Hello journeyer-ga:
It was a pleasure to answer your question. From your question, I can
safely assume that you are looking for a very reliable online US
broker. Your investment will mainly be in bonds and you are not a US
resident.
Allow me to answer the question step by step. The first question is
how may we find the best online discount broker? The best solution to
the problem is to look at the rankings of the online discount brokers
by major industry evaluators. Before I provide you with the rankings,
I want to stress that there are many factors that must be considered
and the rankings are not the sole measure of your success with your
future broker. As the consumer advocates from the Online Investor
Complaint Center http://www.investingcomplaints.com/ reveal that some
online broker rankings appear to suffer conflict-of-interest,
objectivity, and credibility problems as online brokers maintain
strategic partnerships and financial relationships with some of the
online brokers they rank.
But again, how do we know who is the best? The simple answer is that
we have to trust these research reports as some of them are from
highly reputable source and choose the best according to our needs,
not by the rankings. Rankings are there just to help us evaluate the
performance of these online brokers and their credibility up to a
certain extent.
Since, rankings are our best tool. Here is the summary of the best
discount online brokers.
_____________________________________________________________________
LATEST RANKINGS
_____________________________________________________________________
RANKINGS BY GOMEZ (2003)
Below are the results from the independent evaluators, considered the
best resource by most industry professionals.
Category: Discount Brokers
1. Fidelity Investments (review)
2. Charles Schwab (review)
3. E*Trade (review)
4. Harrisdirect (review)
5. TD Waterhouse (review)
For more comprehensive data, please visit
http://www.gomez.com/main.aspx?m=5&s=1
OR go to http://www.gomez.com and click on ‘Benchmarks’ from the top
menu.
RANKINGS BY MEDIA MATRIX (2002)
Below is the result of the rankings by one of the most authoritative
source of research in the world.
1) E*Trade Financial Network
2) TDWaterhouse.com
3) ShareBuilder.com
4) Fidelity.com
5) Ameritrade.com
6) Schwab.com
7) Datek.com
8) ML.com
9) CSFBDirect.com
10) Vanguard.com
For more results, please go to
http://mutualfunds.about.com/library/weekly/aa040902a.htm
(Please note that the heading says ‘Mutual Funds’ but is not a ranking
for mutual funds only but online broker rankings. Please see the side
bar.)
RANKINGS BY SMART MONEY (2003)
Nobody can overlook the reviews by the best news source for investors.
Following is their decision:
Category: Online Discount Brokers
1. TD Waterhouse
2. Muriel Siebert
3. Bidwell
4. Scottrade
5. Harrisdirect
6. BrownCo
7. Firstrade
8. Ameritrade
9. E*Trade
10. Wells Fargo
For more complete analysis, please visit
http://www.smartmoney.com/brokers/index.cfm?story=2003-intro
RANKINGS BY FORBES (2003)
You just have to trust the Forbes rankings. It is after all, ‘Forbes’.
Here is their result:
Note: There are no rankings but the discount brokers that were
selected for Forbes Favorite and Best of the web pick.
Charles Schwab (Forbes Favourite)
http://www.schwab.com
Following is the ‘Best of the web’ pick (not in any specific order)
Ameritrade
http://www.ameritrade.com
E-Trade
http://www.etrade.com
Fidelity.com
http://www.fidelity.com
HarrisDirect
http://www.harrisdirect.com
Merrill Lynch Direct
http://www.mldirect.com
ShareBuilder
http://www.sharebuilder.com
TD Waterhouse
http://www.tdwaterhouse.com
For a complete list, please click on the link:
http://mutualfunds.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fbow%2Fb2c%2Fcategory.jhtml%3Fid%3D5%23
BARRONS RANKINGS (2003)
Barron is the trusted source of ranking and is a subsidiary of Wall
Street Journal. Following is an article on their rankings.
http://webreprints.djreprints.com/705971033448.html
GLOBAL INVESTOR RANKINGS (2003)
This is another great resource for online rankings. You will find more
information by clicking on the following link:
http://www.globeinvestor.com/series/brokersurvey2002/
___________________________________________________________________
TRADING BONDS
___________________________________________________________________
One or two years ago, there were very few online brokers that offered
bond trading but the trend has changed in favor of the investor. Two
years ago, E-trade financial was the first one to offer extensive and
diversified categories of bonds and other websites have followed since
then.
