scottrade fund recommendations

[columbus]

Anyone have any etfs or funds they like? It seems hard to filter for low fee, no transaction, no load, with good performance. I only made 11% this past year in my iras so I feel changes are in order. I made 60% in another very small brokerage account where I picked a handful of stocks, wish they were reversed!

[JPatrick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by columbus Anyone have any etfs or funds they like? It seems hard to filter for low fee, no transaction, no load, with good performance. I only made 11% this past year in my iras so I feel changes are in order. I made 60% in another very small brokerage account where I picked a handful of stocks, wish they were reversed!

FIDO has a diverse group of ETF's (30 I believe) that they will let you trade for zero commission.
As to which to buy, it all depends on what part of the market you want to play. The last I bought was IDV which is a foreign stock dividend ETF that pays well and provides a nice leg into foreign markets. It has had a pretty good run already, so I'd consider waiting for a pull back to try this one.

[columbus]

Thanks jpatrick, i'll take a look. I need to see what it will cost to get out of some other funds. Redemption fees and transaction costs show on severs l and that's what I avoid so I almost feel they may have been added later

[LOL!]

ETFs are mentioned in the LOL! Market Timing Newsletter. Here you go:
VTI, VBR, VXUS, VSS, VNQ, BND, VCSH, BIV, DGS, VWO. There is really no good reason to own anything else.

But why Scottrade? Many brokers are giving away cash bonuses to sign up with them and they offer free trades, too.

[columbus]

Thanks lol. ..I subscribed to your newsletter. What would you reccomend other than scottrade?

[ERhoosier]

Nothing wrong with Scottrade. They seem to rate above ave among discount brokers.
Discount brokers Ratings
IMHO- With DB transaction fees now typically <$10/trade I think there is much to be said for using a national discount firm with branches in your area. Always an advantage to have in-person service option.
BTW- 11% return ain't bad for last yr, and 60% should be considered a lucky streak.

[LOL!]

Quote:

Originally Posted by columbus Thanks lol. ..I subscribed to your newsletter. What would you reccomend other than scottrade?

Practically anything else except Vanguard Brokerage Services.

In no particular order:
WellsTrade/PMA
TDAmeritrade
Fidelity
Schwab
Bank of America/MerrillEdge

Determine what services you need (for example, free trades on ETFs, free trades on Vanguard mutual funds, cash bonus for sign up, etc) and investigate. One shouldn't have to pay any commissions anymore.

Don't believe any ratings online as the folks doing the ratings do not use brokerages the way you and I would use brokerages.

Or stop using ETFs and just use the corresponding Vanguard mutual funds at Vanguard.

[columbus]

Has anyone used USAA? We could do that if reccomended

[samclem]

1) Forget about "Scottrade funds" (per the title of your post). There aren't any. Scottrade is just a broker and will sell you any funds you want.
2) The broker is among the least important of your decisions. First decide on your target allocation, then decide which funds/ETFs will accomplish that allocation, and lastly decide on which broker will get you there at lowest cost. If you are at this stage now, take a look at some of the FAQs on this site (or ask questions) and folks can help you make some choices.
3) It's very easy to build a very low-cost, well diversified portfolio using Vanguard mutual funds. You'll never pay any commissions and your fees/expenses will be among the lowest in the industry. They have a great reputation for keeping their costs low and dealing straight with their customers. You could buy ETFs through their brokerage services if you want to keep everything on one monthly statement, or you could find a low-cost broker and trade ETFs somewhere else while keeping your mutual funds at Vanguard. If you are new to all this I'd recommend just buying Vanguard mutual funds through Vanguard directly (no fees--ever)

USAA: I don't know about their brokerage services, but their in-house mutual fund offerings are nothing special--considerably higher expense ratios than Vanguard. My first mutual fund purchase was their Cornerstone fund about a thousand years ago.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LOL! Don't believe any ratings online as the folks doing the ratings do not use brokerages the way you and I would use brokerages. Or stop using ETFs and just use the corresponding Vanguard mutual funds at Vanguard.

+1

[hlfo718]

If you are looking to "trade", then you should look into Interactive Brokers. They charge about $2 per trade, including options but you need to maintain 25k. If you are looking to do some lighter trading, then fidelity or TD should be sufficient since you get free etfs, with some trade limitations I think.

[Gmbdeb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by columbus Anyone have any etfs or funds they like? It seems hard to filter for low fee, no transaction, no load, with good performance. I only made 11% this past year in my iras so I feel changes are in order. I made 60% in another very small brokerage account where I picked a handful of stocks, wish they were reversed!

Ameritrade has 101 ETFs which you can trade commission free if you hold them a minimum of 31 days. They provide pretty good coverage of the major asset classes. I use www.etfreplay.com to pick from among my lists of ETFs based on performance and volatility.

[LOL!]

Did anyone look at ERHoosier's link to a 2009 Consumer Reports broker ratings article. Edward Jones was highly rated. Blech! And USAA was the top rated. What's up with that?

[perrytime]

a mutual fund, no fees in Fidelity, nice upward trend last couple years. I would be plenty happy to have had 11% return last year.