The period from 2000 to 2009 was a brutal decade for the US economy. First there was the dotcom bubble, that burst only to be followed by the real estate bubble leaving investors scrambling for safer havens like bonds and gold, which almost feels like yet another bubble in the making. But during the boom, [...]
Credit Unions don’t get as much coverage as traditional banks and part of the reason is there is no incentive to cover Credit Unions. Credit Unions don’t pay for referrals, they are not set up that way. But then, for those who are members of a Credit Union, this is like an awesome secret others [...]
I recently signed up for WellsTrade with PMA checking. If you have more than 25K, I think the deal Wells Trade offers is hard to beat. Here’s a short list of things I like: Instant money transfers When I was Fidelity, before I could make a trade, I have to initiate a money transfer, wait [...]
If you have multiple brokerages, the most frustrating part is that you don’t have a consolidated view of all your holdings. Of course you could use a service like Yahoo Finance or Google’s portfolio, but then you have to manually enter everything. No free service exists that can pull information from other brokers and present [...]
Thanks to Schwab and Fidelity, Vanguard had no choice but to offer commission free trades! Not exactly as free as Schwab or Fidelity… Here’s the fine print: If you have a balance of less than $50,000, you will incur an annual fee of $20 This amount must be invested in Vanguard funds or ETFs. If [...]
In case you haven’t heard, Fidelity and Schwab have a price war going on. Both seem intent on out doing the other. Both tout how different their services are from the other that they are so similar! That includes deceptive marketing as well, where the facts are buried in fine prints! I’m not taking sides… [...]
IngDirect provides a free iPhone App to manage accounts. I thought I’ll give it a spin. Went to the App store, sure enough IngDirect provides not one, but two applications, one to manage accounts and an ATM finder for those who have an IngDirect ATM card. Incoming search terms:ing direct iphone app
I recently joined OptionsHouse mainly for their low commissions and free cost basis tax reporting. I didn’t like the fact that I have to fire up Firefox every time I needed to trade. Got me thinking if I can use my iPod Touch instead. A quick search at the App Store revealed no such app [...]
This is a continuation of my earlier post on the account opening process at OptionsHouse. Once I mailed in the application it took 5 business days for the account activation email to arrive This gives you access to a virtual trading account with $5000 virtual money. Might be useful if this is your first trading [...]
Fidelity’s iPhone app is a nifty little finance application. Among various free, market tracking apps, I found Fidelity’s to be the best. It’s elegance is in its simplicity. Trading features are members only of course, but anyone can check out the rest of the tools. CNBC’s app was too cluttered for my taste. Morningstar’s app [...]
