I'm very new to investing, much less investing in index funds, so do bear with me and my rather deficient knowledge.
1) Trademonster
- Mutual Funds: $15 to Buy; $0 to Sell
An online review (that may or may not be biased to Trademonster) stated:
What does this mean exactly? Compared to Zecco below, would Trademonster be better in terms of fees?"I never remember hearing about a broker charge $0 to sell a security unless it was related to stock trading. TradeMonster must be one of the only discount brokers to offer $0 mutual funds trades to its clients. Imagine buying Mutual Funds through TradeKing or Etrade, and having to pay 2 commissions just to buy and sell. You can make double the trades with TradeMonster and still break even compared to most competitors."
There are no inactivity fees with Trademonster. But there's a $2000 minimum opening account balance requirement - which I think I would be able to fulfill.
2) Zecco
- Mutual Funds: $10 per transaction (both buy and sell)
I'm personally attracted to Zecco because it doesn't require any minimum amount to open an account, and it has also no inactivity fees for someone who just wants to buy and hold and will do minimal buying/selling throughout a year.
I'd also thought of investing directly with Vanguard (whose index funds I plan to invest in), but apparently they charge $35 for mutual funds and there's a "$20 annual maintenance fee for regular accounts with less than $50,000".
I'd appreciate your insights and comments!