprietary software or their website layout at all. Neither was not very user-friendly, at least for my amateur tastes.
On top of that, early February they charged me $10 for ‘Jan Software Charges’, which turned out to be their options feed, which I don’t recall signing up for and I definitely never used. Their e-mail support then took 3 days to get back to me when I asked to cancel that feed. Not only would they not waive the original fee, but since it was already February when I got charged, I was charged another $10 for getting the feed in February! $20 in fees and I only had the account open 3 weeks.
All these things are minor separately, but together it just left a bad taste in my mouth. So I’m now looking for another low-cost broker.
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wow, thanks for the info.. ive been lookin for a possible replacement for Scotttrade..
I have been looking for one too. I think I have settled on either Scottrade or BrownCo. They have been tested and are pretty reputable from what I’ve read. Look forward to reading what you decide on.
Please share with us when you find another one!
BrownCo just got bought by E*Trade in December though, so I don’t know how long their fee structure will stay the same. There’s a lot of consolidation going on in this industry.
Scottrade is not bad, they are privately held and appear to be uninterested in being bought out.
FWIW, I’ve been using MB Trading since June of ’05 and am please with them. I’ve also been trading for a number of years and I can see how the number of choices available on the application interface could be overwelming to the uninitiated.
There’s also Interactive Brokers ($0.006/share, $1.00 min), but they’re along the lines of MB Trading as far as target client.
I was with Freetrade prior to MB Trading. Freetrade is now known as Ameritrade Izone ( http://www.izone.com ). Ameritrade Izone has a flat $5 commission rate for equities and a browser based interface that’s probably a little more friendly to those looking for basic buy/sell @ limit/market orders. It sounds like they’d be closer to what you’re looking for.
– MikeB
What about TradeKing?
Yes, I use Ameritrade Izone now and have been happy with them. I’m looking for a cheap way to dollar-cost-average into ETFs every month, and was trying to do better than $5 a trade. Interactive brokers does offer a web interface too.
Thanks for your comments on MB Trading. I had been intrigued by them after reading about them on Fatwallet and subsequently here.
Since I do not have the time to trade often and am not looking to dollar cost average into anything anytime soon, I have been just using Scottrade for the ease and convenience (they have an office in my town).
I too use Ameritrade’s Izone. Very simple interface. Unfortunately, margin accounts come enabled and the minimum to setup an account is $5000/-. I am extremely happy with them!
TradeKing is interesting at a glance except for their “$50 fee, however, for IRA termination or outgoing transfers.”
I am also scratching my head about an optimal broker to open an IRA account with to make about 2 or 3 trades a month. Primaraly ETFs and maybe stock.
I just ditched etrade b/c they had been charging crazy (and in my opinion underhanded) fees. For cheap trades, and no inactivity fees, ScottTrade and FirstTrade were ranked highly by the publications I consulted and by the friends I talked to. I ended up going with FirstTrade but I think they are equivalent. Whatever you do, keep in mind that most of them give new account holders free trades if they are referred by an existing account holder.
Absolutely DO NOT sign up for TradeKing if you are going to be trading actively or you need a quick response system. They are VERY slow…I lost thousands because of their slow website. Try Scottrade or Firsttrade.
Just use Schwab. They’re a “market maker,” their fee structure is low (now), and they have offices everywhere. Stop dic*ing around with these fly-by-night trading houses. Brokerages are like car dealers: they have 100 ways to get more money out of you. The commission is only 1 way.
I’ve had a Schwab account since 1993 and never had any problems. On Monday I tried to place a trade with their Telebroker and couldn’t get it to work, so I had customer service do it and they didn’t charge me a commission at all. Just open a Schwab account and get serious…
Schwab is so expensive. It definitely does not have low fees.
