Well, I actually thought that there would be a small correction as we brushed the bottom and then things would start to improve..but sadly, I’m wrong. I sunk some money inot some shares of RIMM today and ALMOST bought a lot of Nortel and GM since both are a sad prices.

Can anyone see GM fail? The amount of jobs that will be lost are too much for the government to pass on and I’m hopeing that a well structured bailout plan or infusion for better words, will come into play.

So I was at a business meeting with a new client this morning in regards to a project that I’m working on in the west coast and after talking about random things, the topic of investing came up. I smiled and waited for some of the most commons questions to arise…and the one that I thought I’d talk about today was – Which company should I hold my account with?

Well as anyone with a TV might have noticed, in Canada or the US, there are tonnes of companies you can go thru – TD, Schwabb, ETrade, Ameritrade, etc…so many options and its hard to decide when they all offer “free” trades, or “free” whatever.

The first question that I always ask off the bat is…What is your investing amount and how often are you planning on investing? Reason being, if your starting off with a small amount and will only be investing once in a while, then having an account with ETrade is something that might fair well…although, you must read their fine print on how the “free” trades are done. I know with my account that I had, it was stated that I needed to have 25K for a lower price trade and to get those free trades which I had to use up within the first month.

Then, with ETrade, it was a pain getting my money when I needed it and also to send them a cheque to deposit the money too some time. It was annoying, but for somebody that I looking for a bargin trading company, its decent. They have LOTS of tools that can help a new investor out and I have to agree that those tools did help me make some amazing trades.

After a while, I went to my bank, TD Waterhouse and opened and account that is my active account. If you are investing with a portfolio over 100K, then these big banks look and treat you differently…my trade prices were cheaper than the $29 they normally charge and getting money IN and OUT was a breeze and the only point that I was concerned about. I have too many side projects that need cash flow so having the ability to walk into my bank or just go online and make a quick transfer within seconds was crucial.

Bottom line, if your starting off investing, an account with Etrade would be good. They have low prices or trades, they have tools that you can use to your advantage and its all simple enough for the smallest investor to get their feet wet.

I know Etrade isn’t the only player in this sector so if you want to know about another company, just shoot me question and I can expand. But for the client I was with today, I recommended to go with a broker to manage his money as he is looking to play with some big bucks after getting out of the property game. With a broker, they will manage your money based on the amount of risk you are willing to put up with and based on that you will get a varied % of return. Its not a safe bet, but for some its less stressful having to be near a computer watching the quotes each min like some of us.

Happy Investing!

Aman, MBA

Related posts:

  1. Weekend Update/Summary:
  2. Monday Watch:
  3. Risky Monday = Profits