muscleman

You should really go away from these kind of banks. Be aware of regulatory risks!

ok. So you have to do a forex transaction first, right? I did that when I had my individual account there, and just the forex cost me 1% per side.

You can still purchase many of them through their US wrappers. For example, FFH is an international stock, but you can still purchase it in a Fidelity IRA -- you just buy the wrapper... FRFHF: http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=FRFHF&ql=0 Is it a US listed stock? No! Can you buy it in your Fidelity IRA? Hell yes you can. That is true, but the same applies to Merrill Edge, no? My primary concern is for stocks that trades only on foreign exchanges, and also the extremely thinly traded US wrappers, like this one: https://www.google.com/finance?q=FRA%3ABKP1&ei=Prp7UvCSM8OgiALN_AE And also stocks that have a huge premium on the us wrappers, like IRE. IRE's trading at over 10% premium or more compared to the real stock in Ireland. So is IB the only broker that provides true foreign stocks trading for IRA accounts? Just curious Eric, why is your IRA in fidelity but other accounts in IB?

Yeah. When is the US government response coming?

So if you have cash to deposit into your checking account, what would you do then? The other question, since I am shopping for the IRA account, I called fidelity and they said they cannot do international stocks in IRA. That is something to think about, though I haven't done much international investing.

Actually, what I am looking for is a decent rollover IRA account. IB cannot lend out shares in IRA accounts, and they charge $7.5 per quarter, which is not big fee though. I think the only advantage for IB's IRA account is that its foreign stock trading is quite nice. By the way, in Merrill, if you sell a stock, would you be able to use that unsettled cash proceeds to buy a stock? I can do this in Fidelity cash account, but for IB, I must have a margin account to do this. What about Merrill? BTW2, What about Merrill's international stock trading? Do they have that? I'm not sure about the unsettled cash thing, since I have an untapped margin account. And I'm 99% sure they don't have international trading. Thank you. So Merrill is more like a Scottrade type of broker for ordinary mom and pop.

Actually, what I am looking for is a decent rollover IRA account. IB cannot lend out shares in IRA accounts, and they charge $7.5 per quarter, which is not big fee though. I think the only advantage for IB's IRA account is that its foreign stock trading is quite nice. By the way, in Merrill, if you sell a stock, would you be able to use that unsettled cash proceeds to buy a stock? I can do this in Fidelity cash account, but for IB, I must have a margin account to do this. What about Merrill? BTW2, What about Merrill's international stock trading? Do they have that? I saw you mention trading on "unsettled cash proceeds"... You might want to learn about "limited margin" for your IRA account -- yes, I did just use the words "IRA" and "margin" together. This is from the Fidelity website: https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/active-trader/how-to-use-margin Limited margin Limited margin allows a client to trade on unsettled funds without triggering certain trading restrictions, such as good faith violations in an IRA account. Good faith violations occur when an account purchases a position on unsettled funds, and sells the position before the settlement date of the sale that generated the proceeds. Limited margin does not allow for borrowing against existing holdings, account leverage, creating cash or margin debits, short selling of securities, or selling naked options. At Fidelity, limited margin is available only for traditional, Roth, rollover, SEP, and Simple IRAs. IRA accounts with an FDIC core are ineligible. So, if clients want limited margin, they may need to change their core for that account. Moreover, clients must have an investment objective of “most aggressive” and should be aware that all day-trade rules will still apply with respect to requirements and liquidations. This includes the $25,000 minimum equity requirement. Thank you Eric. I currently have the 401k with Fidelity, and I assume it is a cash account because I got one good faith violation this year. But with this cash account, I am able to use unsettle proceeds to buy stocks, and that is sufficient for me. I am not day trading and I won't have too many good faith violations anyway. I suppose you are using Fidelity IRA? Are you able to trade international stocks in it?