I use scottrade, usually trade between 100-500 shares, noticed mbtrading was cheaper since i wasnt trading more than 500 shares with Scottrade. Was going to switch soon, but after hearing the fees its not worth it. Aside from that they do not offer wireless trading, (trading from a cellphone or pda) that is a must when on the go. About 25-35% of my trades are made from my pda. I have been with Scottrade since August 05, they have a nice clean layout, only thing is you need $25,000 for the scottrade elite. Had a few problems placing trades here and there but what online broker is 100% perfect. Also have an Ameritrade account that I just dont use anymore. Why pay $11.99 when you pay $7.00 for the same thing. Some have mentioned Brownco. they are cheap when placing market orders at $5.00 a piece, limit orders however, are $10.00….try scottrade out, if you dont like them there is always another online broker…
bob
Schwab is expensive, most investors who first start trading online usually place between $500-$2000 in an account to just try it at first. Well if you choose Schwab and open an account with less than $50,000 you have to pay $19.95 a trade, im sorry but $19.95 a trade is pretty expensive when you can trade for as little as $5.00 today. No one in 2006 should be paying more than $10.00 for a trade. Forget Schwab. Go with another discount broker. Schwab is expensive.
Bob
Why bother using Scottrade anyways? They got hacked 2X in last 6 months.
Personally I dont trade with BofA but as of Jan1 they changed there commsion to $5 bucks limit or market orders if you have a premire account with them. If you just have a normal Bank account they charge 7 for limit and market orders.
Just so you know they count the balance in brokerage account towards the premire status.
I was careful to read their rules and I asked them to close my option quote feed just 2 days after making sure that it works with my account.
They gladly turned off option trading but since I have completed all the option trading it can be turned on at any time whenever I choose to do so.
BTW, option quotes are free if you generate $10 of option commission in a month which is not a big deal if you are an option trader. It is your choice to trade them or not but Don’t blame MB T for your carelessness.
MB Trading is actually a popular company targetted at active traders, not really fly-by-night. It’s just not for me.
Now, I don’t mind the first $10 charge, but do you think it’s good customer service to make me have to pay for the feed in February also, if they only charged me on 2/7 for January? I cancelled on 2/9 and they charged me for the whole month.
As I said it was matter of bad timing for you.
You should have noticed your account as soon as they posted $10 for the first time.
In my case I was alert and cancelled option quotes before they even billed me once.
In any case $20 is not such a big deal since it is just equal to commission saving on 2 trades at Schwab or Fidelity.
I just switch it to fidelity, from harrisdirect as they baught out by etrade. I hate etrade. They are suckers. I am very happy with fidelity services and product they offering.
Try Interactive Brokers. $1 trades and they do any kind of foreighn stock you want at super cheap prices. I can buy canadian trusts for $2 a trade versus $25 to $50 for that the big buys charge. The interface is not that good, and they charge $10 for market information every month. but if you do one or two trades a month at 1-2 bucks per month it pays for itself. In addition they allow one wire transfer a month for free and one ach a month for free, after that it is one dollar a month.
I’ve had an account with MB Trading since February, and I have not had any major problems with it. The interface is fine, and I’ve never traded stocks before. The one time I had a problem, I got a pretty poor responce by email, but when I called in, the issue was resolved immediately.
The mail advantage of MB is fee pricing. My trades cost $1-2, and that makes a difference for a small account.
My Dad (he’s 85) just opened an MB Trading account in Sept. 2007. They e-mailed us forms which were promptly faxed and mailed to them. We expected to transfer stock directly to them by ACAT. After waiting a week (just short of a week) we were informed that the transfer agent could not transmit the securities by ACAT and that we would have to get the transfer company to issue Certificates for the shares and that we could then mail them to MB Trading.
We called the transfer company and were told that they had never received any request for an ACAT transfer from MBT. Net result, they had to issue a stock certificate for the shares and express mail it to my Dad. Then we had to ship the new Certificate with a Stock Power to MBTrading. So….we’ve lost a 2 full weeks already.
Finally, confirmation of receipt of the certificates arrived (later we received a fee notification for $100 for receiving the certificates into the account. I couldn’t believe it! Never heard of anything like this in all my years of trading (and, I used to be a Series 7 broker!).
