Nothing wrong with scalping money. No commission? That's crazy I wish I had that deal, I'm losing 20 bucks every time I jump in & out. :wacko:
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It's a loss leader i'm sure, only for Schwab clients, only on Schwab funds (limited offerings), only for online trades.
Buy hey, they track basic indexes, indexes move up and down, i can move in and out, for free, any time i feel like it.
Regular prices are $13, or $9 if you do 120+ trades per year, that's a lot to pay for a little hand holding, i don't think most on this board need much of that, even competitors at $7 is steep to me. it will take some time (and more expertise on my part) before i can acquire the resources and identify smarter instruments to make that economical.
Unlike when i was younger and more idealistic, now if it moves and i can hit it i'm in there, get some.
On the bright side, excellent customer service, i can move money from outside bank account into checking (pays 0.75%), brokerage, or roth ira. Once in i can move between accounts freely on a one-time or recurring basis. Can also withdraw to outside bank from any account, no debit fees, free checks, sounds too good to be true, what have i got to lose, something has to give here sometime, but so far i've been taking.
trying something new here, trying to ride the holiday sentiment. at about 11:10 am ET i placed day-only limit orders for:
SCHA at 25.80, trading at 25.68, basis = 25.65
SCHX at 26.25, trading at 26.11, basis = 25.52
SCHF at 26.20, trading at 26.12, basis = 25.54
thought about pulling the trigger then but it always goes higher after i sell. of course that could happen with a limit order too, but at least i would get a price i've already decided i'm comfortable with. then again maybe i set the targets a little high. if all of these go through then it's all cash position, if not maybe black friday will show me some green.
11/25/09 sold remaining 1/2 of original position SCHF at 26.20, limit order filled at 2:51 pm, +$0.66 per share, +2.58%.
Average profit for this position in a 2-part sale is $0.44 per share, +1.72%.
SCHX and SCHA didn't get near the limits i set. That limit thing is cool, don't have to keep watching, and don't get burned by a spread - placing market order at a last price and getting a few cents less.
11/27/09 bought SCHF at $25.43 put half of stake back in.
also have an open limit order for the other half at $25.20
limit order for SCHF didn't fill. wish i had sold SCHA and SCHX wednesday when i had the chance, gonna have to wait a bit for them to cross to the upside it looks like.
so, Burro, who are you trading with for your commfree trades? Mine cost $15/trade plus 1% annually.....maybe I need to move my accounts or open another....
charles schwab online, fits my low stakes game, open an online checking linked to brokerage account and no minimums, checking pays 0.75%, free checks and reimburse debit card fees, also opened up a roth ira to shuttle extra tsp contributions, backed that down to 5% and matching funds, all extra goes to roth, brokerage, and checking at 5% each, trying to build a cushion here.
lots of 'one-source' mutual funds have no sales fees if you hold them 6 months, most ETF's cost 12.95 per trade, discount for high volume traders. you can trade schwab ETF's for free, only four offerings, with 4 more coming in december.
basic index plays here, not the sharpest tools in the shed, but playing with them for free. transaction fees and expense ratios would kill me on any other offerings at my levels. full range of trading options, market, limit, stop orders etc.
simple strategy, play bounces for 1-2% gains, keep bi-weekly contributions flowing, grow the balance.
adding to positions across the board:
11/30/09 Buy SCHA at 24.91, -0.54 discount, brokerage;
11/30/09 Buy SCHX at 25.72, -0.39 discount, roth ira;
11/30/09 Buy SCHF at 25.45, -0.59 discount, roth ira.
anyone have ideas on how to play natural gas long over an extended time horizon? maybe 6 months to 2 years? without options or futures? no margin capabilities and don't know enough about contracts to commit real money.
i think excess supply will pull demand in it's favor, how low can it go?