Actually, what I am looking for is a decent rollover IRA account. IB cannot lend out shares in IRA accounts, and they charge $7.5 per quarter, which is not big fee though. I think the only advantage for IB's IRA account is that its foreign stock trading is quite nice. By the way, in Merrill, if you sell a stock, would you be able to use that unsettled cash proceeds to buy a stock? I can do this in Fidelity cash account, but for IB, I must have a margin account to do this. What about Merrill? BTW2, What about Merrill's international stock trading? Do they have that?

Merrill Edge currently have a similar promotion, and I need a free checking account. Makes sense. The etrade promotion seems to be a bit easier/better regarding deposit bonus on a bonus/min deposit requirement level, but they do have higher fees post promotion and no free checking. Perhaps rollover to etrade first, get their bonus, then transfer to merrill edge afterwards and get their bonus too? Of course, the promotion may be gone at that point. Sorry, don't mean to be some etrade fanboy here! Wish you well on your brokerage hunting! Thank you! I am thinking about Fidelity, Merrill and IB. I already have my individual account in IB and it is pretty good.

The volume is so low that I could barely hear anything. :'(

Merrill Edge currently have a similar promotion, and I need a free checking account.

I used it and can confirm that it's crap. ...but it's worth the $0 trades. :) What do you dislike about it?

I use MerrillEdge for my IRA and CMA. Its great and works out for me. I dont use much margin so its fine and rarely trade so i might not be using all the services they provide but the execution and 30 free trades that i get more than enough for me. I am not able to do lending shares and other stuff IB does but for me i dont need those things. I would say it all depends on what you need. If you use margin IB has great rates and you can also have lot of felxibility with foreign trades with Fidelity and IB. I don't use margin and I rarely trade as well, so that is not a problem for me. Fidelity 401k cannot trade international stocks, so if we compare these two companies, is there any other advantage of Fidelity? I did some research online, and people were saying that Merrill was horrible that even the web pages do not function properly. They don't even show the correct ticker price. Is that true?

I have considered just doing online banking, but it doesn't seem that easy. Sometimes I do get cash to deposit to my bank account.

Thank you! I read a few broker reviews and Merrill indeed look to be horrible. I think I will just stay with Fidelity for my current 401k then. I am also lobbying the new employer's 401k admin and see if I can get that brokerage window option added. In terms of free checking account, it seems hard to find one these days. All big banks want to charge a fee unless certain criterias are met. Small credit unions are nicer, but they have far less branches, which makes banking not so easy.

From that link, it seems like Singapore's expected return is also high. Does anyone have any Singapore stocks in mind?

Has anyone used them? I am leaving my current employer soon, so I am shopping for a IRA rollover. It seems like if I open the checking with BoA and rollover IRA with them, I will get the checking account's fees waived, and get up to 30 free trades per month. I think that is great! Is their trade execution good? I checked some online reviews about this broker and it seems like the reviews are pretty bad. :(

So he is not afraid of frauds in Chinese stocks?

Since my new employer does not allow brokerage window option, I have to put money into the mutual funds. Does anyone know if some of these funds are good ones? ANJIX AllianzGI NFJ International Value Fund Institutional Class 0.95% AVFIX American Beacon Small Cap Value Fund Class Institutional 0.92% - American Beacon Small Cap Value Fund Investor Class 1.16% RGAEX American Funds Growth Fund of America Class R-4 0.70% BJBIX Artio International Equity Fund Class A 1.27% IGFRX Invesco International Growth Fund Class R6 0.93% PTTRX PIMCO Total Return Fund Institutional Class 0.47% TRLGX T. Rowe Price Institutional Large Cap Growth Fund 0.57% - T. Rowe Price New America Growth Fund 0.81% - Target Retirement 2010 Trust II 0.13% - Target Retirement 2015 Trust II 0.13% - Target Retirement 2020 Trust II 0.13% - Target Retirement 2025 Trust II 0.13% - Target Retirement 2030 Trust II 0.13% - Target Retirement 2035 Trust II 0.13% - Target Retirement 2040 Trust II 0.13% - Target Retirement 2045 Trust II 0.13% - Target Retirement 2050 Trust II 0.13% - Target Retirement 2055 Trust II 0.13% - Target Retirement 2060 Trust II 0.13% - Target Retirement Income Trust II 0.13% VFINX Vanguard 500 Index Fund Investor Shares 0.18% VEXRX Vanguard Explorer Fund Admiral Shares 0.34% VEXPX Vanguard Explorer Fund Investor Shares 0.54% VFTNX Vanguard FTSE Social Index Fund Institutional Shares 0.16% VFTSX Vanguard FTSE Social Index Fund Investor Shares 0.29% VINIX Vanguard Institutional Index Fund Institutional Shares 0.04% - Vanguard Retirement Savings Trust III 0.16% VSEQX Vanguard Strategic Equity Fund 0.29% VBTIX Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund Institutional Shares 0.07% VBMFX Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund Investor Shares 0.22% VTSNX Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund Institutional Shares 0.12% VGTSX Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund Investor Shares 0.32% VWNAX Vanguard Windsor II Fund Admiral Shares 0.27% VWNFX Vanguard Windsor II Fund Investor Shares 0.38%

