Questions roughly online brokers?

I am a newbie to investing and I have a few hopefully simple questions.

1. I am going to be investing change only, not margin. Will I owe my broker anything bar commissions and/or maintenance fees?

2. I'm leaning towards using Scottrade, are here any brokers who might be better?

3. What is the difference between my available cash and my buying power?

4. I'm starting out with the minimum $500 go together. Would I be wiser to purchase more shares of a cheaper stock, or fewer shares of a more expensive stock? For example, if I had 20 shares of a $20 stock and it gain 4%, would it be any better than owning 40 shares of a $10 stock with the same gain?

Thanks within advance for your answers.

Answers:    1. In a cash explanation , other than the ones you mentioned, there are no additonal fees, such as border interest.
2. There are many good legal online discount brokers. Scottrade, TD Ameritrade, Ameriprise, ShareBuilder, etc. Choose the one that offers the best commissions, minimums, etc. for your situation. All of the ones mentioned are insured the same.
3. Difference between avail dosh and buying power would involve borrowing money against your stock holdings to buy more stock, and there would be interest charged.
4. The price of a stock is not important. What is noteworthy is the value of the company the stock represents. Choose a good company base on your research and don't worry about the price per share.
5. sorry, no #5.
1. No
2. Scottrade is fine. $7 trades
3. buying power have to do w margin, which you won't be using anyway. Available cash is change you can pull out if you need to specifically not on margin.
4. Doesn't make a difference, 4% is 4%, doesn't concern the price of the stock
If you have a cash single account your buying power is equal to your cash symmetry. Buying power is more associated with a margin explanation where you can borrow against the market attraction of the stocks you own in your account.

Generally speaking you will own merely commssions on your purchases and sales, but there are tons added fees that some on line broker charge. These are normally posted on their sites and are associate beside other services provided. One of the most onerous of these is the fee they may charge for purchasing mutual funds. It can be totally steep--much more than the fee for purchasing stock.

Whether or not another on line broker might be better depends on what you might aspiration from your account. In general for a small tale such as you are considering, Scottrade will probably be just fine. Their mutual fund purchase fees are also among the least contained by the industry as in general are their other fees.

In common if you stick to stocks selling for $10 a share or more, you might expect to make more money by purchasing lesser priced shares, but you might also expect to loose more. You can buy 49 shares of a $10 stock but singular 24 shares of a $20 stock and a $1 rise of the $10 stock will provide you with a $49 - $14 profit. But a $1 rise in the $20 stock will provide you next to only $24 - $14 profit. The $14 is your buy and sell commission at Scottrade. Now you inevitability to understand that with just a $500 account the commission is going to take a pretty big chunk of your profit. In the suitcase of the $20 stock 58% in the example.

That is one of the advantages of a buy and hold strategy. Commission eat up much smaller quantity of the profit as also do taxes.
I agree with the others on most everything. However I would advise you to bear a look at some other brokerages which may excel you a bit into a more advanced way of trading. You can still maintain adjectives cash, but with $500 you won't be buying much, or growing it outstandingly fast. Take a look at trading options.

Options are traded surrounded by contracts. 1 contract is equal to 100 shares of a particular company that is optionable (not adjectives companies are). The point is, you are able to use leverage without any secondary "margin" per say.

For instance, you could buy 10 shares of XYZ stock for $40, and be invested for $400. When that goes up to $42, you enjoy made $20 (less commish) if you were to sell, your profits are nearly wipe out (ie using $7 commish from Scottrade)

However, if you were to buy 5 contracts of XYZ for .50, your cost would be $250. A 10 cent move in the pick would make your position worth $300 ($50 profit) less commish and you are sitting contained by a much better position cash wise, and risking smaller quantity $$ to do so.

As far as brokers, I've traded with TD Ameritrade since they were Datek. I've closed adjectives but one account with them, and recommend the brokers at www.thinkorswim.com

They administer you service that most brokerages require you to pay for. You can join TheOptionClub.com and get hold of option trades at ThinkorSwim for $1.50 per contract. Just let the ToS rep know you are a bough (membership is free).

Options are very simple and complicated at the same time. Often take home more complicated and fear based by those that know little to nil about them. Do your own research, and look at some books or websites "ie TheOptionClub.com". You will want to learn nearly support and resistance, deltas, and buying calls and puts. That is enough to draw from your started and build your confidence in trading. Plus ToS offers you a free newspaper trading account so you can try out their software until you are comfortable in making a actual money trade.


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