Ameritrade

Pros: Good tools, inexpensive trades
Cons: A few browser quirks

I have a number of investment accounts, most of them retirement accounts. I also have had "regular" investment accounts with Olde, Schwab, E-Trade, & Discover (Morgan Stanley). Most of my investing is buy-and-hold, with the occasional speculative short-term trade.

I initially opened an account with Datek when I wanted to get into online investing and the immediate results it offered. Datek's rate was $10 a trade. After they merged with Ameritrade, the rate went up to $10.99 a trade.

I am very pleased with the service. My long-term investments are easily tracked, particularly with the Streamer feature, which lets me have a few windows on my desktop showing up-to-the-minute status of my portfolio, of other stocks I want to track, and even the common stock market indices.

When I make trades, they are executed quickly and accurately. In a couple of cases, sales have even been executed at slightly more than the price I requested.

I recommend this service to anyone with a basic portfolio and who makes occasional trades.

Pros: Good customer service Easy trading platform VERY fast trade execution
Cons: Not the cheapest around (and very expensive margin rates) Can't choose your own routing method

If you're a novice or not an industry insider, then Ameritrade is great. They have very good customer service, quick execution, an easy to use trading platform, and great streamer services and premium data access (for their Apex members). In fact, it's not a bad choice for experts, either.

That being said, being in finance and trading derivatives for a living, Ameritrade doesn't provide anything in particular that you can't get for free anyways (see Medved QuoteTracker) with any other decent online brokerage, and doesn't provide me with anything that I would consider to be worth paying "extra" for. While 10.99 commissions aren't overly expensive, they're not cheap either (they're average). I feel that order execution (not just timeliness, but accuracy) and simple data (including Level II quotes) shouldn't be "premium" services but should be considered standard given modern technology and additional competition. If you are particularly experienced and a couple bucks per trade means something to you, go with BrownCo. Otherwise, it's hard to really go wrong with Ameritrade.

Pros: $9.99 per trade has limitations by TD Ameritrade.
Cons: Dont invest in TDAmeritrade

Hi Folks, Beware of TD Ameritarde, Dt: 2-15-07.
If they find out that you owe money to someone and there is a court order on you from someone you owe and if they send copy of that order to TD Ameritarde , believe me TD Ameritrade will freeze your account and sell your stocks and send money to whom you owe. Arvind Patel. FCA.

Pros: Competitive commissions
Cons: Appalling lack of response. Poor ethics. Often unintelligent underlings.

Waterhous was going downhill slowly. Ameritrade accelerated the decline. Dealing with their mistakes and incompetence can turn into a part-time job.

Pros: Nice functions and very flexible
Cons: Bad, old data.

Bad price display in Streamer product. DO NOT USE THEM !! The software they have is loaded with bugs they can't fix. Streamer does not always update the latest bid / ask so you are looking at old data and don't know it. If you use the Level 2 quotes you can see the real prices but it is not good for watchlists. Best to just stay away from them...

Pros: None
Cons: Pricing, delay in execution, costumer support.

Ameritrade seem to be increasing there fees after each merger and their costumer support is declining is getting worse every day.

Pros: Charts are top notch
Research tools are excellent
Cons: Failure to execute some limit trades is a killer

TD Ameritrade does everything right but falls flat with poor trade execution under certain conditions for limit trades.  It might be somewhat harsh for me to knock TD Ameritrade for a single issue but when other services execute limit trades flawlessly, I have a hard time recommending TD Ameritrade to anyone. If this flaw was fixed I would gladly recommend the service but as is, it is a fatal flaw in my view.

Registration - B
Trading - D
Charts - A
Research Tools - A
Commissions and Fees - Pass

Read my full review of TD Ameritrade and other major online brokers at http://onlinebrokerreview.blogspot.com/

Pros: High profile.  Internet access is okay, but only with upper tier investment $$$.
Cons: ?Ethics.
Broker turnover.
Call centers.
Abandons one on one responsibility.
~$1 million illiquid assets.

In my opinion, the ethics of TD Ameritrade fall below those I would trust with my life savings.  They sold investors into the Reserve Funds & other Illiquid Securities.

Pros: Good research tools, competitive fees, semi-responsive customer service for most straightforward needs.
Cons: Sliding margin maintenance requirements for different stocks CHANGE with concentration in your account WITHOUT notice.

I started as a Datek customer, and as a result of mergers and buyouts, wound up with TDAmeritrade. I loved Datek's trading tools but not Ameritrade's 'customer service'.

Just like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get for a margin maintenance requirement. Buying power might be unexpectedly large one day and NEGATIVE the next!

For IRA's and cash accounts - no complaints.