My bank is tied to Charles Schwab, but I am looking for the one that will screw me the least.

I am going to buy and sell, but not day trade so much as just hang on to stuff and sell it when the time is right.

All my other inv

quote:

Originally posted by Big Wonderful Wyoming:
My bank is tied to Charles Schwab, but I am looking for the one that will screw me the least.

I am going to buy and sell, but not day trade so much as just hang on to stuff and sell it when the time is right.

All my other inv

The first rule is beware of the person offering free stuff. Robin Hood ect.

Stay with a quality balance sheet - fidelity, Schwab ect

Keep trading cost to under .50 percent and don’t trade a lot.

Mike

When I set mine up eons ago it was with A.G. Edwards but then the company sold out to Wels Fargo, who knows what else but as long as I got my monthly statement on P+L I never questioned anything. Maybe under today's standards perhaps keeping your money in the mattress is not such a bad idea. Actually right now ammo is worth more than money. Thanks Joe.

quote:

Actually right now ammo is worth more than money.

No it isn't you can still trade ammo for dollars.

Or dollars for ammo.

It just takes more.

Try taking a box of ammo into most any business and pay your bill with it.

Better yet take a box into your bank and say I would like to make a deposit.

I use Schwab for my IRA and Keogh account. Trades are essentially free and I don’t want or need financial advice.

Over my investing career, I probably used a half dozen brokerage houses. All eventually let me down, except Fidelity.

One dumped their own shares in companies on their own clients when they thought they were bad investments. Sweetened it by saying I could buy the stock without a brokerage fee.

Another was good, but then the man quit.

In the 80s I gave Merrill Lynch $30K to manage it for me. They managed to turn it into $5K.

I settled on Charles Schwab in Midland, Texas. Their people did a good job and they seemed interested in helping me make money. Then Schwab made a change "to better serve my needs". They wouldn't let me call direct into their Midland office any more. When I called from Venezuela, I got someone in California or Virginia, or Michigan. There were a few f++k-ups along the way. When an order went well, they would always ask me to "rate" it. When they got it wrong they would never ask me to "rate" it.

I ended up with a significant amount of money with them, and finally decided to make a change to Fidelity. Schwab never called to ask what happened.

I've been with Fidelity for about 25 years. I never have talked to my account executive. I do everything online.

I don't believe in letting someone else manage my money. Why should I pay 1% for someone to hold my money? They should pay me.

I have friends who have financial advisors, and after the FA takes their cut, my friends don't seem to be doing that great.

I always think back to a guy I knew that wasn't very bright. He busted out of the oilfield back in the early 80s, filed for bankruptcy, and became a financial advisor.

quote:

I've been with Fidelity for about 25 years. I never have talked to my account executive. I do everything online.

I've been with them for 50yrs. I have talked to an Account Manager a couple of times. Do everything online. I inherited an account from my mom. It was with Edward Jones. What a joke. You had to contact them for them to do EVERYTHING with the account. Even a simple cash transfer. I moved it to Fidelity.

My investments have always been tied to my job, via the old 401 K type thing.

Decided I wanted a little faster horse, and to diversify beyond mutual funds.

I don't believe in letting someone else manage my money. Why should I pay 1% for someone to hold my money? They should pay me.

I have friends who have financial advisors, and after the FA takes their cut, my friends don't seem to be doing that great.

I always think back to a guy I knew that wasn't very bright. He busted out of the oilfield back in the early 80s, filed for bankruptcy, and became a financial advisor. [/QUOTE]


Paying them 1%, maybe they’ll make a lot more money trading and investing your money, than you would. The net gain in my account is what’s important, not the fees. Thats the way I look at it. You can disagree.

pdog, the same applies to gold or silver; good luck on making a deposit with either. You are down to a real barter basis. Years ago I had a friend that worked the jewelry counter in Joskes Dept. Store. His thought was that in any times of social upheaval one can take jewelry, put it in your pocket + split; however if your fortune is tied up in land, you have to stay there to protect it. Good point but I still prefer the land.

