Online Brokers

My boss at work has been trying to talk me into looking into a new broker, zecco. He pays $4.50'ish for trades while im paying $9.95 with ING. While Im happy with ING, the $9.95 is added up with multiple small purchases, and beginning to feel as though its taking away from my buying power. If I had $1000 to invest monthly, it wouldnt matter as much (I'd be buying into more expensive blue-chip funds, and diversify less)
Im curious what the differences are really with these different brokers.....aside from tools, fees, etc. Is someone like tradeking going to expose me to risk more than say, fidelity? I know fidelity isnt going out of business anytime soon & taking my stocks with them. -where as zecco and these lesser known/smaller companies.....i dunno how long theyre going to be around, which was my basis for choosing the company im currently with.
Any opinions?

I'd say if someone you trust is recommending zecco, it may be worth trying. Take a look around the internet and see what you can find out.

I pay $7 at Scottrade and I have no complaints.

I looked at Zecco hard because of the cheaper trades. But their web tools felt really clunky and hard to use for me. So I went to Scottrade and have been very happy there.

Your mileage may vary. Good luck!
Lady

Lady,

Speaking of clunky, have you used Scottrades new charting software? I think it is worse than the old one. I'm sure if it were working the way it was designed, it would be OK, but it has been very slow and inconsistent. I can't seem to save my preferred settings.

I sent them an email and got a canned answer that didn't help.

Update: It is actually performing much better today. They must have fixed some bugs. I like it. :embarrest: