T he online brokerage community has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few years, which is great for investors who like to participate in online stock trading. The competition has forced innovation, cheap online stock trades, and additional features such as educational and training centers, articles, videos, free webinars, chat rooms and forums, social networking, free tax software to track gains and losses, and more. Not all of these features are available at all discount brokerage firms, and some stock brokers offer better value than others.

Best online discount brokerages

Discount Brokerage Features

Each of these brokers has some features that set it apart from the others.

/> Scottrade: Scottrade has 25 years of experience and one of the best reputations in the brokerage industry. The $7 trades are right in the middle of the price range out of these online brokers, but Scottrade is the only discount brokerage on this list featuring brick and mortar offices where you can visit a broker for face to face meetings. No maintenance or inactivity fees, low stock trades, free online workshops, the Scottrade community, research and educational tools and tax tracking software make Scottrade a great fit for day traders and the casual investor alike. Scottrade will reimburse new customers up to $100 to transfer their holdings to Scottrade. For more information, or to open a Scottrade account, visit Scottrades website to Open Account .

E*Trade: E*Trade is offers a full-service brokerage firm and an online bank which makes it easy to link accounts and transfer funds to and from. E*Trade has won numerous awards for both their brokerage services and their online savings accounts. While their trades are not the cheapest of the listed brokerages, they offer a wide array of services and features not found with many other online discount brokerages. New customers can get free stock trades for 60 days when they open a new account and fund it with a $10,000 minimum deposit within 60 days. For more information, or to open an E*Trade account, visit https://us.etrade.com/e/t/home .

OptionsXpress by Charles Schwab. OptionsXpress has a flat fee of $8.95 per trade for all standard US based stock trades. There is an Active Trader Rate for options which kicks in when you makes 35 or more option trades per quarter. OptionsXpress has no inactivity or maintenance fees regardless of how much you have in your account, and does not charge for streaming quotes or standard withdrawals. OptionsXpress offers free webinars, free trading tools, free advanced research and the option of a personal coaching program. For a limited time, you can also get a $1o0 sign up bonus when you open a new account and fund it with a minimum of $500 and make a minimum of 3 trades in the first 12 months

www.optionsxpress.com/ .

TD Ameritrade: TD Ameritrade is among the top-ranked online brokers, according to third party ratings by Barrons and Kiplingers. Stock trades arent the cheapest at TD Ameritrade, but you get one of the industrys top education and training platforms, and one of the top rated research platforms. Add in no account minimums, no monthly maintenance fees, and the ability to make trades online, on your mobile phone, or at one of over 100 physical locations, and you have a winning combination. For more information, or to open a TD Ameritrade account, visit https://www.tdameritrade.com/ .

.

Which discount brokerage is the best?

As you can see by this comparison chart, there is a wide range of prices and features with these brokerages, which should cover just about anyone. I recommend reading about how to evaluate online brokers and visiting these sites to determine which online discount brokerage is the best for your needs. We also have a list of prominent IRA providers .