It is good to hear that your major investment will be in bonds because
the discount online brokers charge a high fee for trading in bonds. It
means that if you were to trade bonds only in small amounts, the high
fee might be too much in comparison to the small price of bonds
traded. Large bond trading is considered a good value because the
large number of bonds will offset the high fees.
If you don’t understand my point, following articles will help
clarify:
ARTICLES
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_38/b3800122.htm
http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_46/b3655194.htm
____________________________________________________________________
FORIEGN INVESTORS
____________________________________________________________________
You are right in assuming that the choice is limited for foreign
accounts after September 11. The good news is that most major online
brokers still offer non-US residents a choice to open an account with
them. They are just more cautious and ask you to provide more details
before trading online. I know for a fact that three of the largest
discount online brokers, E-Trade, Fidelity Investment and TD Warehouse
offer non-US residents to open an account with them. I am not sure
about the others but most major online brokers do offer such a choice.
You will have to check individually with them.
According to Trade Wiser, an online stock broker, “For international
investors seeking to trade the U. S. Stock Markets, most major online
stock brokers now welcome foreign accounts. The only countries where
most online brokers are still unable to service accounts are Cuba,
North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Sudan, Serbia, and
Yugoslavia. This list can change overnight and a quick email to the
broker of your choice will provide you with a update.”
(Source: http://www.tradewiser.com/brokers.html )
Here is an example of what you will need to provide online brokers to
open a foreign account with them:
E-Trade Financial
https://us.etrade.com/e/t/estation/help?id=106020600
Fidelity Investment
http://personal.fidelity.com/accounts/services/content/foreign2.shtml.cvsr
TD Waterhouse
Call 1-212-344-2525 to find out more.
_____________________________________________________________________
ONLINE INVESTMENT SOURCES
http://investing.wsj.com/bonds-print.html
I hope this helps. Please clarify, if you need to further information.
I will be obliged to help you. Thanks for using Google Answers and
Good Luck with your investment.
Sincerely,
Leader-ga. |
Request for Answer Clarification by
journeyer-ga
on
03 Oct 2003 15:40 PDT
Sorry for a delay. I've been travelling.
I find your answer excellent. It has saved me considerable time and
effort. While I could have done this research myself, it would have
been too time consuming and I would have never finished doing it.
I would like you to make one clarification:
- If you were me (a foreigner, doesn't deal much, with 100k$ to invest
in bonds) which broker would you choose?
And I would like to ask for a pointer (answer to this was not part of
the question, and you really don't need to do this, just asking)
- Do you know a site where I can get detailed info on investing in
bonds? I.e not just the idea and types of bonds, but valuable
information on how and which bonds to buy. Kinda like Yahoo!Finance is
for stocks?
|
Clarification of Answer by
leader-ga
on
05 Oct 2003 15:40 PDT
Hello journeyer-ga:
First of all, I have a complaint. Why did you post such an interesting
question? The reason for my delay is that I myself got immersed in the
research.
Instead of arguing for my choice, I will like to come to the point.
Considering the three options (foreigner, doesn't deal much, with
100k$ to investin bonds), my choice is (without any doubt) TD
Waterhouse.
The reason is simple and clear.
1. TD Waterhouse is a very reputable company.
2. The customer satisfaction is extremely high and is 'excellent' for
such a large discount broker.
3. It always gets rave reviews from experts.
4. It has worldwide presence which allows it to focus its offerings to
a diverse clientele from around the world.
It was difficult for me to come out with one winner but If I had any
ranking criteria (based on limited information about you), TD
Waterhouse would be a clear winner.
The second part of your question deals with a website where you may
get up to date information on bonds? Again, the most authoratative
website is http://www.bondsonline.com. I am not sure if it deals with
foriegn bonds. I know for sure that it is the most comprehensive
website for North American Bonds.
I hope this helps. Please clarify, if you need more information. I
will be obliged to reply to such an interesting inquirey.
Thanks for using Google Answers.
Sincerely,
leader-ga.
|
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