Merrill Edge brokerage accounts

[muscleman]

I have accounts at Fidelity, Vanguard, Sharebuilder, and Schwab.

 

Sharebuilder and Schwab suck, I opened both to take advantage of promotions and to get a feel for the platform, I dislike both.  I forgot I even had money at Schwab until this post, I need to go rescue it, I'm expecting a nasty transfer fee..

 

Vanguard is fine if you trade infrequently and watch their index funds.  My wife's IRA is there, I have some trouble purchasing smaller OTC stocks though.

 

I like Fidelity, I use them for all our banking as well.  They have a no-fee cash management account, a debit card, unlimited free checks etc.  You can withdrawal cash from any ATM in the world with it without a fee.  I was pleasantly surprised when in Spain I used it to withdrawal Euros and wasn't docked any fees, the exchange rate was attractive as well.

 

You mention wanting a brick and mortar bank, but need free checking.  Why are you limiting yourself to just credit unions?  There are thousands of small community banks that offer free products.  I would suggest opening a brick and mortar account for any transactions that need to happen in person, then pairing it with something like Fidelity, that's what we do.

 

Eric pointed out something very attractive about Fidelity.  In all accounts they will extend a temporary margin allowing you to trade unsettled funds.  Most brokers force you to wait three days for the trade to settle.  This is a pain if you want to sell something to immediately purchase something else, a limited opportunity.  I've had it happen a few times where if I had to wait three days after selling to free up cash I would have missed out on a few great purchases.

 

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.

[ERICOPOLY]

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.

 

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.

[CorpRaider]

I like FIDO alright but they are damned annoying about their forms as has been pointed out and they always want you to call them.  I do like their CMA though.  Let me recommend TD Ameritrade to you to check out.  I really don't have any complaints with them so far.  I like their mobile app probably the best of any of the half dozen or so I have (not sure why I have so many).  The new site is pretty slick as well.  I've never used IB as fees infuriate me.  I would much rather pay a little more for a trade (after all, I should be trying to limit my activity).

[moustachio]

I have to say, I had think or swim and they were acquired by TD ameritrade. I largely like TD Ameritrade for the normal stuff, but they don't give access to international stocks and they make you call in and pay $50 for a "broker assisted trade" for thinly traded OTC stocks. I've ran into this with several stocks lately. Other than those two issues I don't really have any complaints though. I'm still looking at getting a second account, possibly with fidelity, in order to buy OTC stocks cheaply and conveniently. I would switch to Interactive Brokers in a heartbeat but it doesn't sound like they have anything included to make your taxes easy.

[locatevalue]

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. :(

 

 

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 been using Merill Edge from 2010 and never had any issues, I like it, probably i am bisaed becasue i own it (as share holder) and work for the same company. If you are privileged customer of BAC then you get all the benifits and free 30 trades and i didn't pay anything as transaction cost or maintenance cost for past 2 years. I also took a short term margin loan to buy a house and customer service is great and never had any issues. I also bought some OTC stocks on merrilledge without any issue..never bought foreign stock so far just using ADR to buy foreign stocks , so i am happy so far.

[muscleman]

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.

 

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?

 

[oddballstocks]

Fidelity lets you trade anything in any account.  I own a Swiss stock in my IRA, yes it cost more to trade, and I had to call in to do it, but I was told if it trades anywhere but Africa they can get shares.

[muscleman]

Fidelity lets you trade anything in any account.  I own a Swiss stock in my IRA, yes it cost more to trade, and I had to call in to do it, but I was told if it trades anywhere but Africa they can get shares.

 

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.

[oddballstocks]

Fidelity lets you trade anything in any account.  I own a Swiss stock in my IRA, yes it cost more to trade, and I had to call in to do it, but I was told if it trades anywhere but Africa they can get shares.

 

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.

 

Not necessarily.  Often US market makers will hold foreign shares, I hold my Swiss stock in dollars.  Fidelity called market makers, found one who had some shares and I purchased them, no forex.  I'm sure there was some forex built into the market makers trade, but it was probably much lower.  The price I purchased at was almost exactly the quote from CHF-USD at the current mark.

 

I investigated this for a Danish stock as well, they found someone with inventory in the US.  These are tiny stocks, I'm talking less than €100m market caps and US market makers held them in inventory.

 

Here's the rub, you pay a $50 fee because the trade isn't DTC cleared, and then the actual commission to Fidelity is $50, so it's $80 to make the trade each way.

 

You asked in an earlier post about cash with Fidelity, I've never deposited cash, but you can do it at one of their local branches.  They will accept foreign currency as well, but they only allow withdrawal in dollars.

[muscleman]

Fidelity lets you trade anything in any account.  I own a Swiss stock in my IRA, yes it cost more to trade, and I had to call in to do it, but I was told if it trades anywhere but Africa they can get shares.

 

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.

 

Not necessarily.  Often US market makers will hold foreign shares, I hold my Swiss stock in dollars.  Fidelity called market makers, found one who had some shares and I purchased them, no forex.  I'm sure there was some forex built into the market makers trade, but it was probably much lower.  The price I purchased at was almost exactly the quote from CHF-USD at the current mark.

 

I investigated this for a Danish stock as well, they found someone with inventory in the US.  These are tiny stocks, I'm talking less than €100m market caps and US market makers held them in inventory.

 

Here's the rub, you pay a $50 fee because the trade isn't DTC cleared, and then the actual commission to Fidelity is $50, so it's $80 to make the trade each way.

 

You asked in an earlier post about cash with Fidelity, I've never deposited cash, but you can do it at one of their local branches.  They will accept foreign currency as well, but they only allow withdrawal in dollars.

 

Oh... Then I think I will go with Fidelity IRA. But I don't understand why for their individual account, I could do a forex transaction and buy foreign stocks, but I had to pay 1% per side? Anyway, if IRA has the better rate, I will go with it. :)

[argonaut]

I've been very pleased with Fidelity over Schwab. Fidelitys' pro platform with streaming news, quotes,options etc is great...even though I buy and hold...it's still nice to have the streaming features up and running to see the latest info come in...

 

And their representatives have been great to work with...when some of the FNMA preferred shares were not easy to access online I simply called them; they placed the orders and charged me the online commissions...international will look for the best place to rade as others have pointed out...

 

yes, they require a certain amount of paperwork (fine print :)) to start up different accounts with whatever you need/wish (options/international etc)...but I imagine most brokers require similar amounts of paperwork...