I looked at IDIX and other drug pharms for a while but could not understand anything, even though I have a degree in biology. :(

The gas station near my home has a sign of 3.27 per gallon. I remember earlier this year, it was 3.9. Earlier this year, the crude was 96 per barrel. It is still roughly the same today. What is the relationship between these two prices? That is weird...... ::)

1) Roll your current 401k to Fidelity (or wherever you want your IRA). 2) Then at your new company, invest the 401k in bond income funds. 3) Use you IRA at Fidelity to buy a few deep-in-the-money call options. Just enough leverage to offset what you've got building in the new employer 401k plan. This way, you make income in one account, and it offsets the cost of the leverage in the IRA. Hopefully your stock picking will be good and the IRA will grow much faster than the 401k builds up. Eric, if someone is young, wouldn't they still be better off (long term) just investing directly into the market? It's not like you can use the 401k income generated from the bonds to do much else besides reinvest (unless your plan allows in-service distributions). Sure, but I have my doubts that he'll ever spend more than roughly 5-10 years at a given company before moving on to the next one. Let's say I'm right -- then whenever he moves employers he rolls the 401k to the IRA. That is right. After working for MSFT for nearly five years, I finally realized that American corporation are totally different that Asian ones. In Asian, companies try their best to keep the veteran employees to work as long as possible, hopefully commit their lifetime to it. But in America, the grass is always greener on the other side of the valley, (employees working in the competitors always seem more attractive than its own employees) and it is much easier to get promotion and pay check raise if I regularly switch companies. This is quite sad, but if this is the game rule here, I will follow it. :)

I know we are trying to be stock pickers here but why not choose the best fund available? For my 401k, I avoid the S&P500 index fund and get the MSCI EAFE/MSCI World funds for more exposure to international markets. My holdings in my IRA/regular are primarily U.S. companies. I also get my fixed income allocation from an actively managed mutual fundd. I have access to some great low cost Vanguard index funds and some good value managers with low expense ratio funds. I know "market return" is not as sexy as what we aim for here but I think having funds in my 401k makes sense for my asset allocation. What is the chance of lobbying the 401k admin to add the brokerage link option? In Vanguard, over 29% of the 401k participants added this option already. I definitely see a trend here. After all, this is America, and I should have the freedom to invest my own money! >:(

I am currently planning to switch to a new employer. Unfortunately its 401k has no brokerage window option, which means I could no longer buy and sell individual stocks. Is there a way to work around this issue? I would definitely try to lobby their 401k plan admin, but I won't be too optimistic on that. How about transferring my current 401k to an IRA, contribute $5500 per year to it, and then for my new employer's 401k plan, I only contribute 4% per year just to get their match, and put it into an index fund? Is there a better option? The other thing that I don't understand: Why is the IRA annual limit only $5500, but 401k limit is $17500? It is just too annoying that this is my money and I will have no freedom to control it. ::)

They said their integration with turbo tax will be reenabled from this year on