Next….oh yes…there’s more. We liquidated over $25,000 of stock to fund a trading account. That went OK (actually, very fast), until we tried to sell something short. All account papers were to establish a margin account….to acquire leverage for trading. When we inquired with MB Trading we were told that the account was not approved for margin. Mind you….we’re 2 months into this….and have never heard that there was any problem with anything. We were told that some “paper work” for margin authorization was missing from the original application.
Frankly, I don’t belive that…but, in the interest of time we faxed the paper work to MB Trading for the second time. Five days later we had not heard from them! So we called, wanting to know what the hell was happening. Of course, no one was available for a proper quick answer….but 3 hours after our phone inquiry, my Dad did receive a call from the company manger (Keith somebody) saying that because of his age (remember, he’s 85) and the relatively small size of the account (only $65,000) he was not eligible to have a margin account. That means he cannot sell short! Only long trades are allowed….with NO leverage.
I’ve never heard of any NASD restriction on margin accounts due to age, or size…as long as $25,000 cash was available). Moreover, I’ve yet to see any documentation from MB Trading that restricts marginability of any account due to age, or “small relative size.”
We’ve waisted 2 months with these people because of mis-information. It will take another month to move the account to different broker.
Obviously….I’m very disappointed with MB Trading’s customer service. Their trading platform is terrific, but their communication with clients leaves much to be desired. Technical questions are answered quickly….once they answer the phone. But a clear answer to a true problem with an account….that’s another question.
Perhaps our problem can be resolved. And, if it is I will give MB Trading due credit…if it’s deserved. For now….my disappointment at their attention to this account should be clearly obvious.
Jim Hughes
cc: Wizetrade
$10 ,$20 … your joking right? I think you want to grow up.
For starters there is no such thing as a “cheap” broker. It sounds like you have three choices.
1 Not use a ECN Broker
2 Use a “bucket Shop ” and get ripped off.
3 Choose a different instrument eg CFD’s.
Trading is a serious business. and as such should be treated like any other business.
1 Education, training
2 A plan to work towards
3 Cost There are cost like any business.You only get what you pay for.
It is clear reading comments on the web that some people just should not be considering trading.
Happy trading everybody.
Paul in OZ
For MBTrading, is it a paper or online application to open an account?
I have traded with MB for over 2 years. Never had a problem. One dollar trades are nice. I have never been charged for anything other than the cheap commission. If you have a question just call them, or chat one on one for an immediate responce.
Actually, the MBT Navigator is probably the most intuitive trading platform that I have ever used, and also happens to be one of the fastest and easiest.
As regards fees, you do have to read the fine print regarding data feeds. Level ll for 10 bucks isnt that bad, though you dont really need it if an investor.
penny per share pricing on stocks means you dont get eaten up with commissions. You can buy 100 shares for a buck. You can contact via phone to place a trade for the same price. Simply cant do that anywhere else. Customer service is not bad. Not great, but they do get to you in reasonable time.
No inactivity fees.
Seems like an outfit that is doing pretty well considering the environment. I hope they dont get bought by one of the big brokers.
MBT certainly remains my favorite broker out of the three I have. I had spread my money equally giving each a fair shake for over the last year for FX trading. The software is very through, reliable and highly customizable. Many users on web boards seem to find this daunting, I on the other hand like a system that grows with me and can keep up with my needs, MBT’s NAVIGATOR certainly does. Commissions were just lowered to $2.95 per 100k with spreads tighter than FXCM, IB, GAIN, IBFX ( all of which I have had or have an account with). The support is solid and reliable as well. Certainly your own mileage may very however I am skeptacle of anyone who can honestly fault this firm.
R
I think you really can’t go wrong with this broker. I trade everything with them and have for a long time. Very solid platform, low fees, and very friendly. Good education department too.
MB Trading has quickly become my favorite Forex broker. I have been using their MBT Desktop Pro platform… Great technology! Fast fills and excellent spreads.
Note from site owner: I’ve gotten multiple comments from folks using different names but from the same IP address and all are writing suspiciously similar glowing reviews for MB Trading. Such blatantly spammy comments will be deleted. I really hope MB Trading isn’t paying for these shills.