ShareBuilder by Capital One

[OreoGaborio]

So I created an INGDirect account years ago and later I paired it with a ShareBuilder account but never used it. It is now Capital One 360 and I'm considering doing a little investing. NOT looking to daytrade, just looking to invest a couple G's that are just sitting in my spare account so it earns more than a measly .75%


So with that, does anyone have an account with them? How is it? How is it compared it to other sites like E-Trade?

Does this info sheet actually sound accurate?
http://www.sharebuilder.com/sharebui...g-pricing.aspx

[TheIglu]

I used it for a couple years. Lost some money after the double-dip, made it all back in a few trades.

I don't really have any complaints.

[nhbubba]

What are you going to invest in? Couple guys at work who are much bigger investors than I claim that Vanguard is currently their outfit of choice due to the lowest overhead fees on their funds.

I also had an ING account. I have not been overly impressed since cap-1 took over. I am planning to close the account soon.

[OreoGaborio]

Well I haven't done a whole lot of research on the details, but right now my initial completely uninformed plan is to find some low to medium risk long term stocks, invest 2-3 grand in a 3-5 different companies, leave them be for a period of 12-36mo depending on how each of them goes and see what happens.

I do NOT see this developing into a part time day trading type hobby/adventure.

[gamorg02]

i've used sharebuilder a bit, works fine for me, but i haven't used any others. did some research when i signed up and they all seemed similar and sharebuilder gave me $100 to start.

[OreoGaborio]

Yeah, unfortunately I signed up for sharebuilder forever ago, never used it and they deactivated my account so I had to create a new one... Currently they have a 50 dollar bonus thing if you create & make a transaction in the first 90 days, but because I already once had an account I don't get to take advantage.... oh well, whatever... 50 bucks is 50 bucks but I'm hoping this venture will make those 50 bucks seem like a drop in the bucket.

[gamorg02]

Yeah, unfortunately I signed up for sharebuilder forever ago, never used it and they deactivated my account so I had to create a new one... Currently they have a 50 dollar bonus thing if you create & make a transaction in the first 90 days, but because I already once had an account I don't get to take advantage.... oh well, whatever... 50 bucks is 50 bucks but I'm hoping this venture will make those 50 bucks seem like a drop in the bucket.

yea, a lot of times theres a minimum trade. so its like 5 free trades basically, which is cool

only leg up with sharebuilder is i know a buddy who was investing in some pennystocks that weren't wildly available thru normal tools but with sharebuilder it was no problem. YMMV

[nhbubba]

I've never really had time or patience for day-trading. Index funds are kind of my bag. I look for 'no load' and an asset mix that matches what I'm after and call it done. The guys at work are more tuned into management fees, etc. Their approach is probably more lucrative than mine.

Buy high, sell low.. always been my moto. Works for bikes too.

[Petorius]

I am in the index fund camp as well. Unless you have hobbyist interest, you are better off paying the smallest possible fee to have someone do the grunt work for you.

One word of caution, equity securities are risky and 12-36 months is not a particularly long timeframe. You may want to consider other ways of investing that money. On the other hand, you are relatively young and not dealing with a massive sum of money, so the risk may be perfectly acceptable to you. Just food for thought.

[breakdirt916]

f-'em all...I had zecco (now tradeking) and it's $4.95/trade...no perks, no resources, but it's cheap...research on your own for free using finance/trading forums...but imho, trading yourself sucks...most of the time the money is stagnant, or you're losing money and adding more to your yearly capital gains losses

1.) keep 6 month living expenses (or more)
2.) max out 401k
3.) max out roth IRA
4.) Vanguard
5.) Buy income properties, or buy a business/start a facebook

???

Profit

[Petorius]

If you have an HSA you should consider maxing that out too. Nice tax shield. You'll crash or get old and need it soon enough.