dang i feel like i'm schilling for the brokerage site here, not my intention, there is a narrow window of opportunity for these trades but it has so far been profitable, sounding like a broken record, for the record:
schwab online allows clients to trade their in-house ETF funds with no commission but only four qualify for the deal, SCHB, SCHA, SCHX, SCHF, and they say they will add four more this month, mostly foriegn markets variations. trading these have allowed me to get familiar with the site and different types of orders without losing money in fees everytime i make a move.
The last trade on buy UNG cost 12.95 commission, and will cost another 12.95 when i sell. I set a minimum price target out that will net even, justified paying the transaction costs on that one because the small gains i made on trading the clunky SCH- funds can cover it.
That was more of a buy and hold type purchase to get commodities diversification in one of my retirement accounts, i will not be trading at 12.95 tax on both ends very often, need to move a large quantity of shares each transaction for that to be economical.
my strategy is to continue to identify a trading range/channel on the simple SCH- index funds, and pick off the highs and lows for a couple of percent each time. at my balances ($500-$1000 per trade) that only works when you are not paying commissions. but it does work.