Etrade / Scottrade
 

Any opinions of one or both of these?

Go with neither. They don't sell all stocks OR funds, and do not offer the array of services of the following:

Go with TD Ameritrade, Fidelity, or Vanguard.

Especially, Vanguard.....they're where I do all my business these days. Service unexcelled.

I've doing business with E Trade for years and have had no problems with them at all. I started out with one of their predecessors, who got bought out by somebody else, who in turn was bought out by E Trade. I can't imagine needing to do anything that they couldn't handle. I have done soe options trading, but not much. That's about as sophisticated as my investment activity ever gets.

Roger Riney, founder of Scottrade, is a great guy. He was a customer of mine at a Lexus dealership, and what I like about him is this: he's a tightwad. He drove the same old LS400 for 12 years, finally bought a late model used LS430. He also lives in the same 4 bedroom house he's been in for 25 years.

I like that he doesn't do the high-flying, show-off thing. Having said that, I have never dealt with his company aside from auto repairs.

I don't do stocks but I have an E*trade savings account which has one of the best yields anywhere.

I am currently using scottrade. It seems good to me. I used to use Etrade a few years ago.

I worked for TD Ameritrade for a week. I could not stand the place or their slipshod A processes. There was no way I was going to turn that mess around. I tols them you need to hire an entire QA department to test the softeware.When they refused, I had no choice but to walk...

Well he does fly a helicopter around on his commercial!

I think maybe he is a little too tight. Their website stinks. It needs improvement. Tell him next time you see him, he will lose customers until he fixes the site.

I often wonder about that ad with the helicopter...I don't think that's STL, not sure where they filmed that. I think the whole premise of the company has always been cheap, like a thrifty Scotsman, hence the name.

My point is that he's not a horse's ass when he deals with peons like me, unlike many hotshot businessmen. For instance, when we deal with August Busch III, we don't really deal with him, in fact I've never spoken to him...he has a gentleman's gentleman who deals with household things such as automobiles. Same with August Busch IV, he has a household manager deal with things like auto repair and maintenance. I suspect both of the Buschs will have more time on their hands now that they bailed on the brewery, perhaps they'll economize and schedule their own oil changes...we'll see.