I've cycled through a couple of them, ended up with Stifel because a broker I came to trust went there.

For your 401k employer related account, you are stuck with whoever they use to manage them. I have a 401k held by T. Rowe Price. They are fine. I do nothing else with them.

I always look at fees like this. If they make $100,000 in fees off of me I could have gone WITHOUT them, and lost $100,000 in vesting and still been no worse off than had they handled it. So they need to offset their fees at least by making me money. I'm not aware of anyone willing to work under those stipulations. My assumption is that they are always going to get paid whether they do me any good, or not. When things go wrong they will always have an excuse. Excuses are of no value to me.

Since I was in the military and then a federal civil servant my 401K via the Federal Thrift Savings Plan only cost about .06 percent per $1000 or 60Center $1000 invested.

I don't have a problem with it, and I maximize it for my age.

Just want to do more and I have exhausted what I can do in there.

Most people don’t understand the mechanics of trade clearing, settlement, market making, order flows ect.

By most people I mean - 95-99 percent of institutional investors.

99.99999 percent of retail investors are clueless.

Electronic trading has made buying and selling stocks akin to a video game.

The plumbing that governs the transaction process has some of the sharpest most ruthless rational sharks in it. They will get their pound of flesh thru a million tiny cuts.

There is a whole other aspect of counter-party risk and balance sheet.

When some offers free services - you are the product. Nothing is for free.

Look at all the Robin Hood traders who could not execute in GME because Robin Hood did not have the balance sheet to settle trades.

The richest guys on Wall Street pay a lot of commission - why cause they get something in return.

Being a discount brokerage is great but it won’t get one access to ipos, private equity, hedge funds ect

Look at what you want to achieve and your capital base and find a broker with a balance sheet that allows you to get there.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Kensco:
For your 401k employer related account, you are stuck with whoever they use to manage them. I have a 401k held by T. Rowe Price. They are fine. I do nothing else with them.

I always look at fees like this. If they make $100,000 in fees off of me I could have gone WITHOUT them, and lost $100,000 in vesting and still been no worse off than had they handled it. So they need to offset their fees at least by making me money. I'm not aware of anyone willing to work under those stipulations. My assumption is that they are always going to get paid whether they do me any good, or not. When things go wrong they will always have an excuse. Excuses are of no value to me.

My 401K was held by Merrill Lynch; I closed that account and will not do business with them again.

I had a stock account with Morgan Stanley for awhile and will not do business with them again either.

For entertainment, sometime ask your broker who actually owns the stock held in your account in "street name" (spoiler alert - it's not you)...

For that matter, ask your banker who actually owns the cash in your checking/savings accounts. Same answer.

For dessert, ask what's their problem with federal regulations that assign fiduciary responsibility to banks and brokers.

For an extra fee of $35 or so, you can have the stock certificates registered in your name instead of that of your broker.
This does not insulate you from a failure of the company but does insulate you from a failure of the brokerage.
It might be $35 well spent, in this debt-fueled economy.

That is a solid piece of mind. I'll probably talk to the company about doing that.

If you haven't already,

Buy and read a copy of :
"One Up On Wall Street"
How to Use What You Already Know to Make Money in the Market

By: Peter Lynch with John Rothchild

Copyright 1989 by Peter Lynch

My copy published by Simon & Schuster, Inc.


.

Thanks!

I ordered a copy.

I was looking for something from Kyosaki but most of his are about real estate.

quote:

Originally posted by Big Wonderful Wyoming:
Thanks!

I ordered a copy.

I was looking for something from Kyosaki but most of his are about real estate.

Peter Lynch is the real deal. I used to sit next to him at the Lehman later Barclays energy conference every September. He wore a suit and sandals and took notes old school on a yellow legal pad.

Kyosaki is a fraud. His financial advisory company went bankruptcy - explains it all.

Mike

Thank you good, to know!

Kraken. Buy some BTC and ETH. still early. the big boys are just now waking up.